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Prosodic Domains In Cayuga Essay

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Prosodic Domains in Cayuga
1. Introduction Throughout the course of the semester, I have conducted research into the Cayuga language, a Northern Iroquoian idiom of ~250-300 speakers based primarily in southern Ontario, Canada (Ethnologue 2015). In the first study, I looked into the basic sociolinguistic aspects affecting this language, focusing primarily on efforts to revitalize it. It is labeled by the anthropological site Ethnologue as Moribund, and by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as Extinct (Ethnologue 2015). In part one of the current paper, I will reiterate some of the points that I made previously, while further exploring the topic of language revitalization. In the second study, I focused on the Cayuga grammar system, spending considerable time looking at the phonetics and phonology of the language, as there is not much other literature available on the morphology or syntax of the language. I briefly glossed over the prosodic system in Cayuga, later …show more content…

Founded in 1570, the Confederacy formed in response to the influx of European settlers in the region they traditionally called their home, in northern New York State. Known amongst themselves as the ‘Hodinoshone,’ which means the ‘people of the long house’ in the Northern Iroquoian languages, they formed what is quite possibly the first Republican form of government in either of the America’s, with each tribe having equal representation within the central government; they pledged mutual support and defense to each other, and it is their Constitution and form of government that provided a strong influence to the Founding Fathers of these United States when formulating our own Constitution – the only uniquely American source (Cayuga Nation,

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