DUC:dualic PUNC:punctual aspect REP:repetitive SRFL:semireflexive
Onondaga (; , , ) is the language of the Onondaga people, one of the original five constituent nations of the League of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).
This language is spoken in the United States and Canada, primarily on the Onondaga Reservation in central New York State and the Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford, Ontario.
Usage and revitalization According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, there are about 10 mother tongue Onondaga speakers in New York, and 40 native speakers on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada. The language has come to be endangered due to the pressure to assimilate to English as the language of power. Standardization also occurred in residential schools across Canada in the 1800s to 1900s. Young boys and girls at the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School in Brantford, Ontario, were punished for using their heritage language.
The Onondaga Nation Language Center (called , or "they will get to know the language") has been engaged in language revitalization efforts since 2010 at the Onondaga Nation. Children learn the Onondaga language at Onondaga Nation School, and classes are also available for adults. In September 2015, it was announced that fifteen adults would enter a full-time language immersion class in Onondaga, after which they would become teachers of the language. In Canada, is a revitalization project that launched in 2017 with six new language learners. It is an adult immersion program that implements the Six Nations Language Commission's (SNLC) framework. They are involved with translating the local radio station, putting on programs with local elementary and secondary schools, and outreach events for the community.
Phonology +Consonant phonemes in Onondaga Alveolar Postalveolar/ Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive Affricate Fricative Sonorant
The two plosives, , are allophonically voiced to and before vowels and resonants (the bottom row of the chart labelled 'sonorant') and are spelled and in this case. There is considerable palatalization and affrication in the language. The voiceless postalveolar fricative is found in restricted environments, spelled as in scholarly literature and in Ontario and New York.
+Vowel phonemes in Onondaga+ OralFrontCentralBackshortlongshortlongshortlong Close Close-mid Open + NasalFrontBackshortlongshortlong Close Close-mid
Onondaga has five oral vowels, ( is sometimes represented orthographically as ), and two nasal vowels, and . The nasal vowels, following the Iroquoianist tradition, are spelled with ogoneks in the scholarly literature and in Ontario ( and , or in scholarly literature). In New York, they are represented with a following ( and ). Vowels can be both short and long. When vowel length derives from the now lost consonant *r, it is phonemic. Vowel length is written with a following raised dot (half colon) or occasionally a colon, .
Morphology Onondaga is a polysynthetic language, exhibiting a great deal of inflectional and derivational morphology on the verbal forms (including noun incorporation). Nominal forms have less morphology. Additionally, there are particles, which are monomorphemic.
Verbal morphology Onondaga verbs can be divided into three main classes according to their aspectual properties (discussed below). These are the active verbs, motion verbs, and stative verbs. We must distinguish between tense and aspect. Tense refers to when the event takes place, either in the past, the present or the future. Aspect refers to the event itself, such as whether it is finished or ongoing or occurs repeatedly.
There are four aspects in Onondaga. The first is the habitual aspect (HAB). This aspect is used to refer to an event that takes place repeatedly or on an ongoing basis. The second is the punctual aspect (PUNC) (also known as perfective aspect). This aspect refers to an entire event in its completeness. When used in the past tense, the event is described as "over and done-with". It cannot describe an event that is interrupted or incomplete. The third aspect is the stative (STAT) (also known as imperfective) refers to an event that is ongoing or incomplete or, if it occurs in the past tense, that has some bearing on the present. Finally, there is the purposive aspect (PURP), which refers to imminent action and usually implies intent or volition on the part of the subject. Active verbs can appear with any of the first three aspects. Motion verbs can appear with any of all four aspects. Stative verbs can only appear with the stative aspect.
Verbal template
A typical Onondaga verb consists of several morphemes (components). The following chart outlines the order of the morphemes. Obligatory morphemes appear in boldface, and optional morphemes are in standard font. Note that some of the "optional" morphemes are obligatory with certain verb roots. The obligatory morphemes, however, must appear on each and every single verb.
pre-pronominal prefixes pronominal prefixes reflexive or semireflexive incorporated noun verb root derivational suffixes aspect suffix expanded aspect suffix
Each of the following sections outlines the shapes that these morphemes can take.
Pre-pronominal prefixes Modal pre-pronominal prefixes The prepronominal prefixes express a variety of concepts and ideas. The first concept is modality, which expresses the degree of urgency, certainty or likelihood of the event. There are three modal prefixes in Onondaga. The modal prefixes only appear with the punctual aspect. They also appear if there is a modalizer suffix.
The first of these is commonly called the future modal prefix. This prefix expresses events that have not yet taken place at the time the speaker is talking.
The second is the factual modal prefix. This prefix indicates that the speaker knows the event happened for a fact. It typically has a past tense reading (since we are normally only sure about events that happened in the past).
The third is optative modal prefix. This prefix expresses the idea that the event should or ought to take place. It is also used to express untrue events or events that might have taken place but have not. Here are some examples.
The following chart lists forms of the three modal prepronominal prefixes and indicates when to use which form.
Mood Pre-pronominal Prefix When used Example factual waʔ default weʔ any 2nd person or 1st person inclusive (except 2.SG.AG) ǫ optionally replaces sequence waʔwa future ę does not change optative a / a꞉ default (/a-/ and /a꞉-/ are in free variation) ae any 2nd person or 1st person inclusive (except 2.SG.AG) aǫ optionally replaces sequence /awa/
Non-modal pre-pronominal prefixes In addition to the modal prefixes, there is also a set of prefixes that express a variety of concepts, some of which do not have a clearly distinct meaning, rather their meaning varies depending on context. The list of these includes repetitive, cislocative, dualic, translocative, partitive, coincident, contrastive, and negative.
Repetitive The repetitive morpheme adds the meaning of doing something again or repeating some-thing. The basic form of the repetitive morpheme is /s-/. Here are some examples. Example (37) has the prepronominal prefix /sa-/, which is a combination of both repetitive and factual mood. Example (38) has the prepronominal prefix /ęs-/, which is a combination of repetitive and future. These contrast with example (39), which does not have the repetitive morpheme.
Cislocative The cislocative (CLOC) morpheme is used to indicate movement toward the speaker. It can also mean that a particular event is pinpointed back in time. In some cases, the meaning of the cislocative is unpredictable. Some of these are listed below. There are two forms of the cislocative.
/t-/ default /di-/ used with any 2nd person or 1st person inclusive, except 2.SG.AG
Translocative The translocative (TLOC) morpheme is used to indicate movement away from the speaker. The form of the translocative is /he-/
Dualic
The dualic (DUC) does not have a specific meaning. The form of the dualic is /de-/, but changes when it appears in combination with other prepronominal prefixes. Whenever it appears with a verb stem, it changes the meaning in unpredictable ways. Usually, however, there is some notion of there being two of something or of some reciprocal activity such as trading. Also, some verb roots must appear with the dualic prepronominal prefix. In examples (41) and (42), the dualic prefix is obligatory. In example (43), the dualic prefix adds the meaning of becoming two pieces.
Pronominal prefixes There are three series of pronominal prefixes in Onondaga. There is a transitive series, used with transitive verbs. Intransitive verbs use either the agent series or the patient series. The choice between the latter two is often complex, as we will see. The phonological shape of the pronominal prefix depends on the identity of the following sound. This gives rise to several series of pronominal prefixes, which are labelled according to the following segment. These include the c-series (for pronominal prefixes which precede a consonant), the a-series (for pronominal prefixes which precede /a/), the e-series, ę-series, o-series, ǫ-series, and i-series. Finally, the pronominal prefixes inflect for person, number and gender. We discuss each of these in turn.
Onondaga distinguishes three persons: first (I or we), second (you) and third (he, she, it or they). The first person can be either exclusive (EXCL), which excludes the listener, or inclusive (INCL), which includes the listener.
Here, when John says we, it does not include the person he is talking to. In other words, Mary does not get to go to the movies. This use of we is called the first person exclusive. English does not make a distinction between inclusive and exclusive we but Onondaga does. Consider the following two words. The pronominal prefix /dn-/ indicates a first person dual inclusive subject, and the pronominal prefix /agn-/ indicates a first person dual exclusive subject.
Three numbers are also distinguished in Onondaga: singular (for one entity, SG), dual (for two entities, DU), and plural (for three or more entities, PL). In the glosses, singular is marked with SG, dual is marked with DU, and plural is marked with PL.
Additionally, Onondaga distinguishes three genders, which are realized in the third person only. The first is masculine (M), which is used to refer to male humans and certain animals, either alone or in a group. The second is feminine (F). This is used to refer to female humans, certain animals, or some unknown person. It is sometimes called the feminine-indefinite. For groups of people that contain both men and women, the masculine is used. The third is neuter (N), which is used to refer to most animals and inanimate objects. In older texts, the neuter is used to refer to human females in certain circumstances, although this usage is no longer common. See Abrams (2006: 17) for more discussion. (Abbott, 1984 also discusses two feminine genders in Oneida.) Here are some examples.
Finally, we observe that there are two series of prefixes for intransitive verbs, the agent series (AG) and the patient series (PAT). As a general rule, verbs which involve active, purposeful movement or activity on the part of the subject are conjugated with the agent series. Verbs which involve involuntary action or states are conjugated with the patient series. There are so many exceptions to this generalization, however, that one has to simply learn for each intransitive verb whether it takes the agent or the patient series. There is an additional rule for the intransitive verbs that take the agent series. When these verbs appear with stative aspect, they use the patient series rather than the agent series. This rule does not have any exceptions.