page_title: Munsee language
hierarchical_section_title: Munsee language
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Lenape languages and tribes. Map terms translated from German original into English.
context_page_description: Munsee is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of the two Delaware languages. It is very closely related to the Unami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in the United States, including western Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State, the northern third of New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania.
  As of 2009, Munsee was spoken only on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada, by two elderly individuals, aged 77 and 90, in 2018, making it critically endangered. The language that the individuals speak differs between speakers, each having a personal dialect. There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals.
context_section_description: Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware) is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of the two Delaware languages (also known as Lenape languages, after the tribe's autonym).  It is very closely related to the Unami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in the United States, including western Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State, the northern third of New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania.
  As of 2009, Munsee was spoken only on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada, by two elderly individuals, aged 77 and 90, in 2018, making it critically endangered. The language that the individuals speak differs between speakers, each having a personal dialect. There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals.
caption: Map showing the aboriginal boundaries of Delaware territories, with Munsee territory the lightly shaded northernmost area, and Unami to the south
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