This glossary lists terms which are extensively used in this site.
These terms may be cultural or historical
(such as
"the Iroquois League"),
or language related
(such as
"Pronomial Prefix",
"Stative",
or
"Aspect")
-
Agent
-
[type-specifier for a pronomial-prefix]
One of the three types of the pronomial prefixes
(the other two are Patient and Interactive).
Agent pronomial-prefix denote that the
subject of the pronoun is doing the action
(e.g. "he sees", "she draws", "they chop wood", etc.)
More:
- Aspect (of a verb)
-
In Mingo/Seneca
(and the other Iroquoian languages),
a Verb-Stem
may appears in several different forms,
each one
denoting a different aspect of meaning.
For example the "Punctual" aspect
denotes a single-occurrence
of the action described in the verb
(e.g. "I wrote (something)");
the "Habitual" aspect denotes
that the action is spread out
over a strech of time
(either recurring repeatedly,
such as "I used to write (once a day)",
or prolonged over a period of time,
such as "I used to know <something>").
More:
- Base (of a verb)
-
The verb base is the part of the verb
which contains all the elements defining the action described.
This includes a verb-root,
with the possible additions of
a verb-prefix,
a base-ending,
and
perhaps also an incorporated noun.
It does not include
the pronomial prefix,
which defines the actor (who is doing the action),
and does not include the aspect endings,
which define the aspect of the action.
Once you add one of the apsect-endings, you get a
verb-stem
which denotes the meaning of the verb
in the particular aspect.
That stem (i.e. the base with an aspect),
can the be conjugated for different "persons"
by adding the appropriate pronomial-prefix
For example,
the Mingo verb-base
«-ateyëst-»
means "to read" or "to learn" (also "get educated", "go to school").
It is composed of the following parts:
«-ate-»
("middle" verb-prefix, here meaning "self"),
«-yë-»
(the verb-root meaning "to know"),
and
«-st-»
(base-suffix, denoting causing, i.e. to cause something to be).
Literally, this gives us "to cause oneself to know".
To this base we can then add
aspect endings, to make a specific stem,
such as
the Punctual stem
«-ateyës»
(to learn at some specific point in time),
the Habitual stem
«-ateyëstha'»
(to usually learn, to learn over a period of time),
or the Stative stem
«-ateyëstö»
(to have learned).
- Class (of a stem)
-
The Class of a stem (or "stem class") is
the description of the way prefixes
(specifically, pronomial prefixes)
behave when they preceed it
(i.e. the form they take).
The stem-classes are:
«A»,
«Æ»,
«E»,
«Ë»,
«I»,
«O/U»
(this is the same class, depending if we are referring
to Seneca, using «O»,
or West-Virginian Mingo, using «U»),
«Ö»
«C»
«X»
«L»
and
«LX»
.
Generally, what influences the behavior of the prefixes
is the vowel or consonant (or group of consonants)
that begins the stem:
-
Vowel classes, the classes of stems that begin with a vowel, are named after the vowel
(
«A»,
«Æ»,
«E»,
«Ë»,
«I»,
«O/U», and
«Ö»).
-
"C" is the class of stems that begin with a single consonant.
-
"X" is the class of stems that begin with a more than one consonant.
This causes prefixes that end with a consonant to get an additional auxiliary vowel
(e.g. the «k-», meaning "I", becomes «ke-»)
-
"L" is the class of stems cause the vowel of the prefix to become long,
e.g. «ha-», meaning "he", becomes «há-»,
(it also causes the prefix «k-», meaning "I", to become «kh-»),
and begin with no more than a single consonant (i.e. either a vowel or one consonant.
-
"LX" is the class of stems that both start cause the vowel of the prefix
to become long (like the "L" class) and begin with more than one consonant
(like the "X" class).
Of course, there are exceptions, too.
For example, the stems starting with the root
«-yë-»
(meaning "knowledge", or "to know")
belong to the
«X»
stem class, even though these stems begin with only one consonant.
- Factual (verb mode)
-
One of the possible modes that a verb can have
(the other two are
"Future"
and
"Optative").
The factual mode denotes that the
verb actually
happened (or is happening).
It is commonly used as a past-tense
(sometimes a "sure" present tense).
- Future (verb mode)
-
-
One of the possible modes that a verb can have
(the other two are
"Factual"
and
"Optative").
The future mode denotes that the
verb will probably happen.
It is commonly used as a future-tense.
- Habitual or "Habitual Simple" (verb aspect)
-
One of the aspects a verb can have.
The habitual aspect denotes that the action of the verb
is done over a period of time
(e.g. "I go to school", "I like strawberries"),
rather than at a specific point in time.
The Habitual aspect is also termed "Habitual Simple",
to differentiate it from the other two habitual aspects
"Habitual Past"
and
"Habitual Continuative".
A verb in the Habitual (Simple) aspect
cannot have a verb mode.
- Habitual Past (verb aspect)
-
One of the aspects a verb can have.
The habitual past aspect denotes that the action of the verb
was done in the past
over a period of time
(e.g. "I used to go to school", "I used to like strawberries"),
rather than at a specific point in time.
A verb in the Habitual-Past aspect
cannot have a verb mode.
- Habitual Continuative (verb aspect)
-
One of the aspects a verb can have.
The habitual continuative aspect
denotes that the action of the verb
is streched
over a period of time
(e.g. "I keep trying").
A verb in the Habitual-Continuative aspect may optionally
have a verb mode with it.
- Incorporated Noun (in a verb)
-
A North-Iroquois verb may have a noun incorporated into the
verb-base.
The noun denotes the "general" object of the verb.
A good example English would be "whale-hunting":
it means hunting whales in general,
not any specific whale.
Example:
The verb base
«te-...-wënöteny-»,
"to translate",
contains the noun
«-wën-»,
"word", as an incorporated noun.
This verb literally means "to change words (one for another)".
-
te-...-wënöteny-
--
To translate something
(literally: "to change one word for another").
-
te-
:
dual (verb prefix); in this case: "one for another"
-...-
:
this is where the pronomial-prefix is placed
-wën-
:
sound, word
-
This is an incorporated noun; it serves as the object of the verb
(i.e. to change words)
-ö-
: linking-vowel
-teny-
:
to change
- Interactive
-
[type-specifier for a pronomial-prefix]
One of the three types of the pronomial prefixes
(the other two are Agent and Patient).
Interactive pronomial-prefixes denote
that the verb describes an
interaction between two parties
(e.g. in the word
«u'shakúkë'»,
"he saw her",
the interactive pronomial-prefix
«shaku-»
denotes "he-to-her")
More:
- Iroquois League (history)
-
The Iroquois League was a confederacy of several tribes or nations,
which was located over what is now New York state.
The confederacy originally consisted of
the following five tribes or nations:
Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.
At a later point the Tuskarora joined the confederacy,
thus forming the "League of Six Nations".
The languages of all these nations are related,
and they belong to the Iroquois language family
(and termed "Iroquoian languages").
The Iroquois language family includes also
other languages,
among them Wyandot (Huron), Susquehannoc, and Cherokee.
It is not clear where the word "Iroquois" came from.
One speculation (from The Merriam-Webster Dictionary),
states that it is a (derogatory) Algonquin word,
«irinakhoiw»,
meaning "real adders" (snakes);
according to this, it should be pronounced "i-ro-kwo-i".
Another speculation I came accross is that
it is a French spelling of some foreign word
(I don't remember which, right now);
in that case it should be pronouced "i-ro-kwa"
(if you happen to know something about this,
please use the Feedback section
to notify me).
- Mode (of a verb)
-
The mode of a verb determines how
definitely the action (of the verb) is said to happen.
The three modes are:
-
"Factual",
meaning that the action definitely happened
-
"Future",
meaning that the action probably happened
(or, rather, probably will happen)
-
"Optative",
meaning that the action might happen, but may not
Not all verb-aspects
can have a mode.
The ones that may have a mode are
the Punctual aspect (mandatory),
and
the Habitual-Continuative aspect (optional)
-
«
ne
»
(particle)
-
Denotes grammatical subordination.
See
The Particle
«
ne
»
- Noun
-
A noun means a unit of the language (e.g. a word)
which denotes the "name of something",
such as
concrete objects ("a dog", "dogs"),
abstract objects (e.g. "humanitarianism"),
or pronouns,
i.e. references to the participants in an action (e.g. "we", "us").
- Optative (verb mode)
-
One of the possible modes that a verb can have
(the other two are
"Factual"
and
"Future").
The optative mode denotes that the
action of the verb may happen but may not happen.
- Particle
-
A particle (in the context of North-Iroquois languages)
means a complete word
which cannot be broken down to any components
(i.e. contains no roots, prefixes, or suffixes).
- Patient
-
[type-specifier of a pronomial-prefix]
One of the three types of pronomial prefixes
(the other two are Agent and Interactive).
Patient pronomial-prefixes denote a passive meaning,
i.e. that the subject of
the pronoun is being the object of the verb
(such as "he is seen", "it is written", "they are sought", etc.)
In addition to the "passive" sense, Patient prefixes are
typically required by the Stative aspect
(even, or especially, when
the meaning is not passive).
More:
- Prefix
-
A prefix means a stretch of sounds
which is attached to the beginning of
something
(the beginning of a word, the beginning of a verb-root, etc.)
-
Pronomial Prefix (of a verb)
-
A pronoun (e.g. in European languages)
is a word which comes instead of a person or an object,
such as "he", "they", "it", etc.
In Northern Iroquoian languages, these pronouns
are expressed as
prefixes
attached to the verb.
For example, the pronoun "she" is expressed in Mingo/Seneca
as the prefix
«ye-»
so, for example, "she speaks" is achieved by attacing
the prefix
«ye-»
to the verb-base
«-tháha'»
(to speak),
yielding
«yetháha'»;
More:
- Pronoun: Stand-alone
-
In contranst to the Pronomial Prefixes
used in the verb,
Mingo/Seneca contains a couple of stand-alone pronouns:
-
«í'»
-- for all types of first person:
"I" (singular), "we-two" (dual), and "we-all" (plural).
-
«ís»
-- for all types of second person:
"you" (singular), "you-two" (dual), and "you-all" (plural).
-
I haven't heard of any stand-alone pronoun for third-person.
If you know otherwise, please correct me
(you can use the Feedback section).
The stand-alone pronoun
is almost always preceeded with the particle
«ne».
When this happens, the two words are contracted
yielding
«n-í'»
(for first person)
or
«n-ís»
(for second person).
Since the verb must always contain a pronomial-prefix,
using a stand-alone pronoun is optional.
It is used to add a mild emphasis to the pronoun.
For example,
«Johnny n-í' kyásö.
Të'ë na'u't syásö n-ís ?»,
"I am called Johnny; what are you called ?")
Both stand-alone pronouns have an extra-emphasis form.
It is obtained by
making sure the pronoun ends with an
«-'a»,
yielding
«í'a»
(or
«n-í'a»)
for first person,
and
«ís'a»
(or
«n-ís'a»)
for second person.
Example:
«u'khyatöö' n-í'a ne káyatöshæ'.»,
"I read the book".
- Subordination
-
Grammatical subordination is the mechanism
used in Mingo/Seneca
to determine what word in the sentence (or phrase)
denotes the action,
and what words denote the participants in the action.
Grammatical subordination is
denoted using the
particle
«ne»
More:
- Stative (verb aspect)
-
One of the aspects a verb can have.
The stative aspect
denotes (usually) one of two meanings:
-
The action has completed or accomplished
(e.g. "to have read", "to have done")
-
A state of being
(e.g. "to be located someplace")
In addition, the stative aspect is also used to create a passive-state meaning,
such as to be written.
The stative typically requires a
Patient
pronomial prefix.
For creating the passive meaning,
the stative will take an
Agent
pronomial prefix.
For example,
«
akhyátö'
»
(with the patient prefix «ak(h)-»)
means "I have written",
while
«
khyatö'
»
(with the agent prefix «k(h)-»)
means "I am written" (or "I have been written")
A verb in the Stative aspect
cannot have a verb mode.
- Stative-Past (verb aspect)
-
One of the aspects a verb can have.
A verb in the Stative-Past aspect has the same meaning
as would the the equivalent Stative,
but in the past.
For example,
the Stative stem
«
akhyátö'
»
means "I have written",
but
the Stative-Past
«
akhyatônö'
»
means "I had written".
- Stem (of a verb)
-
The verb stem is the part of the verb
that includes
the verb-base
and the aspect ending.
So, for example,
the verb-base
«-yatö-»,
meaning "to write",
may be used as the basis for
several berb-stems:
the Punctual stem:
«-yatô'»
(to write at some specific time),
the Habitual stem:
«-yatöö'»
(to write over a period of time),
the Habitual Past stem:
«-yatöök»
(to write in the past over a period of time, e.g. "I used to write"),
the Habitual Continuative stem:
«-yatôôk»
(to keep writing over a period of time),
the Stative stem:
«-yatö'»
(to have written),
and
the Stative Past stem:
«-yatônö'»
(to have written in the past, e.g. "I had written").
- Suffix
-
A suffix means a stretch of sounds
which is attached to the end of
something
(the end of a word, the end of a verb-root, etc.)
- Verb
-
A verb is a word which denotes an action happening.
In North-Iroquoian languages,
verbs may be used do denote something
that an English speaker would use a noun for.
For example:
the Mingo/Seneca word for "teacher" is
«hayëstáni»,
which literally means "he teaches".
- Vowel Lengthening
-
In Mingo/Seneca,
when short vowels appear in certain positions in the word,
their pronunciation is prolonged,
and they become long vowels.
The set of rules describing when that happens,
is called "The Vowel Lengthening Rules".
