Moraviantown, Sept. 26, 1884.
I, Gottlieb Tobias,
Nanne ni ngutschi nachguttemin, jun awen eet ma elekhigetup. Woak alende nenostamen woak alende taku eli wtallichsin elewondasik wiwonalatokowo pachsi wonamii lichsu woak pachsi pilli lichsoagan. Taku ni nenostamowin. Lamoe nemochomsinga achpami eet newinachke woak chash tichi kachtin nbibindameneb nin lichsoagan. Mauchso lenno woak mauchso chauchshissis woak juque mauchso chauchshissis achpo pomauchsu igabtshi lue wiwonallatokowo won bambil alachshe. Woak lue lamoe ni enda. Mimensiane ntelsitam alowi ayachichson won elhagewit woak ehelop ne likhiqui. Gichgi wonami lichso shuk tatcamse woak gichgi minsiwi lichso.
Translation.
Then I will try to answer this (which) some one at some time wrote. And some I understand, and some not, because his language is called Wonalatoko, half Unami and half another language. I do not understand it. Long ago my grandfather about 48 years ago I heard it that language. One man and one old woman and now another old woman here lives yet who uses this Wonalatoko language just like this book and she said, I of old time when I was a child heard more difficult dialect than the present, and many at that time partly Unami he speak, but sometimes also partly Minsi he speak.
The drift of Chief Tobias' letter is highly important to this present work, though his expressions are not couched in the most perfect English. It will be noted that he recognizes the text of the Walum Olum to be a native production composed in one of the ancient southern dialects of the tongue, the Unami (Wonami) or the Unalachtgo (Wonalatoko). I shall recur to this when discussing the authenticity of that document on a later page.
§ 2. General Remarks on the Lenape.
The Lenape language is a well-defined and quite pure member of the great Algonkin stock, revealing markedly the linguistic traits of this group, and standing philologically, as well as geographically, between the Micmac of the extreme east and the Chipeway of the far West.
These linguistic traits, common to the whole stock, I may briefly enumerate as follows:—
1. All words are derived from simple, monosyllabic roots, by means of affixes and suffixes.