Seneca language

Iroquoian language, spoken in western New York at the time of European contact

The Seneca Language is the language spoken by the Seneca people. It is part of the Iroquoian language family. It is closely related to the Cayuga language. It is spoken on reservations in Western New York. The language has 13 letters. The language is rich in verbs. One can add to verb bases. There are no strict word order rules. The Seneca Faithkeepers School was founded in 1998 to teach young children the language. The language is endangered, but it is being taught and studied.[2][3]

Seneca
Onödowáʼga꞉ʼ
Native toUnited States, Canada
RegionWestern New York and the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario
EthnicitySeneca
Native speakers
100 (2007)[1]
Iroquoian
  • Northern
    • Lake Iroquoian
      • Five Nations
        • Seneca–Cayuga
          • Seneca
Language codes
ISO 639-3see
Glottologsene1264
ELPSeneca
Map of the New York tribes before European arrival, showing the pre-contact distribution of Seneca in western New York
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
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References

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  1. Seneca at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Chafe, Wallace L. 2007. Handbook of the Seneca Language. Albany, New York: Global Language Press.
  3. Chafe, Wallace L. 1997, "Sketch of Seneca, an Iroquoian Language", in Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17: Languages, pp. 551–579, Goddard, Ives and Sturtevant, William C. (Editors), Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 0-16-048774-9.