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A World of Variety: Oneida (Iroquoian)
Posted Sun, May 24, 2009 - 8:29 PM
language, nativeamerica
Extent of the Iroquoian language family
Oneida is a member of the once important and extensive Iroquoian language family, originally concentrated in the Northeast U.S. and southeast Canada around the St. Lawrence River. It's related to Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, of the famous Five Nations Confederacy, and is only spoken by a couple hundred people, mostly on the modern reservations in New York, lower Ontario, and eastern Wisconsin.
Oneida is interesting in having a small inventory of phonemes; there are only eleven consonants and six vowels. In comparison, English uses about 24 consonants and ten to fifteen vowels, depending on dialect. Like many other Native American languages, verb forms dominate and entire clauses are produced by a complex system of synthesis and infixation.
The following story was collected in the 1930s, but the audio was recorded in the 1980s by a native speaker on the westernmost Oneida reservation near Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Lalihwʌha·wí·seʔ [not spoken]
Tsiʔ nu tshikaha·wí· inushu tehutlúni tsiʔ latinákleʔ ukwehu·wé·. Kanyó úskah waʔíheyeʔ tsiʔ lotikwʌ́·laleʔ uhka ok náhteʔ wahuwayaʔtala·kó· wahalihwʌ́hawe. Ne wi né kaʔi·kʌ́ lu·kwé tʌhaláhtate kato·kʌ́ naʔteka·lú tʌhohʌ·léhte. Lonanúhte kaʔikʌ́ lʌnukwehu·wé ot ok niyawʌ́u naleʔ lonathu·té· tehohʌlehtáhne uhkaʔ ok tho ni·yót tsiʔ tehohʌlétha. Ne kwi ʌhuwaliʔwanu·tú·seʔ oh náhteʔ lolihwayʌtáti. Ne uni tsiʔ ka·yʌ́· lahaʔti·yó ne tho ni·yót lotlihute lalihwʌha·wí·seʔ tsiʔ latinákleʔ ukwehu·wé.
He Carries the News
Back in the day the Oneidas lived far apart. When someone died, from the remaining someone would be selected to carry the news. This man will run and yell at certain intervals. The Oneidas would know that something happened and they would hear by his yelling how it is when someone yells. They would ask him what news he carries. He'd have a strong voice to have the job of carrying the news where the Oneidas live.
More information, texts, and audio is available at the Oneida Language Tools website at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.