Cayuga language

Categories: Indigenous languages of the Americas stubs | Languages of Canada | Iroquoian languages | Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands

Cayuga (In Cayuga Goyogohó:nǫ’) is a Northern Iroquoian language of the Iroquois Proper (a.k.a. "Five Nations Iroquois") subfamily, and is spoken in Six Nations, Ontario by around 100 people.

Cayuga (Goyogohó:nǫ’)
Spoken in:	Canada
Region:	Six Nations Reserve, Ontario
Total speakers:	99 (Mithun 1999)
Ranking:	Not in top 100
Genetic classification:	Iroquoian Northern Iroquoian Proto-Lake Iroquoian Iroquois Proper Seneca-Cayuga Cayuga
Official status
Official language of:	-
Regulated by:	-
Language codes
ISO 639-1	-
ISO 639-2	-
SIL	CAY
See also: Language – List of languages

1 Dialects
2 Sounds
- 2.1 Vowels
- 2.2 Consonants
3 References
4 External links

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Dialects

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.

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Sounds

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Vowels

Cayuga has 12 vowels, six short and six long. [u] can appear as an allophone of /o/.

Vowels can be devoiced allophonically, indicated in the orthography used at Six Nations by underlining them.

	Front		Central	Back
	Oral	Nasal	Central	Oral	Nasal
Close	i i:
Mid	e e:	ę ę:		o o:	ǫ ǫ:
Open			a a:

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Consonants

Cayuga has only ten consonants, with no labials (/w/ is closer to a velar than a labial). In the Six Nations orthography, the stops and affricate, which are allophonically voiced before vowels or approximants, are represented with voiced symbols (‹ d ›, ‹ g ›, ‹ dz ›). [f] occurs as an allophone of /s/ between /h/ and /r/, and this is also indicated in the orthography.