File:Iroquoian_map_close_up.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Geographic distribution
- Eastern North America
- Ethnicity
- Iroquoian peoples
- Linguistic classification
- One of the world's primary language families
- Proto language
- Proto-Iroquoian
- Subdivisions
- Cherokee Northern Iroquoian
- Iso 639 2 5
- iro
- Glottolog
- iroq1247
via Wikipedia infobox
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Iroquoian languages (/ɪrəˈkwɔɪən/, irr-ə-KWOY-ən), occasionally referred to as the Ogwehoweh languages, are a family of indigenous languages of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking.
As of 2020, almost all surviving Iroquoian languages are severely or critically endangered, with some languages having only a few elderly speakers remaining. The two languages with the most speakers, Mohawk (Kanienʼkéha) in New York and Canada, and Cherokee in Oklahoma and North Carolina, are spoken by less than 10% of the populations of their nations.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Iroquoian languages” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.