In:Language Contact and Change in the Americas: Studies in honor of Marianne Mithun
Edited by Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, Diane M. Hintz and Carmen Dagostino
[Studies in Language Companion Series 173] 2016
► pp. 189–218
Huron/Wendat interactions with the Seneca language
Published online: 19 April 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.173.09luk
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.173.09luk
This paper examines a historical language shift from Wendat, or Huron (Iroquoian), to Seneca (Iroquoian). Speakers of the two related polysynthetic languages were in intense contact with one another during the late 17th century when Wendat refugees settled in Seneca towns. Evidence for this language shift is scattered throughout two manuscript dictionaries dating from the same period. As Wendat speakers shifted to Seneca, various types of contact-induced change occurred, including phonological, lexical, semantic, and grammatical changes. Sources of Wendat and Modern Seneca data provide the basis for comparison to the heavily Wendat-influenced Seneca found in the manuscript Tsonnontuan dictionaries.
Keywords: Huron, Iroquoian, language shift, Seneca, Wendat
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