Iroquois languages

The Iroquoian languages are a group of several indigenous languages spoken in North America, forming a language family. Several of the Iroquoian languages are among the first native languages of the United States to be put into writing by Europeans. Several of the Iroquoian languages are partially mutually intelligible, which is why the Iroquois language is sometimes spoken.

The Iroquois language variants proper, were the language of the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga and Tuscarora), peoples who originally spread throughout the present state of New York, in the Mohawk River Valley and the Great Lakes region, and are currently dispersed on reservations in New York, Ontario, Quebec, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. They also belong to the same group as other minor tribes, such as the Erie, Conestoga, or Susquehannock, and the Hurons, or Wyandot. Cherokee also belongs to the same linguistic stock.

Classification

Internal sorting

The Iroquoian family consists of eleven languages (the estimated number of speakers is given in parentheses with the date of the estimate).

I. Northern Iroquois.

A. Tuscarora-nottoway.

1. Tuscarora(c. 11, 1991-1997)

2. Nottoway.

B. Iroquis from the lake.

3. Hugs.

• Huron. (24, 2012)
• Wyandot.
• Wendat.

4. Laurentiano (?).

I. Iroquis (Iroquesa Confederation).

5. Onondaga(c. 90, 1991-1997)

6. Conestoga (also You walked, Susquehannock, Andastoerrhonon, Minqua.

a. Seneca-cayuga.

7. Seneca(4,000, 1980; 175, 1991-1997; 200, 2004)

8. Cayuga(c. 60)

b. Mohawk-oneida.

9. Mohawk(3,000, 1982; 3,760, 2001; 2,000-4,000, 2002; 4,000, 2012)

10. Oneida(1,500, 1980; 250, 1991)

II. Southern Iroquois.

11. Cherokee(11,000, 1980; 16,400, 2000; 16,000, 2012)

Relationship with other languages

Sure links to other North American languages have not been proven, although possible kinships have been suggested. E. Sapir proposed that the Iroquoian languages might be distantly related to the Caddoan languages. Later W. L. Chafe provided some morphological evidence in favor of the relationship, proposing that the Sioux languages would also be related to the two previous families. However, the evidence in favor of that relationship does not seem conclusive.

Common features

From a typological point of view, the Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic languages and have grammatical gender.

Phonology

There is a reasonable amount of work with the comparative method within the Iroquois family. Specifically, the phonology of the languages that make up the Northern Iriquoian subfamily has been reconstructed in great detail. The standard reconstruction is based on Lounsbury [1971], Chafe [1973], Foster [1977 ] and Mithun [1979]. The reconstructed consonant inventory for Proto-Norroquois (Proto-NI) is as follows:

An interesting feature is that this system lacks the bilabials /p/ or /m/ that appear in almost every language in the world. The phoneme /*ʦ/ has two allophones *[ʧ] before /*y, *i/ and *[ʦ] in all other phonetic contexts.

Regarding the vowels, five non-nasal vowels /*i, *e, *a, *o/ and two nasal vowels /*ę, *ǫ/ are reconstructed. Nasal vowels abound in the known Iroquoian languages.

Grammar

The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic languages in which it is common to find long words or holophrases.

Lexical comparison

The numerals in different Iroquoian languages are:

GLOSA	Northern						South	PROTO- IROQUÉS
	Mohawk	Oneida	Onondaga	Cayuga	Seneca	Tuscarora	Cheroki
'1'	50€hska	úskah	skáta	ska devotedt	sgamed	ęíči	saàkwu	*ska-
'2'	teakeni	teaken/ teakni	tekní	tekhni	dekni memoriah	nékkti	Thaili	*tekni memoriah
'3'	ahs	ahs dinner/ ahs	Русский	ahsŭ	sëh	ahsę	Jordaniai	♪
'4'	kayé devotedli	kayé	kayé.(i)	kéih	getih	hę " arrangedtahk "	nvhki	♪kayerih
'5'	wísk	wisk	hwíks	kwis	wis	wihsk	hiski	*hwisk
'6'	and the	yahk	Åābabaq	hye childhood	and development	úhyaąk	suútáli	*hyaąk
'7'	játtah	tsyatták	tsyaták	tsyá	dza devoteddak	čá 국nahk	(kahlkwoóki)(b)	♪ I tatareɁ
'8'	sagasse	teaklu	teakk	tekrʼ	degyö	nékkrę	♪	*tekrǫɁ
'9'	kyohtu	wá wtlu	wá covenanttt	kyohtʼ	ohdː meanth	níhrę	sohneé	♪wahtrhh
'10'	oyé roundliː	Hey.	wash innovation	♪	♪	wáhθhę	skoohi	*-ahnshę

In the previous table /y/ is the AFA equivalent of the sign of the AFI /j/, equally AFA /ę,./= AFI / Vinci, õ/ and AFA /č/ = AFI /./.

^(b) The term appears in Wyandot with the meaning of '7' and in cheroki with the meaning of '6'.

^(b) Muskogi Loan.

The reconstructions are always for the northern proto-iroquis.