Research Guides: Swarthmore and the Lenape (SC): Language Revitalization

Published Sources: Lenape Language

Researchers have debated the processes of language revitalization and studied how Lenape maintain, teach and learn their languages. Historically, Christian missionaries created dictionaries and records of Lenape language for the purpose of conversion, rather than language revitalization or cultural exchange. Anthropologists and linguists also became interested in preserving Lenape languages. Recently, efforts to teach Lenape to linguistics and anthropology college students have emerged at a variety of colleges and universities.

Why Care about Lënapei lixsëwakàn? Ethnography of the Lenape Language Loss by Hlebowicz, Bartosz
Publication Date: 2012-01

Journal on ethnopolitics and minority issues in Europe JEMIE, 2012-01, Vol.11 (1), p.142-163
A Lenâpé-English dictionary : from an anonymous ms. in the archives of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem, Pa. by Garrison, Daniel and Albert Seqakind Anthony
Publication Date: 1888

Lenape-English dictionary compiled by a Professor of American Archaeology and Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Assistant Missionary to the Delawares and Six Nations, Canada, published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1888.
Delaware-English/English-Delaware dictionary by O'Meara, John
ISBN: 0802006701

Publication Date: 1996

Based on linguistic research carried out with Delaware speakers at Moraviantown, Ontario, this is the first modern dictionary of Munsee Delaware. Each of the 7,100 entries in the Delaware-English section includes information on the word's grammatical category and gives examples of different inflected forms where appropriate. Also included are sample sentences used by Delaware speakers, grammatical and usage notes, cross-references, and indications of words borrowed from Dutch and English. The English-Delaware section functions as an index to the Delaware-English section, and is based on the major vocabulary.

Published Sources: Unami Lenape Language Learning in Pennsylvania and at Swarthmore College

These resources, written by non-indigenous researchers and members of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania*, focus on the Unami Lenape language classes which Shelley DePaul, an educator and language specialist who is a member of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania*, taught at Swarthmore College between 2009-2022. The classes were intended to preserve the “endangered” language of Unami Lenape and were taught to majority settler students. The resources below analyze these classes and touch on debates over how authenticity and identity shape the processes of language revitalization and learning.

*Note: The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania is neither federally or state recognized, making their relationship with Swarthmore College a source of some controversy. Please see the home page of this guide, under "Delaware/Lenape Communities Today," for more context on this issue.

Stories of the Lenape people : With translations in the Lenape language : And other stories composed in the Lenape language by students at Swarthmore College by Ruth, Chief Robert Red Hawk
Publication Date: 2024
Who Can Speak Lenape in Pennsylvania? Authentication and Language Learning in an Endangered Language Community of Practice by Weinberg, Miranda, and Haley De Korne
Publication Date: 2016

Authentication and Language Learning in an Endangered Language Community of Practice.” Language & Communication 47 (2016): 124–34
Ways of Talking (and Acting) About Language Reclamation: An Ethnographic Perspective on Learning Lenape in Pennsylvania by Hornberger, Nancy H, Haley De Korne, and Miranda Weinberg
Publication Date: 2016

Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 15, no. 1 (2016): 44–58
Complexities of Simplification in Language Revitalization: The Case of Lenape in Eastern Pennsylvania by Garrett, Paul B
Publication Date: 2022

Practicing anthropology 44.4 (2022): 38–42

Primary Sources: Nora Thompson Dean

Nora Thompson Dean (1907-1984), also known as “Touching Leaves Woman” or Weènchipahkihëlèxkwe in Unami, was one of the last fluent speakers of the Unami dialect of Lenape. Dean’s collection is also significant as one of the few primary source materials we have in the TriCo collections that provide the perspective and experiences of a Lenape woman through her personal correspondence. Dean was a traditionalist born and raised on the Delaware Tribe of Indians reservation in Oklahoma. She shared her knowledge of Lenape language, religion, culture, medicine, craftwork and traditions, regularly hosting students and professors of anthropology at her home. In 1967, she founded a business called Touching Leaves Indian Crafts. The collection includes articles about Dean and letters between Dean and the Quaker chemist and Bryn Mawr graduate Leonore Hollander, who served as a member of the Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Image source: Friends Historical Library (image ID: A00187385)

Nora Thompson Dean, SFHL-RG5-329
Collection at Friends Historical Library. Articles about Nora Thompson Dean, 1970-1978; correspondence between Dean and Lenore Hollander, 1968-1982; Touching Leaves Indian Crafts catalogs; writings on Dean's death
Talking Dictionary - Lenape Language Preservation Project
The Lenape Language Preservation Project has a Talking Dictionary website, where you can search for over 17,000 words, sentences and phrases and hear a clip of a speaker of Lenape. The database was created from 2002-2005, and preserves the Southern Unami dialect using recordings of Lenape speakers including Nora Thompson Dean.