Munsee Family Tree

The scientific classifications and subclassifications of the Munsee (and Pequot) languages drawn out is a useful tool for understanding how close or not close two languages are to one another. For future reference, I am putting an outline here according to Ives Goddard¹ and Will Oxford.

• Algic Language Family
  • Algonquian-Blackfoot
    • Algonquian
      • Arapahoic
      • Cheyenne
      • Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi
      • Eastern Alonguian
        • Northeastern Algonquian
          • Mik’maq
          • Maliseet-Passamaquoddy
          • Eastern Abenaki
          • Etchemin
          • Western Abenaki
        • Southern Algonquian
          • Nanticoke
          • Powhatan (Virginian Algonquian)
          • Pamlico (Carolina Algonquian)
        • Delawaran (Lenape)
          • Munsee (also called Munsee-Delaware, Huluníixsuwaakan, or Monsii èlixsuwakàn)
          • Unami (also called Unami-Delaware)
            • Northern Unami
            • Southern Unami
            • Unalachtigo
          • Mahican-Woronoco-Pojassick
        • Maritimes-Southern New England Algonquian
          • Pequot
          • Mohegan
          • Loup
          • Massachusett
          • Narragansett
          • Quiripi
          • Montauk
      • Eastern Great Lakes Algonqian
      • Menominee
    • Siksika
  • Wiyot
  • Yurok

Where Mohegan and Pequot are officially listed as Mohegan-Pequot (and lately Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk), I have chosen to separate each dialect. Although each of them are incredibly similar, they have differences that did set them apart from each other. In the case of Mohegan vs. Pequot,, at one time the two tribes would have spoken the same language because of their shared past. However by the time Frank Speck made it to Mohegan lands to record Fidelia Fielding’s language, the two dialects had changed to the point that not only did Mohegans specify they were not speaking Pequot, Speck and others have confirmed it (to me) by comparing different grammatical rules and varying lexicons.

I’ve already shared it in another post, but I am posting a map by Will Oxford of where each language was generally spoken below.

I like this map because the color coding really helps make it clear just how close the languages are to each other. Even though Munsee, one of my two focuses, is classified as a whole step away from Pequot it wasn’t so far apart in the real world that learning one wouldn’t be helpful in reaching for the other. I especially appreciate that Quiripi is sandwiched in the middle of the two, as Quiripi is considered to have been so close to Mohegan-Pequot that there may have been very little difference by some. When looking at it on the map like this, one wonders if bridging from Munsee to researching Pequot won’t be as hard as it sounds.

I won’t know any more until I start to dig deeper. We’ll have to wait and see.

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1. https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/muns1251 ↩︎