Irokees
Irokees (/iɹo.kiːs/; French: langue iroquoien), alternatively spelled Irokîs, is a variety of Amerikaens chiefly spoken in Irokesenland. It originally grew out of pidgins and creoles spoken by indigenous American migrants to the territory of modern Irokesenland in the 18th and 19th centuries and is still predominately spoken by their descendants. The dialect maintains several unique characteristics and is influenced by the French of neighboring Meerenland.
Irokees | |
---|---|
Pronunciation | [iɹɔ.kiːs] |
Region | Irokesenland |
Ethnicity | Irokees |
Language family | Scythian
|
Writing system | Latin |
Official status | |
Official language in | Tussenland |
History
Phonology
Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
voiced | b | d | g | ||||
Affricate | voiceless | tʃ | |||||
voiced | dʒ | ||||||
Fricative | f | s | ʃ | ɦ | |||
Approximant | ɹ | j | w | ||||
Rhotic | ɾ |
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
oral | long | rounded | oral | long | ||
Close | i | iː | y | u | ||
Close-mid | e | ə ə̃ | o | |||
Open-mid | ɛː ɛ̃ | œ | ɔː ɔ̃ | |||
(Near)Open | æ | æː | ɑ | ɑː |
Hypercorrection
Irokees speakers tend to over-apply language rules deemed to be 'proper Amerikaens', such as the use of labials, the rhotic [ɾ], the fricative [ʃ], the voiced consonants [g] and [ɦ], as well as the over-rounding and lengthening of vowels. This is often realized in epenthesis, where sounds are added to words where they previously would not have been in average Amerikaens.