Proto-Iroquoian is the reconstructed ancestor of the Iroquoian languages. In 1961, Floyd Lounsbury estimated from glottochronology a time depth of 3,500 to 3,800 years for the split of North and South Iroquoian.
At the time of early European contact, French explorers in the 16th century encountered villages along the St. Lawrence River, now associated with the St. Lawrence Iroquoian. Other better known northern tribes took over their territory and displaced them, and were later encountered by more French, European and English colonists. These tribes included the Wendat and Neutral in modern-day Ontario, first encountered by French explorers and traders; the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee League (Iroquois) in Upstate New York and Pennsylvania, and the Erie Nation and Susquehannock peoples in Pennsylvania.
Southern speakers of Iroquoian languages ranged from the Cherokee in the Great Smoky Mountains, to the Tuscarora and Nottoway in the interior near the modern Virginia/North Carolina border.
Subdivisions The Iroquoian languages are usually divided into two main groups: Southern Iroquoian (Cherokee) and Northern Iroquoian (all others) based on the great differences in vocabulary and modern phonology. Northern Iroquoian is further divided by Lounsbury and Mithun into Proto-Tuscarora-Nottoway and Lake Iroquoian. Julian does not believe Lake Iroquoian to be a valid subgrouping.
History of studies Isolated studies were done by Wallace Chafe, Karin Michelson, and Blair Rudes. There have also been several works of internal reconstruction for daughter languages, in particular Seneca and Mohawk. A preliminary full reconstruction of Proto-Iroquoian was not provided until Charles Julian's work in 2010.
Phonology Proto-Iroquoian as reconstructed shares the Iroquoian languages' notable typological traits of small consonant inventories, complex consonant clusters, and a lack of labial consonants.
Vowels The reconstructed vowel inventory for Proto-Iroquoian is:
Front Central Back Close Mid Open Like later Iroquoian languages, Proto-Iroquoian is distinguished in having nasal vowels and , although it has more than in its daughter languages.
Consonants The reconstructed consonant inventory for Proto-Iroquoian is given in the table below. The consonants of all Iroquoian languages pattern so that they may be grouped as (oral) obstruents, sibilants, laryngeals, and resonants.
Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive Affricate Fricative Nasal Approximant
Morphology Reconstructed functional morphemes from Charles Julian:
No. Gloss Proto-Iroquoian Proto-Northern Iroquoian 1 'negative' *teʔ 2 'coincident' (perhaps also relativizer) *ts 3 'contrastive' *thi 4 'partitive' *ijiː 5 'translocative' *wi 6 'factual' *waʔ 7 'duplicative' *teː 8 'future' *ẽː 9 'optative' *aɹa 10 'cislocative' *t 11 'repetitive' *ts 12 'non-singular animate' *ka 13 '1:2.SG' *kõː 14 '1:2.DU' *kni 15 '1:2.PL' *kwa 16 '2:1.SG' *hskʷi 17 '2:1.DU' *hskniː 18 '2:1.PL' *hskʷ… 19 '1SG:3' *ki 20 1SG:3A' (> PNI '1SG:3I') *kiji 21 '1SG:3M' *he or *hɹi 22 '2SG:3' *hsi 23 2SG:3A' (> PNI '2SG:3I') *hsiji 24 '2SG:3M' *hehse 25 '3:1SG' *wakʷi 26 3A:1SG' (> PNI '3I:1SG') *jõːkʷi 27 '3M:1SG' *hɹake 28 '3:2SG' *tsa 29 3A:2SG' (> PNI 3I:2SG') *jeːtsa 30 '3M:2SG' *hja 31 '2DU&3' *tsniː 32 '2DU&3M' *hshetsni 33 '2PL&3' *ts… 34 '2PL&3M' *hshetswa 35 '2NS&3I' *jetshi 36 '1+2DU:3' *tniː 37 '1+2DU:3M' *hshetni 38 '1+2PL:3' *t… 39 '1+2PL:3M' *hshetwa 40 '1+3DU:3' *jakni 41 '1+3DU:3M' *hshakni 42 '1+3PL:3' *jakwa 43 '1+3PL:3M' *hshakwa 44 '3:1DU' *kniː 45 '3M:1DU' *hshõkni 46 '3:1PL' *kʷ… 47 '3M:1PL' *hshõkwa 48 '1+2NS:3I' (limited to Iroquoia) *jethi 49 1+3NS:3I' (> Hu. 1NS:3I) *jakhi 50 3I:1NS' (> Tu. '1NS&3I') *jõkhi 51 '3SG:3' (lexically determined variant 1) *ka 52 '3SG:3' (lexically determined variant 2) *wa 53 '3SGM:3' *hɹa 54 '3:3SG' *juː 55 '3:3SGM' *hɹo 56 '3DU:3' *kni 57 '3DUM:3' *hni 58 3NS:3' (> PNI '3PL:3') *wantiː 59 '3PL:3' (second variant, in competition with *wati, #58) *kõti 60 '3PLM:3' *hɹati 61 '3:3NS' *juːntiː 62 '3:3NSM' *hɹoti 63 '3I:3' *je 64 '3:3I' *jako 65 '3SGM:3I' *hshako 66 3A:3SGA' (> Ch. '3NS:3SG', PNI '3I:3SG') *kõːwa 67 '3I:3SGM' *hɹõwa 68 3A:3NSA' (> Ch. '3NS:3NS', PNI '3I:3NS') *kõːwantiː 69 '3I:3NSM' *hɹõwati 70 '3NS:3I' (limited to Iroquoia) *jakoti 71 '3NSM:3I' (limited to Iroquoia) *hshakoti 72 '2:1.SG.IMP' *take 73 '2:1.DU.IMP' *takni 74 '1:2.PL.IMP' *takwa 75 '2SG:3.IMP' *tse 76 'reflexive' *ataːt 77 'semireflexive' (lexically determined variant 1) *at 78 'semireflexive' (lexically determined variant 2) *aɹ 79 'joiner vowel' *a 80 'nominalizer' (lexically determined variant 1) *hsɹ 81 'nominalizer' (lexically determined variant 2) *ʔtshɹ 82 'causative-instrumental' (lexically determined variant 1) *t 83 'causative-instrumental' (lexically determined variant 2) *hst 84 'instrumental' *hkw 85 'reversive' (PNI lexically determined variant 1) *kʷ 86 'reversive' (lexically determined variant 2) *hsj 87 'inchoative' *ʔ 88 'dative-benefactive' (PNI lexically determined variant 1) *ts 89 'dative-benefactive' (lexically determined variant 2) *ẽ 90 'dative-benefactive' (lexically determined variant 3) *ni 91 'dislocative' (lexically determined variant 1) *n 92 'dislocative' (lexically determined variant 2) *h 93 'dislocative' (lexically determined variant 3) *ts 94 'dislocative' (lexically determined variant 4) *tsɹ 95 'dislocative' (lexically determined variant 5, limited to Iroquoia) *ɹ 96 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 1) *njõː 97 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 2) *nõː 98 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 3) *hõː 99 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 4) *õː 100 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 5) *ɹõː 101 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 6) *ɹjõː 102 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 7) *tsõː 103 'distributive' (lexically determined variant 8) *tsɹõː 104 'progressive' *tjeʔ 105 'present suffix' (lexically determined variant 1) *hs 106 'present suffix' (lexically determined variant 2) *ts 107 'present suffix' (lexically determined variant 3) *haʔ 108 'present suffix' (lexically determined variant 4) *h 109 'imperfective suffix' (cf. Cherokee imperfective verbs inhsk) *hsk 110 'past habitual suffix' *kʷ 111 'punctual suffix' (lexically determined variant 1) *ʔ 112 'punctual suffix' (lexically determined variant 2) *ẽʔ 113 'punctual suffix' (lexically determined variant 3) *Ø 114 'punctual suffix' (lexically determined variant 4) *n 115 'perfect suffix' (lexically determined variant 1) *õh 116 'perfect suffix' (lexically determined variant 2) *ẽh 117 'perfect suffix' (lexically determined variant 3) *Ø 118 'perfect suffix' (lexically determined variant 4) *eʔ 119 'perfect suffix' (lexically determined variant 5) *ih 120 'past perfect suffix' *n 121 'facilitative suffix' *nskõːh 122 'modalizer suffix' *k 123 'noun suffix' *aʔ 124 'authenticative suffix' *õweh 125 'characterizer suffix' *haːʔ 126 'decessive suffix' *kẽh 127 'intensifier suffix' *tsih 128 'locative suffix' *keh 129 'populative suffix' (lexically determined variant 1) *ɹonõʔ 130 'populative suffix' (lexically determined variant 2) *kaːʔ
Lexicon Reconstructed lexical roots and particles from Charles Julian: