Iroquoian languages

Iroquoian languages
Family of about 16 North American Indian languages aboriginally spoken around the eastern Great Lakes and in parts of the Middle Atlantic states and the South.

Aside from the languages of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, all originally spoken in New York, along with Tuscarora, originally spoken in North Carolina) and Cherokee (originally spoken in the southern Appalachians), the Iroquoian languages are extinct, and with the exception of Huron and Wyandot, the extinct languages are poorly documented. Iroquoian languages are remarkable for their grammatical intricacy. Much of a sentence's semantic content is bound around a verbal base, so a single very long word may constitute a fairly complex utterance.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Iroquoian languages — Iroquois Geographic distribution: eastern North America Linguistic classification: Iroquois Subdivisions: Cherokee Northern Iroquois ISO 639 2 and 639 5 …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Canada — Languages of Canada[1] Official language(s) English (58%) and French (22%) Indigenous language(s) Abenaki, A …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of North America — The languages of North America reflect not only that continent s indigenous peoples, but the European colonization as well. The most widely spoken languages in North America (which includes Central America and the Caribbean islands) are English,… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of the United States — Official language(s) none Main language(s) English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo European 3.8%, Asian …   Wikipedia

  • Iroquoian — ☆ Iroquoian [ir΄ə kwoi′ən ] n. [< IROQUOIS + AN: coined (1891) by J.W. Powell] 1. a family of North American Indian languages including Oneida, Mohawk, Huron, Tuscarora, and Cherokee 2. a member of any of the peoples speaking these languages… …   English World dictionary

  • Iroquoian — Ir•o•quoi•an [[t]ˌɪr əˈkwɔɪ ən[/t]] n. 1) peo a family of American Indian languages, including Huron, the languages of the Iroquois Five Nations, and Cherokee, spoken or formerly spoken in the E Great Lakes region and parts of the eastern U.S 2)… …   From formal English to slang

  • Iroquoian — /ir euh kwoy euhn/, n. 1. a family of North American Indian languages that includes Cherokee, Seneca, Mohawk, and Oneida. adj. 2. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Iroquois people. 3. of or belonging to the Iroquoian family of languages …   Universalium

  • Iroquoian language — noun a family of North American Indian languages spoken by the Iroquois • Syn: ↑Iroquoian, ↑Iroquois • Hypernyms: ↑Amerind, ↑Amerindian language, ↑American Indian language, ↑American Indian, ↑Indian …   Useful english dictionary

  • Iroquoian — adj. of the group of American Indian peoples which inhabited North America and Canada; of the family of languages spoken by the Iroquois …   English contemporary dictionary

  • iroquoian — n. family of North American Indian languages (including Mohawk, Cherokee, Seneca and Huron) spoken by the Iroquois American Indian peoples …   English contemporary dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”