Woodland Indians Forum

Kavik wrote:

Hello All,

Hello.

I am trying to ascertain the correct form (NU and SU) of the adjective “educated”, as in “educated guide, educated teacher”, etc.

Okay.


I see where wëlishkulu (SU) is glossed as he is educated’, and it seems to come from ‘wëli’ and ‘shkulu’, the later I suspect a loan (shkul – school) with ‘shkulu’ being “he goes to school”.

Correct.  (Simply to be clear, note that it is borrowed from the Dutch word, "school"--not from English.)

So, I’m a bit stumped since this seems to be a relatively newer word (not really sure how borrowed words work in Lenape).

"New" is, of course, a relative term.  It occurs in NU, with the s- unpalatalized, as "skulin," as early as the mid 1700's.  Once borrowed, almost all loanwords take on the morphology (structure) of Lenape parts-of-speech.

Would I have to use a prefixed adjective, i.e. the adjective would in a sense get tacked onto the noun, or would it be a standalone form I would need to use?

It would be "welishkulit" ('one who is educated').

Would it be the same form in NU as in SU (with the obvious spelling differences)?

Theoretically, it could be.  NU has all the same semantic elements; however, I've never seen this word used in NU.

Thanks for any help you can offer!!

You're welcome.

Kavik wrote:

So, if I'm reading your post correctly, would the form then be "wëlishkulit X"??

Yes.  Both participles and prenouns are used as descriptors in Lenape.  This, of course, is a participle.

sschkaak wrote:

Kavik wrote:

So, if I'm reading your post correctly, would the form then be "wëlishkulit X"??

Yes.  Both participles and prenouns are used as descriptors in Lenape.  This, of course, is a participle.

Damn it!  I should have said "No."  I didn't notice that you didn't copy my word, but wrote "wëli-."  It should be "weli."  The short vowel, ë, must undergo initial change to the long vowel, e, in order to form a participle.

Initial change, in Lenape, only occurs when the first vowel in a word is short.  The change is always to long e.