Onondaga language
| Onondaga | |
|---|---|
| Onǫda’géga’, Onoñda’gega’ | |
| Native to | Canada, United States |
| Region | Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, and central New York |
Native speakers | 65-115 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | iro |
| ISO 639-3 | ono |
| ELP | Onondaga |
Onondaga Nation Language (Onöñda’gega’ (IPA /onũtaʔkekaʔ/), "People of the Hills") is the language of the Onondaga First Nation, one of the original five constituent tribes of the League of the Iroquois (Hodenosaunee).
This language is spoken in the United States and Canada, primarily on the reservation in central New York state, and near Brantford, Ontario.
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Phonology
This table shows the (consonant) phonemes that are found in Onondaga.
| Alveolar | Postalveolar / Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | t | k | ʔ | |
| Affricate | dʒ | |||
| Fricatives | s | h | ||
| Resonants | n | y | w |
The two plosives, /t/, /k/ are allophonically voiced to [d] and [ɡ] before vowels and resonants and are spelled <d> and <g> in this case. There is considerable palatalization and affrication in the language.
Onondaga has five oral vowels, /i e o æ a/ (/æ/ is sometimes represented with <ä>), and two nasal vowels, /ẽ/ and /ũ/. The nasal vowels, following the Iroquoianist tradition, are spelled with ogoneks in the scholarly literature and in Ontario (<ę> and <ǫ> or <ų>). In New York, they are represented with a following <ñ> (<eñ> and <oñ>). 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 colon, <:> or raised dot <·>.
Morphology
Languages are often classified in terms of the complexity of their morphology, that aspect of language that expresses itself in terms of the shapes of words and the meaningful elements morphemes of which words are composed. Polysynthetic languages are ones whose words are routinely composed of numerous morphemes. In contrast, languages whose words are usually monomorphemic, composed of a single morpheme, are called isolating languages. Often languages are mixed, in that some of their word classes are more polysynthetic than others. This is how it is with Onondaga, which has three morphological word classes: Onondaga's verbal structures are highly polysynthetic; nouns are less so; particles are by definition monomorphemic. An example of a verb consisting of a fair number of morphemes is:
- waʔdyųdetgwęʔdaʔné·ga·ʔ
- waʔ-d-yų-adet-gwęʔd-ʔnega·-aʔ
- factual.mode-change.of.state-she-self-belly-burst-at.one.point.in.time
- "she blabbed, she revealed a secret" [literally, 'she burst her belly']
The constituent morphemes are separated by hyphens in the second line of the example. Each one is translated, as closely as possible, in the third line. It is important to understand that none of the component morphemes is a separate word, since they cannot be uttered, or understood, in isolation.
A second way in which linguists classify the morphology of languages is in terms of how the morphemes of a word combine. This distinction is between languages that are fusional and languages that are agglutinative. Fusion occurs in two ways: a single morpheme may have two or more functions (or meanings) in a given word, or contiguous morphemes may affect each other's shape in such a way that it is difficult to segment the word into morphemes. A language is agglutinative if the morphemes composing a word each carries its own meaning and can be easily segmented from its neighbor. Onondaga is fusional (in the second sense of that term). Fusion is especially prevalent at the boundary between prefixes and the stem. Here certain phonological processes take place which change the shapes of one or both contiguous morphemes. For example:
- gędé·ih
- ga-idę·-ih
- neuter.agent.prefix-help.out-stative.aspect
- "it is helping."
Languages are also classified in terms of the preeminent morphological processes they manifest. In Onondaga the two major morphological processes are prefixing, and suffixing. Prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes, that is, they are morphemes that cannot occur in isolation. Onondaga verbs must, minimally, begin in a pronominal prefix and inflect for aspect. For example:
- hayę́thwas
- ha-yę́thw-as
- third.person.singular.masculine.agent-plant-habitual.aspect
- "he plants"
Nouns must, minimally, begin in a nominal prefix and end in a noun suffix. For example:
- ganáʔjyaʔ
- ga-naʔjy-aʔ
- neuter.agent-pail-noun.suffix
- "pail"
The major functions of prefixes in Onondaga are to specify modality (modal prepronominal prefixes); to add adverbial meanings to verb forms (non-modal prepronominal prefixes); to specify pronominal reference (agent, patient, or transitive i.e., agent-patient, pronominal prefixes); to derive middle voice (semireflexive affix); and to indicate reflexive or reciprocal action (reflexive affix). The major functions of suffixes in verbs are to specify aspect (aspect and extended aspect suffixes) and to affect a verb's valence (derivational suffixes). In nouns prefixes mark class membership and possession; suffixes mark class membership.
Other, less frequent, morphological processes in Onondaga are cliticization and suppletion.
Noun Incorporation
Noun incorporation is a process of compounding in which two stems, a noun and a verb stem, are combined into a new stem that is inflected with verbal morphology and that functions as a verb. Nouns occupying the semantic roles, or thematic relations, of patient, theme, factitive theme, location, goal, path, or instrument are eligible for incorporation. Of these, it is nouns designating semantic patients and themes that are most frequently incorporated. Semantic agents, causers, and beneficiaries are not eligible for incorporation.
The first example shows that the nominal root -nęh- "corn" has been incorporated into the verbal complex forming a single word. The second example shows the noun /onęhaʔ/ ('corn') as a separate word and preceded by the particle neʔ, a particle which marks a following word or phrase as a nominal.
- waʔhanęhayę́thwaʔ
- waʔ-ha-nęh-yęthw-aʔ
- factual.mode-he-corn-plant-punctual.aspect
- 'he planted corn' [literally, 'he corn-planted'].
- waʔhayę́thwaʔ neʔ onę́haʔ
- waʔ-ha-yęthw-aʔ neʔ o-nęh-aʔ
- factual.mode-he-plant-punctual.aspect nominal.particle it-corn-noun.suffix
- 'he planted (the) corn'
Noun incorporation is a highly productive process in Onondaga. However, its productivity is an attribute of individual nouns and verbs. Every noun and every verb is lexically marked in terms of its incorporation characteristics. Some nouns incorporate frequently, that is, they can combine with many different verbs, others almost never. Among the verbs that can incorporate—and some do not incorporate at all—there is a continuum of productivity. At their most productive, verbs can incorporate one of any number of nouns, in fact, some verbs can only occur together with an incorporated noun. Verbs at their most unproductive, can incorporate only a single noun. Between these extremes are additional types: verbs that can incorporate only a restricted set of nouns; verb and noun combinations that are highly idiomatic—these often denote conventionalized activities (e.g., English 'he information-gathered)—so that separating the noun, though interpretable, is perceived as inappropriate.
The use of noun incorporation is governed by various discourse factors. It is often used as a way of backgrounding information.
Word Order
Word order is typically free in Onondaga. It depends on various discourse factors.
Question Formation
Wh-questions begin with the interrogative word:
- gaę nų́ tganųhsá·yęʔ
- gaę nų́ t-ga-nųhs-yę-ʔ
- where place here-it-house-be.lying-stative.aspet
- "Where is the house?"
- wadę́ʔ nihsa·dyé·haʔ
- wadę́ʔ ni-hs-adyé·-haʔ
- what thus-you-do-habitual.aspect
- "What are you doing?"
Yes-no questions are formed by appending the question-particle to the questioned item:
- Sędáʔwih khę́h.
- sa-idáʔw-ih khę́h.
- you-be.asleep-stative.aspect question.particle
- "Are you asleep?"
See also
References
Chafe, Wallace L. 1970. A Semantically Based Sketch of Onondaga. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics. Memoir 25 of the International Journal of American Linguistics.
Woodbury, Hanni. 2002. Onondaga-English/English-Onondaga Dictionary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.