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Mohawk language

Mohawk (/ˈmhɔːk/;[3] Kanienʼkéha, "[language] of the Flint Place") is an Iroquoian language currently spoken by around 3,500 people of the Mohawk nation, located primarily in current or former Haudenosaunee territories, predominately Canada (southern Ontario and Quebec), and to a lesser extent in the United States (western and northern New York). The word "Mohawk" is an exonym. In the Mohawk language, the people say that they are from Kanien:ke ('Mohawk Country' or "Flint Stone Place") and that they are Kanienʼkehá꞉ka "People of the Flint Stone Place" or "People of the Flint Nation".[4]

This article is about the language spoken by the Mohawk people. For other uses, see Mohawk.

Mohawk

Ontario, Quebec and northern New York

3,875 (2011–2016)[1][2]

Iroquoian
  • Northern
    • Lake Iroquoian
      • Five Nations

The Mohawks were extremely wealthy traders, as other nations in their confederacy needed their flint for tool-making. Their Algonquian-speaking neighbors (and competitors), the People of Muh-heck Heek Ing ("food-area place"), a people called by the Dutch "Mohicans" or "Mahicans", called the People of Ka-nee-en Ka "Maw Unk Lin" or Bear People. The Dutch heard and wrote that as "Mohawks" and so the People of Kan-ee-en Ka are often referred to as Mohawks. The Dutch also referred to the Mohawk as Egils or Maquas. The French adapted those terms as Aigniers or Maquis, or called them by the generic Iroquois.

History[edit]

The Mohawks were the largest and most powerful of the original Five Nations, controlling a vast area of land on the eastern frontier of the Iroquois Confederacy. The North Country and Adirondack region of present-day Upstate New York would have constituted the greater part of the Mohawk-speaking area lasting until the end of the 18th century.

High tone usually appears in closed syllables containing a short vowel, or before /h/. It is written with an acute accent: káhi /ˈkáhi/ 'fruit', oháha /oˈháha/ 'road'.

Rising tone generally occurs in open syllables. It is written with a combination acute accent and colon: kaná꞉ta 'town', rón꞉kwe 'man'. Notice that when it is one of the nasal vowels which is long, the colon appears after the ⟨n⟩.

Long-falling tone is the result of the word stress falling on a vowel which comes before a /ʔ/ or /h/ + a consonant (there may be, of course, exceptions to this and other rules). The underlying /ʔ/ or /h/ reappears when stress is placed elsewhere. It is written with a grave accent and colon: onekwèn꞉ta /oneˈkwʌ̃̂ːta/ 'stomach'.

The glottal stop /ʔ/ is written with an apostrophe ⟨ʼ⟩, but is often omitted at the end of words, especially in Eastern dialect where it is typically not pronounced.

/dʒ/

/j/

The nasalized vowel /ʌ̃/ is written as ⟨en⟩, as in énska [ˈʌ̃́nska] "one".

The nasalized vowel /ũ/ is written ⟨on⟩, as in shaʼté꞉kon [shaʔˈdɛ̌ːɡũ] "eight".

In cases where the vowel /e/ or /o/ is followed by an /n/ in the same syllable, the /n/ is written with an under-macron diacritic: keṉhó꞉tons "I am closing a door". If the ⟨ṉ⟩ did not have the diacritic, the sequence ⟨en⟩ would be pronounced [ʌ̃]. Another convention is to write the nasal vowel with an , e.g. ⟨ę⟩.[20]

ogonek

Mohawk orthography uses the following letters: ⟨a e h i k n o r s t w y⟩ along with ⟨’⟩ and ⟨꞉⟩. The orthography was standardized in 1993.[19] The standard allows for some variation of how the language is represented, and the clusters /ts(i)/, /tj/, and /ky/ are written as pronounced in each community. The orthography matches the phonological analysis as above except:


The low-macron accent is not a part of standard orthography and is not used in the Central or Eastern dialects. In standard orthography, ⟨h⟩ is written before ⟨n⟩ to create the [en] or [on]: kehnhó꞉tons 'I am closing it'.

Talk Mohawk, an and Android app, includes words, phrases, and the Thanksgiving Address from Monica Peters

iPhone app

Rosetta Stone levels 1 and 2 (CD-ROM) edited by Frank and Carolee Jacobs and produced by the (secondary/high school level)

Kanienʼkehá꞉ka Onkwawén꞉na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center at Kahnawà꞉ke

A collection of 33 vocabulary lessons provided by the Mohawk Language Custodian Association.

Lesson Collection at KanehsatakeVoices.com

David Kanatawakhon Maracle, Kanyenʼkeha Tewatati (Let's Speak Mohawk),  0-88432-723-X (book and 3 companion tapes are available from Audio Forum) (high school/college level)

ISBN

Nancy Bonvillain, A Grammar of Akwesasne Mohawk (professional level)

Nancy Bonvillain and Beatrice Francis, Mohawk–English, English–Mohawk Dictionary, 1971, University of the State of New York in Albany (word lists, by category)

Chris W. Harvey, Sathahitáhkhe' Kanienʼkéha (Introductory Level Mohawk Language Textbook, Eastern Dialect),  0-9683814-2-1 (high school/college level)

ISBN

Josephine S. Horne, (book and 5 companion CDs are available from Kahnawà꞉ke Cultural Center) (secondary/high school level)

Kanienʼkéha Iakorihonnién꞉nis

Nora Deering & Helga Harries Delisle, (book and 6 companion tapes are available from Kahnawà꞉ke Cultural Center) (high school/college level)

Mohawk: A Teaching Grammar

On October 8, 2013 , Member of Parliament for Prince Edward-Hastings announced, on behalf of Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, support for the Tsi Kionhnheht Ne Onkwawenna Language Circle (TKNOLC) to develop Mohawk language-learning tools.

Daryl Kramp

Tom Porter and Dorothy Lazore, Nobody Can Do It Better Than Wariso꞉se: Language Guide and Dictionary

a free online learning tool, includes videos, text entries, pictures, games, an iPhone app and Android app to facilitate language learning, teaching and revitalization.[4]

FirstVoices

Speak Mohawk, an app that can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play, facilitates language by teaching words and phrases

Iroquoian languages

Oneida language

Seneca language

Mohawk Dutch

Hoover, Michael L.; The Kanien'kehaka Raotitiohkwa Cultural Center (1992). (PDF). Canadian Journal of Native Studies. 12 (2): 269–287. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-01-08.

"The revival of the Mohawk language in Kahnawake"

McAlpine, Lynn; Eriks-Brophy, Alice; Crago, Martha (1996). "Teaching Beliefs in Mohawk Classrooms: Issues of Language and Culture". Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 27 (3): 390–413. :10.1525/aeq.1996.27.3.04x0355q. JSTOR 3195813.

doi

Julian, Charles (2011). (PhD dissertation). Winnipeg: University of Manitoba. Archived from the original on 2023-07-08.

A history of the Iroquoian languages

Maracle, Bonnie Jane (Iehnhotonkwas) (Fall 2002). (PDF). McGill Journal of Education. 37 (3): 387. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-05-06.

"Adult Mohawk language immersion programming"

Deering, Nora; Harries-Delisle, Helga (1976). Mohawk. A Teaching Grammar. Preliminary Version. ED136613.

Michelson, Gunther (1973). A thousand words of Mohawk. Mercury Series. University of Ottawa Press.  j.ctv16xzk.

JSTOR

Media related to Mohawk language at Wikimedia Commons

Mohawk language at Wikibooks

for developers of software, websites, mobile apps, video games (ar, vr and mixed reality).

Mohawk Language API

The Endangered Languages Project

Mohawk Language Profile

"Mohawk Dictionary" Endangered Language Initiative.

kanienkeha.net

Bilingual Mohawk course in English and French

Kanehsatake Voices, online lessons

Mohawk language mobile apps

TalkMohawk.com

Websters Online Dictionary

Mohawk - English Dictionary

Omniglot

Mohawk language, alphabet and pronunciation

Conseil Supérieur de la Langue Française, Quebec (in French)

Marianne Mithun, "A grammar sketch of Mohawk"