While each Iroquois tribe had its dialect, the generic

teristics.

language, as spoken by the Five Nations of New York, differed many respects from that spoken by the southern and western

in

The Algonquin was represented

Iroquois families.

by equally

Edwards says that the Mabi" can was spoken u by all the Indians throughout New England ; that though each tribe had " a different dialect," the language of the Mablcans was " the same." Yet the

distinct tribal and general

types.

Algonquin

radically

was

essentially

different

from the Algonquin of the

Loskiel explains this more fully

" :

Lenapes.

Though the three tribes of

the Delawares have the same language, yet they speak different

The Unamis

dialects.

and

Wunalacbtikos,

nearly agree in

who

formerly

New

coast of Pennsylvania and Jersey, pronunciation ; but the dialect of the Monsys^

inhabited the eastern

who formerly lived in Menissing, beyond the Blue mountains, differs so much from the former, that they would hardly be able to understand

intercourse.

sound, both

each other, did they not keep up a continual

The language of the Delawares has an agreeable in common conversation, and public delivery.

The dialect spoken by the Unamis and JVunalachtikos is pecu liarly grateful

to the ear, and

much more easily learnt, by an

European, than that of the Monsys^ which is rougher and spoken

However, the Monsy dialect is a key to Unamis and Wunalacbtlkos. The latter many have a way of dropping some syllables, so that, without a knowledge of the former, it would be impossible either to spell with a broad accent.