Nanticoke is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
Algonquian language spoken in
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
and
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The same language was spoken by several neighboring tribes, including the
Nanticoke, which constituted the paramount
chiefdom
A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...
; the
Choptank, the
Assateague, and probably also the
Piscataway and the
Doeg. The last native speaker died in 1856; in the 21st century, an effort has been made to revive the language.
Phonology
* Allophones of are heard as .
* may have an allophone of in word-final positions.
Vocabulary
Nanticoke is sometimes considered a dialect of the
Delaware language, but its vocabulary was quite distinct. This is shown in a few brief glossaries, which are all that survive of the language. One is a 146-word list compiled by
Moravian missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
John Heckewelder
John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder (March 12, 1743 – January 21, 1823) was an American missionary for the Moravian Church.
Early life
Heckewelder was born in Bedford, England and came to Pennsylvania in 1754. After finishing his education, he ...
in 1785, from his interview with a Nanticoke chief then living in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. The other is a list of 300 words obtained in 1792 by
William Vans Murray, then a US Representative (at the behest of
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
.) He compiled the list from a Nanticoke speaker in
Dorchester County, Maryland
Dorchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. At the 2020 census, the population was 32,531. Its county seat is Cambridge. The county was formed in 1669 and named for the Earl of Dorset, a family friend of the Calvert ...
, part of the historic homeland.
Nanticoke vocabulary
These words are some of the listings in Murray's glossary. In the letter that accompanied his glossary, Murray noted that the Nanticoke were "not more than nine in number," and also stated that "they have no word for the personals 'he' and 'she.'" The exclamation point (!) indicates a "peculiar, forcible, explosive, enunciation" of a syllable in this phoneticization.
Modern Nanticoke
With the assistance of a native speaker, Myrelene Ranville née Henderson of the
Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, who speaks a similar language,
Anishinaabemowin
Ojibwe ( ), also known as Ojibwa ( ), Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algon ...
, a group of
Nanticoke people in
Millsboro, Delaware
Millsboro is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. Millsboro is part of the Salisbury metropolitan area.
History
Millsboro's earliest European settlers were of English family origin; though most were second generation colonists who ...
, assembled to revive the language in 2007, using the vocabulary list of Thomas Jefferson. It had been "more than 150 years since the last conversation in Nanticoke took place." Similar efforts made by the
Nanticoke Indian Association are also being taken through partnership with local linguists. In 2023, a book for the revitalization of the Nanticoke language was published.
See also
*
Piscataway language
Notes
*
External links
Custom lexicon: The Interactive ALR– includes all known Nanticoke data
*
ttp://www.bigorrin.org/archive26.htm Nanticoke Language rchive">ttp://www.bigorrin.org/archive26.htm Nanticoke Language [archive/nowiki>br>
OLAC resources in and about the Nanticoke language
{{Native Americans in Maryland
*
Nanticoke">*
Eastern Algonquian languages
Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands">Eastern Algonquian languages">Nanticoke">*
Eastern Algonquian languages
Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands
Native American history of Delaware
Native American history of Maryland
Native American history of Virginia
Native American language revitalization
Extinct languages of North America
Indigenous languages of Maryland
[
ategory:Languages extinct in the 1840s