Learn Oneida

Introduction

NOTE: This page is still under construction!
Shekolih! (Hello!) Welcome to learn-oneida.com, a free website that will help you learn the Oneida language. Oneida is a Haudenosaunee language, which is part of the Iroquian language family. Like most ukwehuwehnéke (native languages), it is an immensely sophisticated language. This website will not dive too deep into the linguistics of this language at this time, but it is worth knowing that words are much longer than in English and comprised of many distinct pieces due to the language's polysynthetic nature. An example is this word:
ʌtsyakwahnaná·takoʔ
Breaking down this word into its pieces results in:
Which gives us the sentence: We will pick potatoes again. So much information packed into a single word! Most words in Oneida have one of two structures as seen in the images below, both of which are from Lounsbury 1953.
The "formula" for a verb in Oneida.The "formula" for a noun in Oneida.
(There are, of course, exceptions to these rules, such as particles, which are discussed in module 1.) While these "formulas" look quite complex, and they can result in lengthy words that contain a lot of information, this website will start you off which much simpler words that convey less information. Examples include "I like you" and "I know", which are kunú·wehseʔ and wakanúhteʔ, respectively.

Orthography

The first thing to learn is Oneida's writing system. There are 6 vowels and 9 consonants:
a e i o u ʌ h k l n s t w y ʔ
ʌ is called the "caret" (pronounced like the word "carrot") or "upside down V". ʔ is called the "glottal stop". Here is how each letter is pronounced on their own:
Consonants followed by other consonants can change the sound, too. For example:
There are many other sounds, all of which you can (and should!) practice using the sound chart. Being familiar with these sounds is the first step to learning Oneida.

Terminology

Before beginning module 1, there are some terms worth clarifying here. Almost all words in Oneida are comprised of three components:
  1. A root word
  2. A pronominal prefix
  3. An aspect suffix
Below, the first two terms will be discussed.

Root Words

Root words are the core part of a larger word that cannot be broken down any further without losing its meaning. This occurs in a very limited way in English: for example, the words "employ" and "employment". One could consider "employ" to be the root word of "employment".
However, in Oneida, root words are not words you can use on their own in conversation or writing. They must have a pronominal prefix and an aspect suffix. As an example, consider these words:
You may have noticed that each of these words has khuni in it. khuni is the root word that means "cook". To reiterate: you can't use this root word on its own! However, to become a proficient speaker, you need to be able to identify root words in conversation and in writing, and also conjugate root words appropriately. Below is another example:
In this case, the root is nuhs which means "house".
Learning the language using root words is known as the "root word method". More information can be found about that here.

Pronominal Prefixes

Pronominal prefixes, often referred to as simply pronominals, are the components of a larger word that convey who is involved. Using the word khuni again as an example:
The only difference between each of these words is what occurs before the root word. The pronominals in these words are ke, se, la, and ye.
Consider another root word, atekhuni, which is very similar to the previous root word.
Even though the root words are very similar, the prefixes differ. This is because these root words begin with different letters, which are called stems. There are seven stems: one for each vowel, and one additional stem that is used for consonants (called the C-stem). Below are examples of each.
Root words apply to both nouns and verbs.

Paradigms

On this website, many root words are given with an accompanying paradigm. This term is used to refer to taking a root word and conjugating it with all of the appropriate pronominals. Different tenses will result in different paradigms.
Consider the root word nuhweʔ which means "to like". In the present tense, one paradigm for this word is the following:
PhraseTranslation
knú·wehse̲ʔ
I like it
snú·wehse̲ʔ
You like it
lanú·wehse̲ʔ
He likes it
yenú·wehse̲ʔ
She likes it
kanú·wehse̲ʔ
It likes it
tninú·wehse̲ʔ
You and I like it
yakninú·wehse̲ʔ
Someone and I like it
sninú·wehse̲ʔ
You two like it
hninú·wehse̲ʔ
Two males like it
kninú·wehse̲ʔ
Two females like it
twanú·wehse̲ʔ
You all and I like it
yakwanú·wehse̲ʔ
They and I like it
swanú·wehse̲ʔ
All of you like it
latinú·wehse̲ʔ
They (males) like it
kutinú·wehse̲ʔ
They (females) like it
Something you may have noticed: the spelling of the root word does not exactly line up with the spelling in the table above. Oftentimes, if a root word contains an h or a ʔ, those characters may get shifted around or replaced.

What's Next?

To recap, before beginning module one, it is imperative you understand the following:
Click here to continue to module 1!