Onondaga language

Encyclopedia : O : ON : ONO : Onondaga language

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Onondaga (Onǫtaʔkékaʔ or Onǫdaʔgégaʔ, "People of the Hills") is the language of the Onondaga First Nation, one of the original five constituent tribes of the League of the Iroquois (Hodenosaunee).

This language is spoken in the United States and Canada, primarily on reservations in western New York state, and near Brantford, Ontario.

Phonology

There are three stops, /t/, /k/, and the glottal stop /ʔ/ (before vowels and approximants, /t/ and /k/ are allophonically voiced to [d] and [g], and are frequently spelled and in these situations); three fricatives, /s ʃ h/; nasal /n/; and approximants /w/ and /j/ (spelled ). There is also an affricate, spelled .

Onondaga has five oral vowels, /i e o æ a/ (/æ/ is normally represented with <ä>), and two nasal vowels, /ẽ/ and /ũ/. The nasal vowels, following the Iroquoianist tradition, are spelled with ogoneks in Ontario (<ę> and <ǫ>). In New York, they are represented with a following <ñ> ( and ). Vowels can be both short and long, in which case they are written with a following colon, <:>.

Grammar

Like all Iroquoian languages, Onondaga is a polysynthetic language, meaning that many grammatical and lexical concepts are expressed as modifiers rather than separate words. This means that many concepts which could take many words to express in English can be express in a single word in Onondaga. For example:

waʔtkhenakdagwádęh

waʔ-t-k-he-nakd-a-gwa-d-ęh

FACT-DUALIC-1.SG.NOM-3.NONMASC.ACC-bed-EPEN-raise-BEN-PUNC

"I raised the bed for her/them." (ex, a Murphy bed)

The abbreviations used above are as follows:

*FACT = Factive, something known to have occurred

*DUALIC = (A range of different meanings)

*1.SG.NOM = I - refers to the subject

*3.NOMMASC.ACC = Her/them - refers to the object, 3rd person, non-masculine

*EPEN = An epenthetic vowel, inserted to break up illegal consonant clusters

*BEN = Benefactive, indicates that event was done for someone's benefit

*PUNC = Punctual, refers to an event that is over and done with

See also

• Onondaga (tribe)

External links

• [Language Geek: Onondaga]
• [Ethnologue Report on Onondaga]

 

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