Complexities of Simplification in Language Revitalization: The Case of Lenape in Eastern Pennsylvania

Abstract

How can an anthropologist usefully contribute to the revitalization of a “dormant” language? This article considers simplification as an inherent, virtually inevitable aspect of language revitalization and as one that is by no means simple. A linguistic anthropologist’s understanding of the complexities of simplification, I suggest, can be the basis for valuable contributions to community-based language-revitalization efforts, particularly when the anthropologist is participating fully in those efforts by learning and apprentice-teaching the language.