As of 2020, almost all surviving Iroquoian languages are severely or criticallyendangered, with some languages having only a few elderly speakers remaining. The two languages with the most speakers,Mohawk (Kenien'kéha) in New York and Canada, andCherokee in Oklahoma and North Carolina, are spoken by less than 10% of the populations of their nations.[2][3]
Labeled map showing pre-contact distribution of the Iroquoian languages
Evidence is emerging that what has been called theLaurentian language appears to be more than one dialect or language.[4] Ethnographic and linguistic field work with the Wyandot tribal elders (Barbeau 1960) yielded enough documentation for scholars to characterize and classify the Huron and Petun languages.
The languages of the tribes that constituted the tinyWenrohronon,[a] the powerful Conestoga Confederacy and the confederations of theNeutral Nation and theErie Nation are very poorly documented in print. The Huron (Wyandot people) referred to the Neutral people asAtiwandaronk, meaning 'they who understand the language'. The Wenro and Neutral are historically grouped together, and geographically the Wenro's range on the eastern end of Lake Erie placed them between the larger confederations. To the east of the Wenro, beyond theGenesee Gorge, were the lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. To the southeast, beyond the headwaters of theAllegheny River, lay the Conestoga (Susquehannock).[5] The Conestoga Confederacy and Erie were militarily powerful and respected by neighboring tribes.[5] By 1660 all of these peoples but the Conestoga Confederacy and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy were defeated and scattered, migrating to form new tribes or adopted into others. The Iroquoian peoples had a practice of adopting valiant enemies into the tribe; they also adopted captive women and children to replace members who had died.[5]
The group known as theMeherrin were neighbors to the Tuscarora and the Nottoway (Binford 1967) in the American South. They are believed to have spoken an Iroquoian language but documentation is lacking.
As of 2012, a program in Iroquois linguistics atSyracuse University, theCertificate in Iroquois Linguistics for Language Learners, is designed for students and language teachers working inlanguage revitalization.[6][7]
Dean R. Snow andWilliam A. Starna – archeologists and historians who have conducted ground-breaking archeological research in theMohawk Valley and other Iroquoian sites
^Historical examination of the Jesuits records suggest that, following the Seneca conquest ofOil Spring in 1638, the Wenro may have had no more than three villages sandwiched between Buffalo andRochester (i.e., between theNiagara andGenesee rivers).[5]
Barbeau, C. Marius (1960),Huron-Wyandot Traditional Narratives in Translations and Native Texts, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 47; Anthropological Series 165, [Ottawa]: Canada Dept. of Northern Affairs and National Resources,OCLC1990439.
Binford, Lewis R. (1967), "An Ethnohistory of the Nottoway, Meherrin and Weanock Indians of Southeastern Virginia",Ethnohistory, vol. 14, no. 3/4, Ethnohistory, Vol. 14, No. 3/4, pp. 103–218,doi:10.2307/480737,JSTOR480737.
Chilton, Elizabeth (2004), "Social Complexity in New England: AD 1000–1600", inPauketat, Timothy R.; Loren, Diana Dipaolo (eds.),North American Archaeology, Malden, MA: Blackwell Press, pp. 138–60,OCLC55085697.
Goddard, Ives, ed. (1996),Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 17: Languages, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution,ISBN0-16-048774-9,OCLC43957746.
Lounsbury, Floyd G. (1978), "Iroquoian Languages", in Trigger, Bruce G. (ed.),Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15: Northeast, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 334–43 [unified volume Bibliography, pp. 807–90],OCLC58762737.
Martin, Scott W. J. (July 2008). "Languages Past and Present: Archaeological Approaches to the Appearance of Northern Iroquoian Speakers in the Lower Great Lakes Region of North America".American Antiquity.73 (3). Cambridge University Press:441–463.doi:10.1017/S0002731600046813.JSTOR25470499.S2CID151035122.
Mithun, Marianne (1985), "Untangling the Huron and the Iroquois",International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 51, no. 4, University of Chicago Press, pp. 504–7,doi:10.1086/465950,JSTOR1265321,S2CID143896562.
Mithun, Marianne (1999),The Languages of Native North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN0-521-23228-7,OCLC40467402.
Rudes, Blair A. (1993), "Iroquoian Vowels",Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 16–69.
Snow, Dean R. 1994.The Iroquois. Blackwell Publishers. Peoples of America.ISBN978-1-55786-225-9
Snow, Dean R.; Gehring, Charles T; Starna, William A. 1996.In Mohawk country: early narratives about a native people. Syracuse University Press. An anthology of primary sources from 1634 to 1810.
