I'm new to UniLang, this is my first thread. I've been very interested in Cayuga for a long time, I know it's an endangered language and that's why I've taken interest in the language; along with the fact that I have Cayuga and Ojibwe ancestry. I hope to learn all the five nations' languages, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk someday like my great grandfather Sampson did. I know Seneca and Cayuga are very close because my Great aunt can understand Seneca and Cayuga both as if they were the same language but there's some major pronounciation differences. Anyways, I've put together an introduction of myself and I will explain some things about the language in it.
Joe ni:’ gya:sǫh. Tę:’ ne’ aga:węh hne: gaya:sǫh ǫgwehǫwehka: gasęna̱haǫ:weh. Hyaikneh węhnidade’, dęwahshę: ahsęh hehsgaha:wihs, gyo̱hdǫ: sga̱he’ n’adew’enya:w’e: gyo̱hdǫ: niwahshę: gyo̱hdǫ: tsiyohsredahs agęna’gra:dǫh. Hwihs sga̱he’ hne: niwago̱hsriya’gǫh. Gayogo̱ho:nǫ’ niwagǫhwęjodę’, Hnyagwai’ hne: niwagesyaǫdę’.
My name is Joe. I do not have a native name. June 23 1999 I was born. I am 15 years old. I am from the Cayuga Nation and in the Bear Clan.
Yes, I am fairly young .
I want to show you the word 'gya:sǫh'. This word means 'My name is' or 'I am called'. In Cayuga and all Iroquoian languages you cannot have a verb by itself, I don't know what you linguists call it but you have to have a pronoun with the verb. In this case, the verb is -ya:sǫh-. In Cayuga language it's part of the C-Stem of Verbs, I'll talk about this soon. But this word is easy to manipulate if you know the pronouns.
Me - g-
You - s-
Her - e-
Him - ha-
There's many other pronouns but these will be used for my example. These pronouns are used for the C-Stem of Verbs, the verbs that start with consonants. The Cayuga verbs all change the pronouns depending on the starting of the verb if it's a vowel or not and what type of vowel it is and if it's a consonant. These things I will discuss later. Anyways, you can change the word 'gya:sǫh' into you are called, she is called and he is called very simply.
Me - gya:sǫh
You - sya:sǫh
Her - eya:sǫh
Him - haya:sǫh
Now you can add these to a sentence.
Joe gya:sǫh. if you were talking about yourself, and if you were talking to somebody and you were telling them their name it would be 'John sya:sǫh' if you were talking to somebody named John. If you were talking about another person, i.e: a girl.. You can say 'Carrie eya:sǫh'. Same for males.
If you want to see the Spelling Manual for the Cayuga language, check this link out.
http://www.mun.ca/cayuga/spelling/index.php
If you want to hear the language being spoken, here is another link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfA0ttp ... XQuCR3OmwQ
I will post more of the language soon,
Thank you (Nya:węh)