Mohawk language - Definition and Overview

Mohawk is a Native American language spoken in the United States and Canada. It is part of the Iroquoian family.

Phonology

Based on sound files available at http://www.ohwejagehka.com/lang.htm, the phoneme inventory appears to be as follows (using SAMPA notation):

Consonants

1. There are no bilabials (unless one counts /w/ as labial rather than velar).
2. It's unclear if aspiration is phonemic or a realization of C + /h/; probably the latter as ‘nh’ is /n/ + /h/, and ‘sh’ is /s/ + /h/ (not SAMPA /S/).
3. From listening to the syllabification of careful speech, I also assume that orthographic 'ts' is indeed an affricate, since 'tsh' corresponds to SAMPA /tS/ - though it raises the question of why not use a single symbol for each of these? (After all, with such a small inventory, there are lots of Latin letters available!)

Vowels

1. Length is contrastive.
2. Nasalization is contrastive.
3. There appear to be a high and low tone. (See tonal language.)

External links

• Mohawk - English Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Mohawk-english/)