A Grammar of the Seneca LanguageThe Seneca language belongs to the Northern Iroquoian branch of the Iroquoian language family, where its closest relatives are Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. Seneca holds special typological interest because of its high degree of polysynthesis and fusion. It is historically important because of its central role in the Longhouse religion and its place in the pioneering linguistic work of the 19th century missionary Asher Wright. This grammatical description, which includes four extended texts in several genres, is the culminatin of Chafe’s long term study of the language over half a century. |
Contents
Phonetics and Phonology | 7 |
Verb Morphology Part 1 The Minimal Verb | 23 |
The Prepronominal Prefixes | 36 |
Expanded Verb Bases | 56 |
Extended Aspect Suffixes | 78 |
Noun Morphology | 86 |
Clitics | 94 |
Kinship Terms | 100 |
Syntax Part 2 Amplifying a spatial temporal or modal meaning | 127 |
Syntax Part 3 Amplifying the meaning of an entire verb | 141 |
Syntax Part 4 Word order | 147 |
Questions | 153 |
Imperatives | 159 |
Interjections | 165 |
The Senecas and the Gahkwas | 199 |
| 231 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
A:yë accent affricates Allegany Reservation aspect suffix benefactive Cattaraugus Reservation causative ht clitic combination consonant Da:h o:nëh derivational suffix di'gwah duplicative prefix emphasis English event factual prefix feminine feminine-zoic future prefix ga:nyo Gahkwas gë:s glottal stop guess gwa:h gye:h gyö'öh habitual and stative habitual aspect happened hearsay hi:gë:h hypothetical prefix inchoative jë:gwah laryngeal obstruent literally meaning middle voice prefix modal prefix nä:h na'ot namely the Gahkwas nasalized nasalized vowels në:gë:h né:wa ne'hoh negative prefix negë neh Gá:hgwa'gé:onö neuter niyo:we nö:h nö:ye Northern Iroquoian languages noun root occurs with causative particle patient prefix person singular agent plant preceding prepronominal prefixes pronominal prefix Proto-Northern-Iroquoian punctual aspect reconstructed forms referent reflexive prefix repeatedly repetitive root or base second person Seneca language sequence shö:h singular patient someone speaker things translated translocative trochee verb base verb root verb stem vowel vowel length waih word wrestle