Fwd: Re: the Lenape language

[Beverly Flanigan]

Here is Ives Goddard's review of the review of the book on the Lenape
language.  Thank you, Ives!

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>Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2004 14:23:54 -0500
>From: "Ives Goddard" <Goddard.Ives at NMNH.SI.EDU>
>To: <flanigan at ohiou.edu>
>Cc: <n977 at webtv.net>
>Subject: Fwd: Re: the Lenape language
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>After reading Ray Whritenour's online review of Evan Pritchard's _Native
>New Yorkers_ Beverly Flanigan asks "for any information on the reviewer
>and the book's author." ... "Is one, or are both, offbase on Lenape?"
>
>Ray Whritenour is a serious avocational student of the Delaware (Lenape)
>linguistic materials produced by the Moravian missionaries in the 18th
>century.  He has published two useful books.  He knows this material very
>well, but, as he candidly concedes, as a philologist not a card-carrying
>linguist, though he also uses all the relevant linguistic literature.
>   The forms and analyses that are given as from Pritchard's book are
> every bit as inaccurate and wrong as the reviewer says they are.  I would
> agree with just about every linguistic point that Whritenour makes, with
> the exception of one or two small details and a couple of placename
> etymologies (which are always learnèd conjectures).  In no case is the
> cited material correct.
>   The review does, however, illustrate the phenomenon I have encountered
> before, even in my own statements, that when the pronouncements from the
> fringe are truly awful it is often the learned critic that risks sounding
> like the crank.
>
>Ives Goddard
>
> >>> Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohiou.edu> 11/29/04 02:54PM >>>
>Professor Goddard,
>The American Dialect Society listserv received notice of a review of a new
>book on Lenape, and we were surprised at the vitriolic nature of the
>review.  We agreed to ask you for your opinion on the review (attached) and
>for any information on the reviewer and the book's author.  Is one, or are
>both, offbase on Lenape?  We'd appreciate your comments; if you reply to
>me, I'll forward to the list.  Thanks very much!
>
>Beverly Olson Flanigan
>Associate Professor of Linguistics
>Ohio University
>Athens, OH  45701
>1-740-593-4568
>http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/
>
>
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> >From: George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> >To: flanigan at OHIOU.EDU
> >Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 17:45:15 -0500
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> >Subject: Re: the Lenape language
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> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> >Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 5:21 pm
> >Subject: Re: the Lenape language
> >
> > > George, please do forward the full review to me.
> > >
> > > Beverly Flanigan
> > >
> > > At 05:14 PM 11/24/2004, you wrote:
> > > >The opening paragraph of a review posted today to the NYHist
> > > list.  I will
> > > >forward the full, very detailed review to those interested.
> > > >
> > > >A Philological Review of NATIVE NEW YORKERS: THE LEGACY OF THE
> > > ALGONQUIN>PEOPLE OF NEW YORK, by Evan T. Pritchard, Council Oak
> > > Books, San Francisco
> > > >and Tulsa, 2002.
> > > >
> > > >   Has there ever been a language subjected to so much abuse by
> > > > pretentious dabblers, as the Lenape language? From Rafinesque's
> > > WALAM> OLUM (and all its modern-day "translators") to Wenning's
> > > HANDBOOK OF THE
> > > > DELAWARE INDIAN LANGUAGE, charlatans and dilettanti of every
> > > kind have
> > > > had their goes at duping the general public (and sometimes
> > > academia!) by
> > > > their linguistic legerdemain?often with surprising success. Evan T.
> > > > Pritchard, Professor of Native American Studies at Marist
> > > College in
> > > > Poughkeepsie, New York, has now given us another work in this
> > > > genre?perhaps the worst yet.
> > > >
> > > >The reviewer identifies himself as Raymond Whritenour, LENAPE
> > > TEXTS & STUDIES
> > > >
> > > >GAT
> > > >
> > > >George A. Thompson
> > > >Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
> > > Northwestern>Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
> > > >