The
Iroquoian languages are a
First Nation and
Native American language family. The language family, amongst others, includes
Mohawk,
Huron-Wyandot and
Cherokee.
Every language in this family has at least one
nasal vowel
phoneme. Cherokee's is a nasal
schwa, written in transliteration as 'v' (for example, "Hv?" sounds like "Huh?" nasalized, and means the same thing).
Family division
Southern Iroquoian
Northern Iroquoian
::: Seneca-Onondaga
:::: Seneca-Cayuga
:::: Onondaga
::: Mohawk-Oneida
::: Susquehannock
:: Huronian
: Tuscarora-Nottoway
What has been called the
Laurentian language appears to be actually more than one dialect or language.
In 1649 the tribes constituting the
Huron and
Petun confederations were displaced by war parties from Five Nations villages (
Mithun 1985). Many of the survivors went on to form the
Wyandot tribe. Ethnographic and linguistic field work with the Wyandot (
Barbeau 1960) yielded enough documentation to be able to make some characterizations of the Huron and Petun languages.
The languages of the tribes that constituted the
Neutral and the
Erie confederations were very poorly documented. These groups were called
Atiwandaronk meaning 'they who understand the language' by the
Huron, and thus are historically grouped with them.
The group known as the
Meherrin were neighbors to the Tuscarora and the Nottoway (
Binford 1967) and may have spoken an Iroquoian language, but there is not enough data to determine this with certainty.
The last two Huronian languages, as well as Nottoway and Susquehannock, are probably now
extinct.
External relations
Attempts to link the Iroquoian and
Caddoan languages in a
Macro-Siouan family are suggestive but remain hypothetical. Similar attempts to find a connection with the
Algonkian languages has been partially useful, but not enough evidence for linguists to propose a hypothetical Macro-Algonkian/Iroquoian language family.
Bibliography
