Reprintedfrom NancyC. Dorian (ed.)
Investigaingobsolescence:
studiesin languagecontraaionand death(Str:dtesn the
SocialandCuln:ratFoundationsof Language7)
@ CambridgeUniversityPress,1989
Print€din &eat Britain
of
16 The incipientobsolescence
Cayugain Ontario
polysynthesis:
and Oklahoma
MARIANN E MITH U N
Cayuga,an Iroquoian language,wasoriginally spokenin what is now New
York State. When first encounteredby Europeans,the Cayuga lived in
villagesaroundCayugaLake, surroundedby the other relatedFive Nations
Iroquois. To the west were the Seneca,to the eastthe Onondaga,beyond
them the Oneida, and finally, the Mohawk. Due to a seriesof unfortunate
events,Cayugaspeakersnow live in two distantlyseparatedcommunities,
one in Ontario and the other in Oklahoma.While the languageis still very
much alive in Ontario, it is recedingin Oklahoma, as fewer and fewer
speakersuse it on rarer and rarer occasions.Not surprisingly,the Cayuga
spokenin Oklahomahasbegunto differ in subtlewaysfrom that spokenin
Ontario.
1.
Historical background
The Cayugahad occupiedthe sameland for centuriesbefore the American
Revolution. When war erupted, they were drawn into battle on the side of
the British, and in 1779an American expedition destroyedtheir villages.
This led to their dispersal.Some Cayugasremainedwith their land, but
otherswent to live with Senecasat Buffalo Creek, and still otherswent with
other Iroquoiansto Ontario to form the Six NationsResewe.By the end of
the Revolution, only about 130Cayugasremainedat CayugaLake,350were
with the Senecaat Buffalo Creek, and 382 were at Six Nations. (For a
seeSturtevant1978;White,
detaileddiscussionofthe historyofthe Cay'rrga,
Englebrechtand Tooker 1978.)
In the yearsfollowing the war, the Cayugaremainingat CayugaLake sold
mostof their land. Somethen followed their relativesto SixNations' Others
went to live in SenecacommunitiesatBuffalo Creek,Tonawanda,Cattaraugus,andAllegany. A numberof othersjoined otherNew York Iroquois and
moved to the Lower SanduskyRiver in Ohio, where the entire group
244
Marianne Mithun
becameknown as the "sandusky Senecas".During the early nineteenth
century, Cayugascontinuedto emigratefrom Buffalo Creek to,Sandusky'
Yy tti}, ZZ)troquois were countedat Sandusky'157of them Cayuga'
Following PresidentJackson'sRemovalBill in 1830'the Sanduskygroup
sold their Ohio land and beganto move west again' eventuallysettling in
northeastern Oklahoma. Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth
century, Iroquois immigrants frorn New York and Ontario continued to join
them. ihe o;iginal "sanduskySenecas"'atongwith theselat€r immigrants,
became the ancestorsof the "Seneca" or "Sene€a-Cayuga-'wbo reside in
northeasternOklahomatodaY.
The Cayugalanguagewasto experiencedifferent fatesin th€ areaswhere
it wassooicenin New York, Ontario, and Oklahoma The Seneca,Cayrga'
Onondaga,Oneida,andMohawk languagesare mutuallyunintelligible'but
they areiufficiently closelyrelatedthat speakersof onecanlearnotherswith
relative ease. In irlew York, the Ca)'ugalanguageexerted a significant
influenceon Senecaand, in turn, on Onondaga'A lossof original ProtoIroquoian *r in certaincontextsin Cayugawasimitated and generalizedin
both Senecaand Onondaga,so that by the end of the eighteenthcentury,
neither Senecanor Onondagahad any /ri at all (Mithun 1980)'The Cayuga
languagewasnot to prevail in New York, however,eventhoughtherewere
living in New York State in 1980' 153 in the Seneca
stilf 18-: Cayugas
-Cattu.aogut
(Buffalo Creek had been sold)' Senecais still
community ut
sookenin all ofthe Senecacommunities,but Cayugahasnot beenspokenin
any of them for as long as anyonecan remember'
in Ontario, by contrast,there are now more speakersof Cayugathan of
any other Iroquoian language.Although childrenare no longerlearningthe
languageas a mother tongue,approximately375adultsspeakCayuga lt is
usedboth in daily conversationand ceremonially'
In Oklahoma, Cayuga is now the only Northern Iroquoian language
spoken,but it is usedby few individualsand only rarely. As early as 1912,
Iiarbeau reported (see Sturtevant 1978) that only one family -still spoke
Seneca,and all othersspokeeither Cayugaor English.By 1962'Senecawas
no longer spokenat all. Cayuga"was hardly usedexceptin ritual contexts
and ha? only 11 fluent speakersand 12 otherswith somecompetence,the
youngestspiaker havingbeenborn in 1918"(ibid': 543)' By 1980,perhapsa
ialf=Jozen speakersremained,and severalof thesehavepassedawaysince
that time. Although the Oklahoma speakers consider themselves
"Seneca", their languageis pure Cayuga,with little observableinfluence
from the other Iroquoian languages.For the most part' they havehad little
occasionto speakihe languagefor a long time. They meet primarily on
ceremonial occasions, and have tended to use Cayuga primarily in
seldomin conversation.
ceremonialspeeches,
The incipient obsolescenceof polysynthesis: Cayuga
2.
245
Discourseand syntax
The Iroquois have alwaysenjoyeda reputationfor eloquence.The earliest
European descriptionsof the New World include commentarieson the
rhetoricalskillsof the Iroquois, andthe tradition hascontinuedto this dayin
all communities. Skillful use of languageis discussed,appreciated,and
cultivatedby speakersin all contexts,not only in formal oratory, but alsoin
informal narrativeandconversation.All ofthe languagesare rich in stylistic
devices,and speakerstake greatpleasurein exploitingthem.
It is difficult to measureand comparea quality asindividual asrhetorical
skill. One fact might suggestsome loss of stylistic elasticityin Oklahoma
Cayuga.In both Ontario and Oklahoma, traditional ceremonialspeeches
are given in Cayuga. In Ontario, the ceremonieslast for days. Each
morning, everyonegathersin the Longhousefor hour after hour of magnificentformal oratory. A singlespeakerperforms,aidedonly occasionallyby a
prompter seatedbehind him. The speechesfollow well establishedstructuresand containtraditionalrhetoricaldevices,but they are not memorized.
In Oklahorna,the oratory typically lastsonly a day or so. Of course,their
brevity is probably due not just to a lossof rhetorical skill, but also to the
smallerpool of speakerswho rememberthe traditions andwho understand
the sDeeches.
Unfortunately, it was not possibleto record long stretchesof connected
discoursefrom the Oklahomaspeakers.ConversationsbetweenOklahoma
speakersand an Ontario speaker,however,haveprovidedan opportunityto
compare a number of featuresof the two Cayuga dialects' The ontario
speaker,Reginald flenry, usesCayugain daily conversationand performs
the traditional speechesin the Longhouse'He is a skillful speaker,keenly
sensitiveto subtleintricaciesof his language,and he wasquite interestedin
comparing Oklahoma and Ontario Cayuga' Probably the best speaker
remainingin Oklahomawasborn in 1888.When interviewedin Cayuga,she
often replied in English, althoughshe was quite capableof good Cayuga.
Her preferencefor Englishwasclearlya matter of relativefacility and habit
rather than prestige,since good control of Cayugais all the more highly
valued in this community as it disappears.She enjoyed speaking the
language,but felt that Mr Henry's Ontario Cayugawasthe correctvemion
and that shemight be making mistakes.
The style and syntaxof this Oklahomaspeaker'sconversationappeared
to be essentiallyunaffected by English. In Cayuga, word order is not
syntacticallydetermined (SVO, SOV, etc.). Sincethe roles of core argumentsare expressedby verbalprefixes,word order neednot reiteratethem.
Instead, constituentsare ordered accordingto pragmaticconsiderations:
their relativeimportancewithin the discourse'The mostsignificantelement
of a clauseappearsfirst, followed by increasinglypredictableor incidental
information (Mithun 1987).This speakerconsistentlyorderedconstituents
246
Maianne Mithun
accordingly,with no loss in stylistic elasticity.Sincethe newsworthy-first
ordering"oibayugausuallycontrastswith the typicaltheme-rhemeorder of
English; it is lle;r that word order in oklahoma has remained largely
uninfluencedbY English.
(1) Tkai?ni:
hati:?as
pr.AG-sfroot-TTABITUAL
u-loud-sre]]wnIra.
'Their shootingis loud'
akatekhfgY?ne:z
(2) Tkand:taQ
-.
FAcfuAr-l'sG'Acdme-DlsLocATrvE
clslocATlvE-N-town-lie-srarrve
I am going to dine
to rcwn
hate:ts{ts
9y6:kwe:?
F[n-l-PL.ExcL'AG'gGPUNcruAL
M.sc,AG-cure-HABrruAL
we a[ $/ill go
doctor
'I am going to town with the doctor to eat'
(Note the pronominal expressionof the plural agent of the last clause,
typical of luogoug". of this type, rendered in English by a prepositional
jhrase. Transcription conventionsare as follows. Vowels followed by a
iolon are long, those accompaniedby an acute accentare stressed,those
with a Polishhook are nasalized,thosewith a subscriptcircle are voiceless,
and those with a superscript ? are glottalized. Nasalization may co-occur
with any of the other features. Glossesseparatedby periods indicate
semantii componentsthat do not correspondto separatemorphemesin
Cayuga.The sequence-ft-, for example,glossed1.sG.Ac.,is the l"stperson
singularagentpronominalprefix ('I'), but it consistsof a single,unsegmentable morpheme.)
Becauseoftheir rich morphology,Iroquoian languagesexhibit somewhat
less grammaticizedsyntacticcomplexity than languageslike Fnglish All
verbsare finite, and clausesare backgroundedor foregroundedby meansof
discourse particles and ordering. The conversationof this Oklahoma
speaker seemed to show approximately the same degree of syntactic
cbmplexityas that of a typical Ontario speaker.
(3) Wah6?tshU:
aka:tke
ng
hne:?
thri:ha
1vashQ:
there-DlMten
just.only
FAc.1.sc-get.upnow coNTRAsrrvE
niyahwihst6:?eh
N-metal-strike-STATIVE
PARTITIVE.
'I just now got up and here it is almostten o'clock'
1s2 ld? ng'? katshe:np?
Ngh ki? akekhwgt6?9h
now just 1.sc.PAr-food-finish-srerw the just it.is N-stock
(9)kgnete:kh0:ni?
(rur)-1.sc..a.c-feed-PUNcruAL
'Now that I havefinishedeating,I will feed my stock'
The incipient obsolescenceof polysynthesis: Cayuga
3.
247
Lexicon
Usually the first differencesnoticedby speakershearinganotherdialectof
their languageare in vocabulary. As might be expected, Ontario and
Oklahoma Cayuga are distinguishedby neologismscreated since their
separation.For'tomato', for example, Ontario speakersuse ohydkhahg?
'it-fruit-divides', or 'fruit in sections'.Oklahoma speakersuse kg?nya?,
which refers to the ring in a bull's nose in Ontario. For 'railroad track',
Ontario speakers luse kgnyg?ghird?ke"se?
'along the iron'. Oklahoma
speakersusekitrefttaya:nu:wa uha:te,'it-drags-fastroad', or'train road'.
The word for 'automobile' is interesting. Ontario speakers,like other
Northern Iroquoians, vsekA ehtu?'it is usedto drag'. Oklahomaspeakers
.usekak$owanC?s
'it hasbig eyes'.The literal meaningis the sameasthat of
the Shawneeword (Ives Goddard, pers.comm.). This is no accident.Early
in the nineteenth century, a group of Shawneesand Senecasknown
collectivelyasthe "Mixed Band" alsooccupieda reservationin Ohio. They
migrated west at the sametime as the SanduskySenecasand both groups
eventuallysettled on the sameOklahoma reservation,the Mixed Band in
the north, and the SanduskySenecasin the south.
Surprisinglyfew wordsin OklahomaCayugashowany Senecainfluence.
One may be the term for'nose'. The root -kgr- is the basicterm for'nose'in
both Oklahoma Cayugaand Seneca.This root refers to the 'bddge of the
nose'in Ontario Cayuga.The Ontario root for'nose'is cognateto thosein
other more distant Northern Iroquoian languageslike Tuscarora,so the
Oklahomashift seemsto representan innovation.
A number of recent neologismsare the samein Ontario and Oklahoma
Cayuga, such as k'atrehtaya:nfi:we?'train' ('it drags fast') katst)t"1Qtas
'monkey' ('it eats lice') kqthd:haz 'radio, television' ('it talks'), and
shako:y4:nas'policeman' ('he arrests/grabsthem'). Since these words
generally match their counterparts in the other Northern Iroquoian
languages,it appearsthat they were brought into Oklahoma by the later
immigrantsand visitorsfrom Ontario, whoselanguagehasprobablyalways
enjoyedspecialprestigein Oklahoma.
Someneologismscreatedin Ontario apparentlyneverhadcounterpartsin
Oklahoma. Ontario and Oklalfoma Cayugashare the original terms for
'black', 'white', 'red', 'green','yellow', and'blue'. A term for'pink'has
been created in both communities,but from different descriptions..The
Ontario term is otkwghtsia:ke:t('it-red-white.is')'light red'. The Oklahoma
(red-DrMrNurrvE)
'a little red', 'sort ofred', 'reddish'.
termis tkwehtsi?d:?41,
The Ontario word for'brown', basedon the noun'dirt', wasunderstoodin
Oklahomaas'purple'. The Ontario term for'gray'is an innovationbasedon
the noun'ash', but there is no counterpart in Oklahoma. (Both dialects
retain an older term for'gray-haired'.) Neither has a special term for
'orange'.
248
Marianne Mithun
Lexical lossin OklahomaCayugashowsa predictablepattern' Words for
obiectsno longer discussedhavebeenforgotten, suchas'moose','beaver"
'mink', and 'w-easel'.SomesPecificterms seemto be disappearingbefore
more generalones.The Ontario speakerremarkedthat h€.wouldbe more
likely io say (4a), for'Come on in the house" where an Oklahomaspeaker
said (4b).
(4)a. Ontario:
KanPhskf: tats9h!
crsloc-mvr-2-sc'eccnter
x-house-in
ti:*z
crsrocerrre-2'srrc'ec-go
When asked for a word for 'thigh', the best Oklahoma speaker supplied the
term for'leg'. Although sheknew'foot" shecould not comeup with 'ankle'
never
or 'toes'. F; 'hip', sh! suggested'buttocks'' Sheknew'e1'es',but had
not'cheeks''
knew'facd'but
She
heardthe Ontarioword for'eyebrow'.
(4)b, Oklahoma:
4.
Kanqhsk{:
x-house-in
MorPhologY
Cavusamomhology is not only complex, it is also highly productive' and
lf a particular
eooOioeateis manipulateit extensivelyfor stylisticpurposes
word: a
by
a
separate
expressed
it
is
usually
llement of meaningis in focus,
it may
information,
background
Darticle.noun, orverb. Ifit merelyprovides
particle
and
A
separate
the
verb
within
'
Le expressedby a boundmorpheme
event
that
an
emphasize
to
wishing
A
speaker
a verial affix may cooccur.
ocruned again, might use a separateparticle meaning'again'.as well as a
reoetitiveirbal prifix somethinglike Englishre- If the repetitionis not the
mlin ooint of theitause, or jf it is establishedinformation, the prefix aloneis
sufficient.Good speakerscan pack a considerableamount of background
information into verbsby meansof afnxation'
Productivity is probably one of the first aspects of morphology to be
receding in Ollahoma Cayuga' The best Oklahoma speaker could use all of
the affixes,but on occasion,shewould hesitateto combineseveralwithin a
singleword. When there were few other prepronominalpr-efixes'she used
th;epetitive prefix s- with the particle 4:? 'again" as an Ontario speaker
would.
'she beat her up'
(5)a, aqtatirtany(rtuh
'she beat her up again'
6:?
sagtati?tanyri?
b.
When more prepronominalprefixeswerepresent,shereliedon the separate
particle aloni to carry the meaning'again'' An Ontario speakerwould have
iimply combined prefixes in that context'
(6) Ontario:
tgsasatkahat6:nih
ATOUNd
DUALIC-REPETITIVE-2.SG-SEMI.REFLEXIVE-tUIn.
'turn back around,re-turn'
The incipientobsolescence
of polysynth?sis:Cayuga
249
Oklahoma: teskaa:t6:ni
622
oulrrc-2.sc.lc-sBMT.REFLExIvE-turn.around
again
'turn aroundagain'
At other times, the Oklahoma speaker did use expressionscontaining
multiple prepronominal prefixes.These may have been somewhatmore
familiar combinations.
(7) Ka:oa iatetese:tih
toward pARTrrrvE-ou,rlrc/crsrocetlvr-2sc.par-throw
'Throw it back here'
The reluctanceto combine morphemeswithin single words extendsto
noun incorporation.In all of the Northern Iroquoian languages,verbsmay
incorporate noun stems referdng to their patients. Incorporation can be
usedfor severalpurposes.It often functions as a word-formation device,
creating unitary lexical items to representunitary concepts.Many of the
resultingverbsnormally function aspredicates,like -tftwgta?'finisheating'
('meal-finish'),-atekhgni'eat' ('self-meal-make').Many others have been
coinedto function asnominals,especiallyin responseto the introductionof
so many new objectsrequiringnamesover the pastseveralcenturies.Terms
formed in this way include kagtanihkwih 'horse' ('it-log-haul-s') and
kayd?takrahs'goat' ('it-body-stink-s'). Such words are not formed anew
each time a speakerusesthem, of course.The majority are learned and
rememberedas lexicalunits in both Ontario and Oklahoma.
Incorporationcanalsobe usedasa stylisticdevicein discourse,asa means
ofbackgroundingestablishedor incidentalinformation.When an important
entity is first introducedinto discourse,or is in focus,it usuallyappearsasa
separatenoun. Onceits identity hasbeenestablished,it is usuallyreferredto
only pronominallyor by an incorporatednoun.A characteristicof especially
admi,redspeakersis the profusion of incorpor.ition in their speechfor
stylistic effect .
Somenoun-verb combinationsare usedvery often, while othersmay be
quite rare. The best Oklahoma Cayugaspeakerused combinationsthat
would be familiar asfrequentlyrecuning units. For'she hasa big house/her
houseis big', sheusednearly the sameword asthe Ontario speakerwould
havechosen.Havinga big houseis a frequentlyoccurringconceptualunit, in
which neither the house nor its size is in focus. (She did omit the patient
pronominalprefix for 'her'.)
(E)Ontario:
konghsowa:neh
F.SG.PAT-houselafge.
STATTVE
Oklahoma: kanghsuw6:ngh
N-houselarge .srATrvE
The Oklahoma speakerusedrarer combinationslessoften, if at all. Where
250
Marianne Mithun
sheuseda simplexverb with a separatenoun, asbelow,the Ontario speaker
noted that heiould haveuseda verb with incorporatednoun' (As before,
she did not specifythe possessorof the onion.)
(9)Ontario:
k6nQhsow6:ngh
ko-?nQhs-owang
r.sc.P,rr-onion-large.srAnvE
'she hasa big onion'
?nfhsa?
Oklahoma: kuwa:n{
?nQhs-az
k-uwane
l-big.srnrrvr onion-lot'm'rll'surnx
'the onion is big'
Morphophonemicalternations,which can be quite complex in Cayuga,
are essentiallythe same in both dialects'The shapeof the stem for 'leg'
originally -hsin-, has been remodeledto -ahsin-, probably by analogyto
;foot'. The differencehas alwaysbeen neutral?ed in someforms,
-olilrt\ke ohsi:na?'aleg' andohs?ta?'afoot'. In other forms, original differences
have been leveled in Oklahoma. Compare Ontario, kqsihbkeft'on its leg'
and wqs?ftkeh'on its foof , with Oklahoma rygsihhkeh'on its leg' and
.oritik"h 'on its foot'. It is interestingthat sucha frequentword could be
sutject to remodeling.
5.
PhonologY
have.remainedthe same in
Most phonologicaldistinctionsand processesshift is particularlysalientto
vowel
Oklahoma
One
O-klahoma.
Ontario and
*o
in all
Ontario speakers: appearsas a lax' fronted, barely rounded [u]
contexts. It is actually quite close to the Oklahoma Ca1'ugaspeakers'
pronunciationof the vowel in English roo'
(10) Ontario:
[oth6:wee]'cold'
Oklahoma: [uth*:wer]
It could be hypothesizedthat the Oklahomavowel is simply the result of
contaminationirom English.This seemsextremelyunlikely, giventhe intact
state of the rest of the phonology. All other vowels, including nasalized'
creaky,and voicelessonis, haveremainedjust asin Ontario Furthermore'
cause
thereis nothing articulatorilycomplexaboutthe vowel [o] that should
instability.
Better hypothesescomefrom historicalconsiderations'The Huron' who
occuoied w-hatis now Ontario until the mid-seventeenthcentury, were
linguisticallyrelated to the Five Nations Iroquois, but they-constitutedan
oniosins political unit. Although the Huron languageis no longer spoken'
Frenchmissionaries
and eighteenth-century
r."orO. j.ft by seventeenth-
The tncipient obsolescenceof polysynthesis: Cayuga
?
e
n
I,
ts
257
showseveralinterestingphoneticalternationspresentin the languageat that
time. In particular,the pronunciationofthe soundcorrespondingto original
Proto-Iroquoian*o wassometimes[o], and sometimes[u].
When they were defeated by the Five Nations Iroquois in 1649, the
survivingHuron scatteredin severaldirections.Manywent eastwardtoward
QuebecCity. A number of otherssettledamongthe Iroquois in New York
State,includingthe Cayuga.Interestingly,somemodernOntario dialectsof
Caluga show some of the same alternations recorded in seventeenthcentury Huron. In particular, *o sometimesappears as [u] in certain
contextsadjacentto n, y, and?, asin orui?no:lorui?nu:'itiscold', oy1ishaq
oytitsha?luyrt:6ha?'jaw' , or on62tsha?lorui?tsha?'tooth'.
This [o]/[u] alternation may have originatedwith the early Huron refugees(Mithun 1985),
then remained unchangedin Ontario, but been generalizedto [u] in
Oklahoma.
There is anotherpossibleexplanationbehindthe Oklahoma[u]. Someof
the defeatedHuron bandedtogether with remnantsof neighboringtribes
and fled westward toward Detroit, where they became known as the
Wyandot. They eventually moved into northwesternOklahoma, not far
from the areaoccupiedby the OklahomaSeneca-Cayuga
today. Although
Wyandot is no longer spoken, we have excellent documentationof the
languagein narrativesand notestranscribedby MariusBarbeauin the early
part of this century (Barbeau 1960). From these it is clear that *o was
pronounced [u] in all contexts in Wyandot. It may thus have been the
Wyandotswho generalizedthe [o]/[u] alternationto [ul, then passedit on to
the Oklahoma Cayuga.In any case,it is unlikely that rhe Oklahoma [u] is
merely a mark of Englishinfluenceor obsolescence.
Patternsofstressand lengthare relativelycomplexin Cayuga,depending
upon interactionsbetweensyllablecount from both endsof the word and
syllablestructure.Phrase-medialwords haveultimate stress,but in phrasefinal words, stressplacementis essentiallyas follows. (The examplesare
from Oklahoma Cayuga.)
(a) If the penultimatesyllableof a word is even-numbered(counting
from the left), it is stressed:kasd'tkeh'onitslips','mouth'.
(b) If the penultimate syllable is odd-numberedand open, it is still
usuallystressed:h$:ka:k 'goose'.
(c) If the penultimatesyllableis odd-numberedand containsthe vowel
/a/, stressmovesto the antepenult:kek$takp:'in my nose'.
(d) If the penultimate syllable is odd-numberedand closed, stress
moves to the antepenult: (e)sh wektha?'cover, lid' .
(e) If stresswould otherwisefall on the secondof two adjacentvowels,
it moves leftward to the first: tsi?doyg:'spider' .
For the mostpart, thesepatternshaveremainedthe samein both dialects.
SeveralOklahomawordshint at incipientgeneralizations
in the stressrules,
Marianne Mithun
however. The word'in my eye', for example'is pronouncedkel<dhukg:in
Ontario in accordancewith (c) above:the penultimatesyllable-ka- is oddnumbered and contains/a/, so stressmovesleftward to the antepenult.In
Oklahoma,it is pr onotncedkeknfui"kg:.The penultimatesyllableis treated
like any other open syllable,despitethe /a/. The word for'cat', originally
borrowed into the North Iroquoian languagesfrom Dutch, showsthe same
innovation. In the north, this hasremainedtakl:?s. In Oklahoma,it is now
tri:&a?s.Numerousother words, like'in my nose'cited above,indicatethat
the generalizationis not systematic,however.
*ren asked what she called 'eyebrows', the best Oklahoma speaker
t, a word interpreted by the Ontario speakeras 'my
strppliedkekahAhtg.
this term is pronouncedkekdhehtp:t.in accordance
Ontario,
eyiiashes'.In
penultimate
syllable-helr-is odd-numberedand closed,
(d)
the
above:
with
The Oklahomaspeakertreated
the
antepenult.
to
leftward
moves
so striss
and
stressremainedpenultimate'
open,
or
were
even
as
if
it
here
the Denult
my eyes',shedid
root,
kekdhAkeh'(on)
same
on
the
based
word
In another
in
her
speech,like that
words
other
Many
the
antepenult.
to
stress
shift the
systematic'
is
not
generalization
that
the
confirm
above,
for 'lid'
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Cayuga phonology is a
phenomenon usually referred to as "laryngeal metathesis"' actually a
processof feature spreading.It operatesas follows: if-an odd-numbered
iyllable is closedwith a laryngeal (ft or ?)' featuresof-the-laryngealare
spreadleftwardover the entire syllable,andthe laryngealitself is usuallyno
longer audibleas a separatesegment.
Wh"n uo odd-nurnberedsyllable would otherwise be closedby ft' the
moves leftward and the entire syllable is devoiced' In (11)
voicelessness
truh- is pronounced[druh] when even-numbered,but
the
syllable
below,
(Oral stopsare automaticallyvoicedthroughout
odd-numbered.
when
[tgg]
on sonorantsls
voiced segments.Voicelessness
other
before
the language
indicatedby small circlesunder the letters.)
(11) he na q$ €: ktha? 'they useit to gathertogether'
1.2 3 45
(term usedlor the Longhouse)
Compare: tsa tri he ktha? 'you two useit to gather'
34
12
(Word elicitedfor comparison:lJ-= 'You two')
When an odd-numberedsyllableis closedby glottal stop, the glottalization moves leftward and the entire syllable is laryngealized.In (12), the
syllable-nP- is pronouncedas [ni?] when even-numbered,but-as[ii] when
odd-numbered.lepostrophes abovesonorantsindicateglottalization')
(12) sa thro ii
3
12
ta? 'your clothes'
4
The incipient obsolescenceof polysynthesis: Cayuga
Compare: (a) ka
72
253
thrf ni? ta? 'my clothes'
3
45
Laryngealmetathesisis very much alive in Oklahoma,but it differsin two
waysfrom the Ontario version.First, it appearsto be optionalin Oklahoma,
often simply failing to operate. In the Oklahoma versionsof (13a and b),
devoicingfailed to take place, a commonoccurrence.Comparethe shapes
of italicizedsyllables.
(13)a. Underlying: keh soh
L2
Ontario:
k9 s6h
1234
Oklahoma: keh sfh
1234
b. Underlying: t9 hat
'on my hand'
ta? ke
3 4
ti keh
ti
keh
'he will dance'
72
Ontario:
t? a:t
12
Oklahoma:
tg
ha:t
12
In the Oklahomaversionsof (c) and (d), glottalizationfailed to spread.
c. Underlying: ka? no wa? ke
'on its back'
L2
34
Ontario:
ki n6 fvi keh
12
34
Oklahoma: ka? nri wa? keh
12
34
d. Underlying: a ta? ti? thra? 'cane'
l2
3,4
Ontario:
a
t6? ti
thra?
l2
34
Oklahoma:
ta? ti? thra?
2 34
Note that in the Oklahomaversionof (13a)'on my hand', devoicingdid not
spreadbut laryngealizationdid. In fact, the sameword may be pronounced
sometimeswith devoicing,sometimeswithout.
(14) Underlying: kehsa?ka hg:t 'my mouth' ('my lips have a hole')
Ontario:
Oklahoma:
1.234
kg s6akp 9:t
1 Z 34
kg s6r kp 9:t / keh se?kA 9:t
I 2 34
12
34
254
Marianne Mithun
(No doubletsoccurredin the Oklahoma corpusshowingthe optionality of
glottal spreadingfor a singleword, but this may simplybe an accidentof the
data.)
In bntario, the laryngealmetathesisis contextsensitive:it doesnot occur
in syllables beginning with vowels or laryngeals, nor word-finally In
Oktahoma,the processhasbeengeneralizedto all but word-finalsyllables'
It appearsin vowel-initial syllablesas often as in other odd-numbered
sylliUtes.(Vowel-initial syllablesoccur only word-initially')
(1$ a. Ontario:
Oklahoma:
b. Ontario:
Oklahoma:
ahsQh
?sgh
ohk6:e?
9k6:er
'still'
'squash'
It also appears in laryngeal-initial syllables as often as in other odd2'
numbered iyllables, whether the laryngeal is h or
'mY grandmother'
khehso:t
(16) a. Ontario:
Oklahoma: kgsu:t
'lYedhominY'
onfhohkwa?
b. Ontario:
nfhgkwae
Oklahoma:
'on mY eye'
kek6hazkeh
c. Ontario:
Oklahoma: kek6hikeh
ketsyg?oht6?ke '(on) my fingernail'
d. Ontario:
'my fingernail'
Oklahoma: ketys6?9ta?
The eeneral retention of the complex stressand metathesispatterns'
which iepend on sflable count from the beginning of words, is especially
impressivein light of anotherinnovation In Cayuga,the neuterpronominal
prifix o- is often droppedbyboth Ontario and Oklahomaspeakersin certain
color and animal names:
(17) a. (o)nr6htd9:z 'green'
b. ( o)thahy6:nih'wolf'
In both dialects, stressplacement and metathesisstill operate as if the
missing syllableswere piesent. In the term for 'green', for example, the
2syllabie-irah- would be unstressedand voicelessif it were initial, and -'4
would not undergometathesisif it were actuallythe secondsyllable'
Oklahoma Cafuga hasextendedthis deletionprocess'The neuter prefix
o- is usuallydroppedfrom most nounsand stativeverbs'
'beans'
(18) a. Ontario:
os6he?ta?
Oklahoma: s6he?tar
ohyuathi:yeht 'it is sharp'
b. Ontario:
Oklahoma: (h)Yu?thi:Yeht
No irrecoverable information is lost with a systematic dropping of the
The incipient obsolescenceof polysynthesis: Cayuga
255
pronoun. The lossis not restrictedto the pronoun in Oklahoma,however.
Words like thosein (19) are typical.
(19) a. Ontario:
owitr6:tha?
Oklahoma:
ft6:tha?
b. Ontario:
sate:khf:nih
Oklahoma:
te:kh$:nih
'butter'
'eatl'
The loss is phonologically rather than morphologically conditioned. In
(19a),the initial o- is the neuterpronominalprefix, but wi- is part ofthe root.
In (19b), the original initial r- is the 2nd personsingularpronominalprefix,
and -a- is the beginningof the semireflexive-dte-. No matter how many
syllablesare deleted,however,stressand metathesiscontinueto reflectthe
original syllablecount.
6,
Acquisitionand deacquisition
It hassometimesbeensuggestedthat obsolescinglanguagesresemblechild
language.Thoseaspectsof a languagethat are the mostcomplextend to be
acquiredlast and lost first. Unfortunately, moribund languagesare usually
just the ones that are not being learned by children, so it is difficult to
comparethe Rrstand last stagesof the samelanguage.This is the casewith
Cayuga.It has been possible,however,to observesomechildren learning
Mohawk as a first language(Mithun forthcoming). Their early Mohawk is
both similar to, and different from, the Cayugaspokenin Oklahoma, in
interestingways.
In Mohawk, as in Cayuga,constituentsare ordered accordingto their
relative importanceto the discourse.Ordering principlesare consistently
intact in both child Mohawk and Oklahoma Cayuga.As soon as Mohawk
children use sentencesof more than one \i,ord, they order the words
appropriately. Similarly, Oklahoma Cayugaspeakershave not lost their
pragmaticallyconditionedorder.
As Annette Schmidt (1985c) has pointed out, children acquiring a
languageand adultslosingone do differ in a fundamentalway. The language
of you*n-u
childrenis constrainednot only by structuralparameters,but also
by their cognitivedevelopment.Speakersof recedinglanguagesundergono
parallel shrinking of cognitive capacities:they simply use a different
languagefor their purposes.This differenceis reflectedin the two Iroquoian
languages. Children learning Mohawk develop syntactic complexity
relativelyslowly,usingfew clausesper utterancefor a considerableperiod as
they acquiremorphology.OklahomaCayugaspeakersapparentlycontinue
to use sentencesof approximately normal complexity, even after their
commandof productivemorphologyhasbegunto weaken.
The morphologyof the Mohawk childrenand the Oklahomaadultsshow
striking parallels. Both the children and the adults tend to avoid long
256
Marianne Mithun
combinationsof morphemes,even in caseswhere they control each affix
individually. They substituteseparateparticlesfor crucialmorphemes,and
simplydo not mentionlessimportant ones.The sameprinciplescharacterize
the'use of incorporation. Both the children and adults use verbs with
incorporatednouns,but they tend to useonly thosecombinationsthat they
would have heard often as lexical items and learned and rememberedas
units. There seemsto be relatively little creativeuseof the morphologyin
the strictestsensefor word formation, nor is there manipulationof alternative morphologicalstructuresfor stylisticpurposes'
Unforiunately, Mohawk does not share some of the most intriguing
phonologicalcharacteristicsof Cayuga,in particular, th€ complex stress
issignmentand metathesispatterns.Child Mohawk doesshareoneinteresting lhonological featurewith OlilahomaCayuga.For the first few yearsthat
ch]ldrenlearn Mohawk, there are stronglimitationson how many syllables
syllable
they utter at once. Childrenbeginby pronouncingonly.thestres.sed
This
syllable'
of each word, usually the penultimate or antepenultimate
communicasome
so
that
coincidessuffrcientlyoften with a part ofthe stem
tion is possible.As they progress,they add post-tonicsllables until their
renditionsof words consistof the stressedsyllableplus all following ones'
Once this is mastered, they begin to move leftward, so that utterances
consistof the final three syllablesof words, then the final four syllables,etc'
It is at about this point that their words begin to include pronominal prefixes
and they discoverrnorphologicalstructure. Limitations on the number of
syllablei pronounced per word still persist for a certain .length of time,
utthounh u few well-known words are pronouncedin their entirety' This
tenden"cyto omit syllablesfrom the beginningsof words is reminiscent of the
truncation of words in OklahomaCayugadescribedabove'
7.
Conclusion
It is not clear to what extent circumstanceshave interfered with the
Oklahoma speakers'initial acquisitionof Cayuga' It may be that those
interviewed iearned the languagerelatively well aschildren' Their language
doesnow differ in subtlewiys from that spokenin Ontario, particularlyin
the areasof morphologyand phonology.
Many differences between Ontario and Oklahoma Cayuga are probably
due to the sortsof natural processesof changethat occur in all languages'
The raisingof *o to [u], the remodelingof the root for'leg' by.analogyto
'foof , andlhe regularizationof stressassignmentand metathesiscontexts,
are probablyin this category.It is interestingthat theselastinnovationshave
begun with relatively common, establishedwords This suggeststhat the
striss and metathesis pattems are not necessarily mere diachronic relics
oassedon with lexical items, but, rather, that they have had a certain
iynchronic reality, at leastat somepoint.
The incipitnt obsolucence of polysynthesi.s:Cqyuga
257
Certain other differences distinguishingOklahoma Cayuga could be
interpretedasreductions,suchasthe shrinkingof the lexicalinventory and
the truncation of words. Some of the creative devicesformerly used to
expandthe systemmay be lessexploited by thesespeakers.The elaborate
for the creationofnew lexicalitemsare undoubtword-formationprocesses
now.
The
edly usedlessoften
stylisticchoicesafforded speakersby sucha
productive morphology, with its rich inventory of affixesas well as noun
incorporation,are probably alsolessexploitedby Oklahomaspeakersthan
they oncewere.
In the end, however,what is most striking about the Oklahomaspeakers
is not the rninor ways in which they differ from Ontario speakers;it is,
instead,their nearly completeretention of an amazinglycomplexmorphologicaland phonologicalsystem,under suchlimited opportunitiesto useit.