| Cayuga | |
| Nativename: | Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ |
| Familycolor: | American |
| States: | Canada, United States |
| Region: | Ontario Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation; New York (state): Cattaraugus Reservation |
| Speakers: | <55 in Canada |
| Date: | 2016 census |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Fam1: | Iroquoian |
| Fam2: | Northern |
| Fam3: | Lake Iroquoian |
| Fam4: | Five Nations |
| Iso3: | cay |
| Glotto: | cayu1261 |
| Glottorefname: | Cayuga |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Lang Status 20-CR.svg |
Cayuga ('''Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ'''|link=no) 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 240 Cayuga people, and on the Cattaraugus Reservation, New York, by fewer than 10.
Cayuga is critically endangered, with only 115 people of the Indigenous population reporting Cayuga as their mother tongue in the 2021 Canadian census. The Cayuga people are working to revitalize the language.[2] As an example of such, Six Nations Polytechnic has developed apps on IOS and study programs in Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk and others.
There are at least two distinct dialects of Cayuga. Two are spoken at Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario. Another, called "Seneca-Cayuga", was spoken in Oklahoma until its extinction in the 1980s.
The two dialects of the Cayuga at Six Nations are often associated with the two Cayuga longhouses, Sour Springs or “Upper” Cayuga and “Lower” Cayuga. Differences between these two dialects of southern Ontario are known to include two phonological patterns. In the Lower Cayuga (LC) variety, underlying *tj sequences surface as /ky/, e.g. LC gyę:gwa’ /kjɛ̃ːkwaʔ/ vs (UC) ję:gwa’ /tjɛ̃ːkwaʔ/. Another apparent difference involves the metrical pattern of Laryngeal Spreading. In Lower Cayuga words, odd-numbered vowels preceding /h/ or /ʔ/ are pronounced with the voice quality of the following consonant. That is to say, such vowels are pronounced with whispered vowels when preceding /h/ or creaky voice before /ʔ/. An example of this occurs in the word for ‘nine,’ gyoHdo̜h [kjo̤htõh].
There are two varieties of Cayuga. The Lower Cayuga dialect is spoken by those of the Lower End of the Six Nations and the Upper Cayuga are from the Upper End. The main difference between the two is that the Lower Cayuga use the sound pronounced as /[kj]/ and the Upper use the sound pronounced as /[tj]/. Also, pronunciation differs between individual speakers of Cayuga and their preferences.
There are five oral vowels in Cayuga, as well as four long vowels, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/. Cayuga also has three nasalized vowels, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/. Both pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are rare sounds in Cayuga. The latter is not phonemic, but surfaces due to a phonological pattern of nasalization, where underlying /a/ becomes pronounced as /link/ when following a nasal vowel. Sometimes, the sounds pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are used interchangeably according to the speaker's preference. After long pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, an pronounced as /link/ sound can be heard, especially when before pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/.
Vowels can be devoiced as pronounced as /link/ allophonically, indicated in the orthography used at Six Nations by underlining them.
| Front | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | Long | Nasal | Oral | Long | Nasal | ||
| High | pronounced as /link/ (i) | pronounced as /link/ (i꞉) | |||||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ (e) | pronounced as /link/ (e꞉) | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ (ę ę꞉) | pronounced as /link/ (o) | pronounced as /link/ (o꞉) | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ (ǫ ǫ꞉) | |
| Low | pronounced as /link/ (a) | pronounced as /link/ (a꞉) | pronounced as /link/ (a) | ||||
/ɑ̃/ occurs in only a few words. /ɛ̃/ may be pronounced [ʌ̃], and /õ/ may be [ũ].
Length is important because it alone can distinguish two completely different meanings from one another. For example:
[haʔseʔ] you are going
[haʔseː] you went
Following are some words that demonstrate what some vowels sound like when they occur before [h]. In words like pronounced as /[ehaʔ]/, pronounced as /[ẽhaʔ]/, pronounced as /[ohaʔ]/, and pronounced as /[õha]/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ devoiced as pronounced as /[e̥, ẽ̥]/, sound like a whispered pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ devoiced as pronounced as /[o̥, õ̥]/, sound like a whispered pronounced as /link/. Furthermore, the pronounced as /link/ in pronounced as /[ẽhãʔ]/ and pronounced as /[õhã]/ is nasalized because of pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/. The consonant before the nasalized vowel becomes voiceless. Also, odd-numbered vowels followed by pronounced as /link/ are devoiced, while even-numbered vowels followed by pronounced as /link/ are not.
Like other Iroquoian languages, Cayuga has a very small consonant inventory.
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ (n) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ (d, t) | pronounced as /ink/ (g, k) | pronounced as /ink/ (ˀ) | |||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ (j, ts) | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ (s) | |||||
| Continuant | pronounced as /ink/ (r) | pronounced as /ink/ (y) | pronounced as /ink/ (w) |
Allophonic variations that occur in Cayuga:
Most words have accented vowels, resulting in a higher pitch. Where the stress is placed is dependent on the "position of the word in the phrase." The default location for stress for nouns is on final vowel. "In words that are at the end of a phrase, accent falls on the 2nd last vowel, the 3rd last vowel, or occasionally, on the 4th vowel from the end of the word." For example:
pronounced as /[neʔ kiʔ tsõːh '''akaːˈtʰõːteʔ''']/
'I just heard it'
These sounds are long, especially in an even-numbered position. When nouns and verbs are not at the end of a phrase, accent is placed on the final vowel. For example:
pronounced as /['''akaːtʰõːtéʔ''' tsõːh tʰeʔ niːʔ teʔtéːkẽːʔ]/
'I heard it, I didn't see it'
Cayuga is a polysynthetic language. As with other Iroquoian languages, the verbal template contains an optional prepronominal prefix, a pronominal prefix (indicating agreement), an optional incorporated noun, a verbal root, and an aspectual suffix. The nominal template consists of an agreement prefix (usually neuter for non-possessed nouns), the nominal root, and a suffix.