Munsee Language - Classification

Classification

Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language, which is the sole recognized genetic subgroup descending from Proto-Algonquian, the common ancestor language of the Algonquian language family. Munsee is very closely related to Unami Delaware. Munsee and Unami constitute the Delaware languages, comprising a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian. Taken together with Mahican, the Delaware languages constitute Delawaran, a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian.

The term Munsee arose as a name for the aggregated group that formed along the upper Delaware River north of the Delaware Water Gap. Other Munsee dialect speakers joined the Minisink group; the earliest recorded mention of Munsee dates from 1725. Minisink is a Munsee term meaning "at the island", and is to be transcribed mə̆nə́sənk. It is the locative form of a now disused word /mənə́s/ "island"; cognates in other Algonquian languages are e.g. Ojibwe minis, "island". Orthographic in the form Minisink is the modern Munsee locative suffix /-ənk/ (discussed below in the Grammar section). The term "Munsee" is the English adaptation of a regularly formed word mə́n'si·w (person from Minisink).

Over time Munsee was extended to any speaker of the Munsee language. Attempts to derive Munsee from a word meaning "stone" or "mountain" as proposed by Brinton are incorrect. Kraft's claim that Munsee is not an indigenous term, and that it results from a "corruption" of English use of Minisink is incorrect. The term follows a regular pattern of Munsee word formation.