B3
Mohawk and the Iroquoian Languages
Mohawk is a languageof the Iroquoian farnily. The
family consist$ of two major branches: Southem
IroquoianandNorthem lroquoian.SouthemIroquoian
is representedby just one language,Cherokee,now
spokenprimarily in North Carolinaand Oklahoma.
Noi1hem Iroquoian has severalsub-branches.
The
first offshoot of Nofihem lroquoian developed into
Nottoway, Meheirin, and Tuscarora. The Nottoway
people were first encountered by Europeans near the
Virginia coast in 1650. The language,which disappeared during the mid-nineteenth century, is kno\rn
tbroughjust two wordlists from the early part of that
century. The Meherrin people were first encount€red
in 1650 near the North Carolina coast,but by 1730
they had mergedwith the Tuscarora.All that remains
of their language are two town narnes.The Tuscarora
were first encounteredin easternNorth Carolina. Early
in the eighteenth century, most began to move northward, where thefu descendantsreside today in trro
locationsr near Niagara Falls in eastem New York
State and at Six Nations in southem Ontario. Few
speakersremain.
The second offshoot of Northem Iroquoian was
Huron. The earliestmention of the Huron peopleis in
Champlain'saccountof his 1615visit to what is now
southem Ontario. The Huron Conf€deracy, consisting
of four aibes, was decimatedin 1649by attacksfrom
the Five Nationslroquois. Somesurvivorsfled toward
Qu6bec City, where their descendantslive today at
Lorette. The language is no louger spoken there.
Others settled with other Iroquoian groups in the area.
Some of thesegroupswere subsequentlydefeatedas
well. and the survivors, a rnixture of Huron, Petun,
Erie, and Neuffal, moved west to Sandwich,Ontario,
and became known as the Wyandot. Many subsequ€ntly moved southward, ultimately ending up in
Oklahoma. The Wyandor dialect of Huron was last
spoken in the rnid-twentieth century. French rnissionariesamongthe Huron, pailiculady during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuties, left rich records of the
language.Wyandottexts and lexical and grarnraatical
materialwere recordedin the early twentiethcentury.
Petun, Neuaal, Wenro, and Erie are known only
through somenames.
Five of (he remainingNorthem lroquoiangroups.
the Seneca,Cayuga,Onondaga,Oneida,andMohawk,
formed a strong political alliance known as the League
ofthe Five Nationshoquois.Their territoriesstretched
essentiallyfrom the westem€dgeof modernNew York
State,where the Senecaswere known as the Keepers
of the Westem Doot to the easternedge, wherc the
Mohawks were the Keepers of the Eastem Door
Another group to the north, now lalown as the
Laurentian, was not part of the League, nor was a
group to the south, the Susquehannock. The
Lauentians met JacquesCartier in 1534at the mouth
of the St. LawrenceRiver, but they had disappeared
from the area by the time of Champlain'sarrival in
1603.Vocabularylists of their languagesremain from
the time of Cartier'svoyage,and it is from them that
we have the name Cqnadq, a term that persists in the
modernFive Nationslanguagestodaymeaning'setde
ment, town'. The Susquehannockto the south, also
known as the Andaste, suffered during the colonial
period from European diseasesand atfacks from
colonistsand the other hoquois until the last survivors
MOHAWK AND THE ]ROQUOIAN LANGUAGES
@
were nurdered in 1763. Their language is known
through a wordlist recordedby a Swedishmissionary
in hisjournalpublisbedin 1696.
The Five Nations languagesare all still spoken
today primarily by elders, although all communities
havelanguageclasses.Senecais spokenin thr€€communitiesin westemNew York: Cattaraugus,
Allegany,
and Tonawanda.Cayuga is spokenat Six Nations in
southem Ontario, where many Cayugas fled after the
American Revolution. Other Cayugas moved into
Oklahorna,where the languagewas spokenuntil the
late twentieth century.Onondagais spokenin central
New York southof Syracuseand at Six Nations-Some
Oneidasremainin N€w York State,but most movedto
southernOntario near London. and to Wisconsinnear
GreenBay. There are six main Mohawk communities:
Six Natiolrsin Ontario;TayendinaganearDeserontoin
Ontario; Ahkwesahsne with territory in Ontado,
Quebec,and New York State;Kanehsatakeat Oka to
the northwestof Montrealt Kahnawakeon the southem shoreof the St. Lawrenceacrossfrom Montr€al:
and Wahta at Gibson in Ontario. There are several
thousand speakersof Mohawk, more than any of the
other Northern languages.The ages of the youngest
speakersvary from comnunity to community, but
there are irnmersion schools in four of them, at Six
and
Nations(Ohsweken),Ahkwesahsne,Kanehsatake,
Kahnawake. A number of speakersof lroquoian languagesresideoutsideof thesecommunitiesas w€ll.
Although dre languagesare not mutually intellig!
ble, their basic shucturesare similar. They are illustrated here with examples from Mohawk.
The consonantinventoryis small: t, k, k1',ts, s, n, r,
y, w, ft, 7.Thereis a notableabsenceof labials(suchas
p, b, or m). The vowel inventoryis similarly s all: i,
e, a, o, fi, l.TheMohawk communitieshaveagreedon
a practical orthography, which represents the consonantsas t, & kw, ts, s, n, t i, w, h, qnd ' (with i for the
glide [j] and apostrophefor glottal stop).Th€ vowels
are spelledi, e, a, o, on, and en, with nasalizationindicatedby a following n. Stressoriginally occured on
the penultirnatesyllable of a word, atthoughthe pattem can be obscuredby the additionof vowels within
the word. The stressedsyllablecarriesdistinctivetone
(pitch).An acuteaccentmarks high or rising tone (.i),
and a graveaccentmarksfalling tone (d). The falling
tone appearswherea stressedvowel imnediately preceded a laryngeal (such as ,), as in *iahrat6hrok',
which becarneiahati:roke' 'he climbed under dlere'.
If a syllable endedin a laryngeat,the laryngeal was
lost, which was compensatedby length€ning the
vowel. Open, stressedsyllablesare lengthened,as in
ff:ken 'this'. Length is markedorthographicallywith a
colon:.
Nouns are basedon a noun stem, which may be a
noun root or a nominalizedverb stem,Moryhological
nounsbegin with a noun prefix. In unpossessed
nouns,
the prefix encod€sthe gender of the referent, like the
Neutero- in c-t.riiftkw-a''fist, knot, knob, puck'. If the
noun is possessed,
the prefix encodesthe person,number, and genderof the possessor,as in qfu-atsihkwa'
'.!!y puck'. Different sets of possessiveprefixes are
used for Alienable and Inalienable possession.The
prefix akrr- 'my' in lny puck' indicatesAlienablepossession(meaningthat the possessed
is not an integral
part of the possessor).
The prefix k- lmy' in k-atsihk
wit:ke '10y fist' indicates Inalienable possession
(rneaningthat the possessedis an integral part of the
possessor).
Inalienablepossessions
include most body
parts,but not hair or intemal organssuch as the head
or stomach.Separatedbody partssuchas eyelashesor
fingemails are Alienable.Terms for most kinsnen do
not describepossession,tlut rather the relationship,
snchas r-4[9'niha'rny father', literally 'he is father to
me', or thereciprocalg4jara'si:'a'my cousin',literally 'we two are cousinsto eachodrer'.
Morphological nouns end in a noun suffix. The
most common is -a' as in otsihkw-q: 'knob'. Various
grarmnatical paiticle can be added to words se ing as
nominals, as in Kahnawa'kehronon'kAnhd"forrner
Kahnawake residents': ka-hnaw-a'= ke= hronon'=
kenha' Nruret-r apids-NouN.suFFtx=LocATIVE=REsrDENTIAL= DECESSI\.E.
Ve*)s are potentially the most complex words and
by far the rnost frequent in speecb. All verbs contain a
pronominal prefix. a verb sten, and, apart from commands, an aspect suflix. Tlris st{ucture can be seen,for
exarnple, in katerohrdkha' 'l watch' k-aterohrok-hq'
I-watch-HABrruAL. The pronominal prefix represents
the core argum€nts of the clause, that is, the one or two
major persons or objects involved. These specify person (first, inclusive, exclusive, second, or third), number (singular, dual, or plural), and in third person,
gender (masculine, neuter-zoic, or felninine-indefinite). The grarnmatical roles of the arguments are
specifi€d as well, but not in terms of subjects and
obj€cts, but rather as grammatical Agents (typicauy
those perforning actions and confolling situations)
and grammadcal Patients (typically rhose affected by
the situation but not in control.) and Patients (the entity undergoing an event or statel. The categories are
semantically based, but they are crystallized in the lexicon and the grammar, so that speakers have no choices about degrees of agency as they speak. Verb forrns
are simply leamed with the appropriate prefixes. The
inkansitive verb eni4Lyateruhrtikia' '!g'll go watch
it' contains the Agent pronominal prefix iakw- 'we
all'. The intransitive vert) [onk\e4n:ten 'u9 are poor'
MOHAWK AND THE IROQUOIAN
has the Patient pronominal prefix ionlart- 'we'. The
Agent and Patientcomponentsof transitivepronominal prefixes are often fused. The transitive verb lkgL
wi:iatskwe' 'yq called hi.u' has the transitive
pronorninal prefix shakwa- 'we/him'. The aansitive
\eft entonkhiia'tahser(in:ni''fu will &ess q! up'
containsthe pronominalprefix ionkhi- 'shellts'.
The verb stem rnay itself be complex. -[his stem
-eruhrok 'watch' containsa Middle pref:x -ate-.Verb
stems may also contain an incorporatednoun stem,
like - ahskv)- 'domestic anirnal' in ranahskwiidhne'
'he was a beautiful anifial''. ra- ahskw-iio-hne'x'tr'.s('he
cULINE.AGENT-anirnal-be.beautiful.srATrvE-pAST
was beautiful in the way domestic animals are').
Incorporatednouns qualify the meaningof the verb.
Nounsare incorporatfdboth to createsinglewordsfor
r€curring concepts,as above, and to manipulatethe
flow of infonnation. When speakerswish to dilect
specialattentionto an object,they generallydesignate
it with a separate,independentnoun.If the objectis an
establislredpart of the scene,or incidentalto fhe point
at hand,it may be backgroundedby incor?oration.
Verbsmay contdn various additionalprefixesand
suffixes. Among the prefixes are a Contrastivefor
unexp€ctedsituations,a Coincident for similarity or
simultaneity('the same,when'), a Pafiitive 'so' fhat
appears in a variety ol synlactic constructions.a
Negative'not', aTranslocative'thither', a Factualtypically usedfor pastevents,a Duplicativethat indicates
variouskinds of 'two-ness',including repetitionof arl
event or a shift in position or state, a Future tense
'will', an Optative 'might, should, would, could', a
Cislocative 'hither, there', and a Repetitive 'again,
back'.
Among the zuffixes are an Inchoative 'become',
Inshumental
several Causatives ('cause'),
Applicatives('do wirh ...'), BenefactiveApplicatives
('do fof'), Reversives('un-'), Distributives('here and
there'), and Purposives('go in order to ...' ). All verbs
exceptcommandscontainone ofthe threebasicaspectual suffrxes: Habitual. Punctual, or Stative. The
I{abitual is used for recurring events and, with solne
verbs, for ongoing activities. The Punctual is a
Perfective, used for evelts viewed as wholes. The
Stativeis used for states.With some verbs, it is also
used for activities in progress, and with sorne verbs it
is also used as a Perfect. The Habitual and Stative may
be followed by a postaspectual suffix: Past,
Continuative, or Progressive.
Because all verbs contain pronominal reference to
their cofe arguments,they can serye as complete sentences in themselvesr wa' onkwanahskwai/n: ta' ne'
' w e Eota pet' (wa' -onkwa-nahskw-a-ient-a'
-n' F\ansc.animal-srEM.JoINERAL- l pLURAL.PATIENT-domesti
LANGUAGES
have-t|,rcHoATIvE-puNcTUAL). The same verb can be
part of a larger sentence:wa'onkwanohskwai4nla'ne'
d:rhar 'we got a dog'. Verbs can serve othel syntactic
functions as well. They can function syntactically as
nominals, much like nouns. Some are lexicalized as
norninals, so that speakers understand thern first as
names for €ntities, such as tewa'd:raton 'lacrosae
strck' (te -w -a' ar-a-l-rrn clsLocATIvE-NEUTER-net'it has a net in it'). Some
STEM.JoNER-be.in-STATIVE
are used altemately as predicates or nominals, like
tahontsihkwd:'eks 'they hit the puck, they play
lacrosse' or'lacrosse players' (ta-hon-tsihkw-a-'ek-s
c I s t , o c A T I V I t - M A S c U L I N E . p L U R A L . A G a N T - pu ckSTEM.JoINER-hit-HABr-fuAL).
Full verbs are also used
for many functions served by adjectives and adverbials
in other languages.
Because the verb plovides a full grammatical skeleton of the sentence,word order is used for purely pragmatic purposes. Nouns are strikingly rare in connected
speech; sentencesmost often consist ofjust a verb and
various particles. When independent nominals are
present in a clause, all possible constituent orders can
occur. although not all would be pragmatically felicitous. After various orienting particles, the rnost important elements tend to occur early in the clause, with
successively more predictable and peripheral information expressed later.
Some of these structures can be seen in the excerpt
below from an anecdote told by Watshenni:ne' Sawyer
of Kahnawake. (Abbreviations include M for MASCUSJ
LINE, N 1bTNEUTER,PL foT PLURAL,PRTfoT PARTTTIVE,
for srEM JoINER,and sr for srATrvE.)
ND:ne ti:nen
rt ls
now
'Now then
wq'-onkwa-nqhskw-a-iAnia'-ne'
FACTUAL.1-PL-PATIENI-ANIM L-S]-LI€INCHOATIVE-PLNCTUAL
we acquired a dog.
Ra-nahskw-iid-hne' ken'=k
M.AGENT-animallitde=just
be.nice.sr-P^ST
D:rhar.
dog
e:rhar
ni-:r-a
PRT-M.SG. dog
AGENTbe.a.size
He was a beautiful little dog.
Butch ronwd: -iat- s-kwe'
3-PL/M.sc-call-HABrru^L-PAsr
His name was Butch.
Toka'
and
ki:ken
this
Ka-hnaw-a'=ke=hni:non'
NE!-rER-rapi ds-NouN. sur,T,IX=
place=RESIDENIIAL
And folks in Kahnawake,
MOHAWK AND THE IROQUOIAN LANGUAGES
ki'
thi
ionkw-6n:ten
shen's
that 1.PL.P,\TIEMT-b€.poorfonn€rly just
we were poor then,you know,
wdhi'
TAG
nd:'a
dnska=k ki'
one=only just
I guess
I guesswe only had one
en-iakw-ate-roh ni k-ha-'
FUTT'RE-I -PL.EXCLUSIVE,AGENTMIDDLE-watch-puRposlvE-puNcru^L
to watch the game.'
ki:ken.
this
References
wa' I -hon-tI ihkw-(r-'Ak-f | -ha'
AGEN'I-puck-sJ-hit-D{srRUFACTUAL-DUpLrcATrvE-M.pL.
Chafe, Wallace. 1976. The Caddoan, Iroquoian, and Siouan
Ianguag€s.Th€ Hague: Mouton.
Froman, Frances, Alfred Keye, Lottie Kcye, and Carrie Dyck.
MENTAL. APPLICATryE-HABI'f UAL
2002. E.glish-Cayuga Cayuga-English dictionary. Toronto:
ball ('they hit the puck with it', i.e. 'they played
University of Toronto.
lacrossewith it').
Michelson, Karin, and Mffcy Dox|aror. 2002. Oneida-English
English-Oneida diclionary. Toronto: University of Toronto.
Ahkwesdhs=ne
n-en-l-hdn:n-eAhkwesahs=place pARTTTIvE-FLrruRE-cIsLocATIvE-Miftun, Marianne. l9?9. Iroquoian. The lanSuages of native
Amelica: histodcal and comparative assessment,ed. by Lyle
M.PL.AGENI-gO-PUNCTUAL
Campbell and Marianne Mithun. Austin and London:
They would come fi:om Ahkwesahsne,
University of Texas.
Mithun, Marianne. 1999 and 2001. The languaSes of ralive
t a-hon -tI i hkw -d : -' ek -s
North Anerica. CambridSe. UK: Cambridte University.
crsLocATrvE-M. pL.AGENT-puck-hiI-HABnUAL
Rudes, Blair A. 1999. Tuscarora-English English-Tuscarora
dictionary. Torontoi Universiry of Toronto.
the lacrosse players
Trigger Bruce G. (ed.) 1978. Nonheast: handbook of North
io-t-ohetst-on n=entie'.
aw-cnt-a-tokenhti-'=ke
American lndians. Vol. 15. Washington: Smithsonian
Insdtution.
thc=noon
N-dav-sJ-be.holv-NoMINALIZER
N.PATIENTWoodbury, Hanni. 2003. Onondaga-English English-Onondaga
=place
MIDDLE-paSS-ST
dictionary. Toronto: University of Toronto.
aftemoon.
Sunday
MARIANNE MmntN
isl4n:'4
en-ionkhi-ia't-a-hseftin:ni-'
mother
FUTURE-NDEFINTE/
I -Pl-body-sJ-plepare-P
So then my motherwould dressus up
Sok
then
Seeaho Noun Incorporation
sok i-en-ionkhi-ia'L4nhaw-e'
tlren TRANSLoCATIVE-FUTURE-INDEFINITE/1.pl--bodytake-PUNcruAL
and then she'd take us over there