Also Known As: Cayuga
Description:
Cayuga (In Cayuga Gayogohó:nǫ’) is a Northern Iroquoian language of the Iroquois Proper (also known as "Five Nations Iroquois") subfamily, and is spoken on Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, Ontario, by around 100 people.
There were at one time two distinct dialects of Cayuga. One is still spoken in Ontario, the other, called "Seneca-Cayuga," was spoken in Oklahoma until the 1980s.
Cayuga has 12 vowels, six short and six long. [u] appears as an allophone of /o/.
Vowels can be devoiced allophonically, indicated in the orthography used at Six Nations by underlining them.
Cayuga has only ten consonants, with no labials. In the Six Nations orthography, the stops and affricate, which are allophonically voiced before vowels or approximants, are represented with voiced symbols (, , ). [f] occurs as an allophone of /s/ between /h/ and /r/, and this is also indicated in the orthography.
It has been claimed Cayuga contains no noun phrases...... full article at Wikipedia |