CHAPTER IV.
The Literature And Language Of The Lenape.
§ 1. Literature of the Lenape Tongue—Campanius; Penn; Thomas,
Zeisberger; Heckeweider, Roth, Ettwein; Grube, Dencke;
Luckenbach; Henry; Vocabularies, a native letter.
§ 2. General Remarks on the Lenape.
§ 3. Dialects of the Lenape.
§ 4. Special Structure of the Lenape.—The Root and the Theme;
Prefixes; Suffixes; Derivatives, Grammatical Notes.
§ 1. Literature of the Lenape Tongue.
The first study of the Delaware language was undertaken by the Rev. Thomas Campanius (Holm), who was chaplain to the Swedish settlements, 1642-1649. He collected a vocabulary, wrote out a number of dialogues in Delaware and Swedish, and even completed a translation of the Lutheran catechism into the tongue. The last mentioned was published in Stockholm, in 1696, through the efforts of his grandson, under the title, Lutheri Catechismus, Ofwersatt pä American-Virginiske Spräket, 1 vol., sm. 8vo, pp. 160. On pages 133-154 it has a Vocabularium Barbaro-Virgineorum, and on pages 155-160, Vocabula Mahakuassica. The first is the Delaware as then current on the lower river, the second the dialect of the Susquehannocks or Minquas, who frequently visited the Swedish settlements.
Although he managed to render all the Catechism into something which looks like Delaware, Campanius' knowledge of the tongue was exceedingly superficial. Dr. Trumbull says of his work: "The translator had not learned even so much of the grammar as to distinguish the plural of a noun or verb from the singular, and knew nothing of the "transitions" by which the pronouns of the subject and object are blended with the verb."[151]
At the close of his "History of New Sweden," Campanius adds further linguistic material, including an imaginary conversation in Lenape, and the oration of a sachem. It is of the same character as that found in the Catechism.
After the English occupation very little attention was given to the tongue beyond what was indispensable to trading. William Penn, indeed, professed to have acquired a mastery of it. He writes: "I have made it my business to understand it, that I might not want an interpreter on any occasion."[152] But it is evident, from the specimens he gives, that all he studied was the trader's jargon, which scorned etymology, syntax and prosody, and was about as near pure Lenape as pigeon English is to the periods of Macaulay.