Onondaga Language - Phonology

Phonology

This table shows the (consonant) phonemes that are found in Onondaga.

The two plosives, /t/, /k/ are allophonically voiced to and before vowels and resonants and are spelled ⟨d⟩ and ⟨g⟩ in this case. There is considerable palatalization and affrication in the language.

Onondaga has five oral vowels, /i e o æ a/ (/æ/ is sometimes represented with ⟨ä⟩), and two nasal vowels, /ẽ/ and /ũ/. The nasal vowels, following the Iroquoianist tradition, are spelled with ogoneks in the scholarly literature and in Ontario (⟨ę⟩ and ⟨ǫ⟩ or ⟨ų⟩). In New York, they are represented with a following ⟨ñ⟩ (⟨eñ⟩ and ⟨oñ⟩). Vowels can be both short and long. When vowel length derives from the now lost consonant *r, it is phonemic. Vowel length is written with a following colon, ⟨:⟩ or raised dot ⟨·⟩.