Seneca language
| Seneca Onödowága |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | United States, Canada | |
| Region: | Western New York and the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario | |
| Total speakers: | 175 | |
| Language family: | Iroquoian Northern Iroquoian Proto-Lake Iroquoian Iroquois Proper Seneca-Cayuga Seneca |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | iro | |
| ISO 639-3: | see | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Seneca (in Seneca, Onödowága or Onötowáka) is the language of the Seneca people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. About 10,000 Seneca live in the United States and Canada, primarily on reservations in western New York state, with others living in Oklahoma and near Brantford, Ontario.
Phonology
There are several methods to write the Seneca Language and variations of dialect between territories and regions. The orthography described here is the one used by the Seneca Bilingual Education Project.
Consonants
Seneca has three stops, /t/, /k/, and /ʔ/. /t/ and /k/ become voiced ([d] and [ɡ]) before vowels or approximants.
| Dental & Alveolar |
Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | n | ||||
| Stop | t | k | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | ʣ | ʤ <j> | |||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||
| Approximant | j | w |
Vowels
| Front | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | Nasal | Oral | Nasal | ||
| Close | i | ||||
| Close-mid | e | ẽ | o | õ | |
| Open-mid | æ̃ | ||||
| Open | a | ||||
The nasal vowels are represented with diareses on top: <ë ö ä>). Long vowels are indicated with a following <:>.
External links
- Language Geek: Seneca Orthography
- Ethnologue Report on Seneca
- Seneca Bible Society Matthew, Mark, & Luke Online
- Seneca Language Learning Yahoo! Group
Further reading
Chafe, Wallace L. 1963. Handbook of the Seneca Language. New York State Museum and Science Service. (Bulletin No. 388). Albany, N.Y. Reprinted 2007, Toronto: Global Language Press, ISBN 978-1-8973-6713-1.
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