BoLS: Week #1

I am a bit behind in posting about Betting on Library Science, because we actually started this part week (The BoLS week starts Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning.)

This week's number was 497 and that means the topic was "North American Native Languages."

For this week's Betting on Library Science topic (North American Native Languages), I decided to read some articles and bits. I picked the Lenape language, since that was a native one in the area where we live.

Here's an excerpt:

"Lenapé or Unami Delaware is an Algonquian language originally spoken in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. There are no fully fluent speakers of Lenape Delaware anymore, but the younger generation of Lenapes has undergone a resurgence of interest in reviving the Delaware language. Southern Delaware or Nanticoke, last spoken in the mid-1800's, and Munsee Delaware, still spoken by elders in Ontario, are considered distinct languages by most linguists because the different groups of Delawares could not easily understand each other. Today, however, some Lenape language activists are trying to combine the Unami and Munsee languages into a single Delaware language to improve its chances of survival."

Here are some words. If you click on the Lenape word, it'll take you to a page where you can hear it spoken! Neat.

English Lenape
sun kishux
night piskewëni
moon piskewëni kishux
I sing* ntasuwi

*According to my understanding, Lenape does not have a separate infinitive (like "to sing") the way English does.

Here's another note about the language.

Categories of Words in Lenape:

"In some languages, words are put into categories according to sex or gender, so that some words are masculine, and some are feminine. Lenape also uses categories, but they are not based on gender.
The two categories in Lenape are ANIMATE and INANIMATE. The terms animate" and "inanimate" are simply convenient labels that reflect the Lenape division of everything in the world. Nearly all living things are Animate."

Go here if you want to read some more.

OK - that was really interesting and fun! I love BoLS.