This work is an extended description of word structure in the Seneca language. Seneca is historically important as the language of the Five (now Six) Nations of the Iroquois and as the language of Handsome Lake, the Iroquois prophet (Parker, 1913; for a history of Seneca see Parker, 1926). Instead of a noun root there can be a verb root followed by a nominative morpheme (ka^hasteshae? power, with -?rush- be powerful).
PHONEMES
The vowel length is realized as a doubling of the duration of the preceding vowel, as long as another vowel does not follow: hota: ?tha. When it occurs between two vowels, the total lengthening is equal to the duration of a single vowel, but with half the quality of the preceding vowel and half that of the following vowel: hoka:ot he tells stories, in which the a: o is equal in duration to a series of three vowels and the a and o qualities are of equal duration, that is, one and a half times a single vowel. The phoneme u, a high back vowel that is weakly rounded [u], occurs only in and adjacent to the morpheme -li?u:-/-u?t!i:- be small, niwu?u:h how small is it is, niyuku?u:h how small she is.
METHOD
Constituents belonging to the same or overlapping constituent class are members of the same CONSTRUCTION.10 Thus k|ihsa:s, k|ya?tihsa:s and ?ak|ihsa:s all belong to one construction. Members of a given structure that belong to the same component of a larger structure belong to the same. Members of a given constituent that belong to the same construction or are individual morphemes belong to the same.
AUTOMATIC ALTERNATIONS
A basic allomorph containing f occurs in an automatic variant without de. but with the epenthetic h) between k and n: -?nikoe- mind has the automatic variant -nikoe- in ?akhnikoe. A basic allomorph containing w occurs in an automatic variant with y instead of the w between a vowel and o or o: -skaw- bush has the automatic variant -skay- in ?oskayowa: neh the bush is large. In both cases the vowel length occurs instead of the second vowel [3.19]: ?e- future has the automatic variant ?e-in.
PROSODIC VARIANTS
The result of this change is that no vowel group contains more than one vowel length. The rest of this chapter deals with the occurrence of vowel length in prosodic variants. Any BASIC WEAK vowel is automatically followed by vowel length in certain positions within a word.
THE IRREDUCIBLE VERB STEM
A verb stem containing the descriptive morpheme is referred to as being IN THE DESCRIPTIVE ASPECT, and similarly with the other aspect suffixes. With a root denoting some form of linear motion, the iterative is often translated by the word around (or about): -'?s in h a t a : k h e. As well as helit is to eat him, etc., meanings depending on peculiarities associated with the prefix and will be discussed in that context.
THE SINGULAR SUBJECTIVE PREFIX
The neuter morpheme has the following allomorphs: ka- occurs before a morpheme whose basic allomorph begins with a consonant, but not before (C) ae or (y)o: kayetha. If a verb would otherwise contain only a single vowel, the initial morpheme occurs in an allomorph beginning with ?i. In a masculine allomorph, however, the i is basically strong and the following h is missing (cf. [8.7]): ?ia- masculine in ?i:at he stands.
THE IRREDUCIBLE NOUN
The irreducible noun stem consists, as noted, of a noun root followed by a noun suffix. The combining allomorph is identical to the base allomorph except for an additional final vowel, usually a, but in some morphemes ae or e. If no such vowel is indicated and the root ends in a consonant other than ?, the additional vowel of the combining allomorph is a (or 6 at [3.14]).
THE MODAL VERB
There is no additional vowel if the root already ends in a vowel or if it ends in For noun noun and verb roots, if the combined allomorph ends in ae or e, that vowel will be given at the end of the root in parentheses: -'(h)osh(ae)- box. The external locative allomorph is ultimately -'?keri, but very few noun roots occur with -':neri (some, but not all, are the same morphemes that have the simple noun suffix allomorph -'h): ?okw6: neh , where there are people, koshe": neh zimi (-oshe-).
THE NONSINGULAR SUBJECTIVE PREFIX
After masculine and non-masculine morphemes, plural allomorphs appear as follows: -ti- appears before a morpheme whose basic allomorph begins with a consonant: hatithe?tha. After optative and future morphemes, but not indicatives, the exclusive person allomorph is -ya-, instead of word-initial ?a- [9.3]: ?a:yakwa: however we (excl. pi.) could hit him, ? eyakwayet we will hit it. Below is a list of non-singular subjective prefixes, illustrated both in word-initial position and after indicative and future morphemes.
THE OBJECTIVE PREFIX
The pronominal morphemes of the singular object prefix are the same as those of the singular subject prefix; these are first person (-k-/-ke-), second person (s-), masculine (h-), feminine (k-) and neuter. After a second-person morpheme (s-), the target allomorph -a- precedes a morpheme whose base allomorph begins with a consonant, o or o, but. As stated in [10.1], belonging to a pronominal constituent in a non-plural objective prefix is not the same as belonging to a non-plural subjective prefix.
THE TRANSITIVE PREFIX
Before the first person singular object the masculine allomorph is h- and the objective allomorph is -a- (cf. [10.6]): hakyetha. Before the inclusive and second person dual and plural subjects [9.4-5], the masculine allomorph is she-: shehniyetha. The objective construction of the first and second persons follows the subjects and appears in the allomorphs already described [10.6-7], but the objective allomorph is -0- before the first person.
THE NOMLNALIZER
I t is preceded by the most common basic allomorph of the root, and conditions the following aspect allomorphs: -o descriptive, -6s iterative, and -ih imperative. I t is preceded by the combining allomorph of the root, and conditions the following aspect allomorphs: -eh descriptive, -as iterative, -o imperative. With the exception of the causative I allomorph -t-, these morphemes are preceded by the combining allomorph of the root.
THE INCORPORATED NOUN ROOT
If the following verb stem starts with y, the ae or e is replaced by n : wa:kanya?k he has broken off the story (-ka[ae]- story). If the ae or e is preceded by an obstruent or in principle strong vowel and the following verb root begins with o or o, the ae or e is replaced by y : kane: styo: t standing plank (-nest[ae]- plank) . If the ae or e is preceded by a single fundamentally weak a or e and the following verb root begins with o, the ae or e is not present, but the preceding a is replaced by e: sekeoteh tell a story.
THE REFLEXIVE/RECIPROCAL BASE
When the verb root -ya?k- cut, break is preceded by a noun ending in s, the resulting sy is replaced by j : wat6:nya?ja?s violet, lit. Under the same circumstances, but before a verb root beginning with o, the a is replaced by e: sekeoteh attaches the inner bark. ka[ae]- inner bark, homonymous with story). A noun root whose most common base allomorph ends in sh occurs with ts instead before a verb root beginning with i: w e: n i t s i: y o: h nice day.
THE EVENTUATIVE AND FACILITATIVE
THE PROGRESSIVE
The descriptive allomorph preceding the progressive is identical to that occurring in word-final position, except that final h or. The progressive allomorph is -atye- after a consonant or basically strong vowel (see examples above), -tye- after a basically weak vowel:.
THE CONTINUATIVE
THE PAST
THE ATTRIBUTIVE SUFFIXES
THE PRIMARY PREFIXES
They precede the indicative, which occurs in the following allomorphs: -e- comes before the inclusive person morpheme and before the second person if the latter is directly followed by the objective, dual or plural: teswatye: et jy (pi.) initiated it (at a particular point), setwaiwasyo:ni. When it occurs alone with the optative or future morpheme, the duplicative precedes and has the form t-. The optative and future morphemes occur in their word-initial allomorphs, except that their initial ? missing: taetwaya:ya?k we (incl. pi.) should cross, t e y e : t a.
THE NEGATIVE
THE TRANSLOCATIVE
THE SECONDARY PREFIXES
If the minimal verb contains both optative and imperative morphemes, the resulting meaning is that of a negative future: th- in tha: watiyethoh they (nonmasc. pi.) will not sow, tha:t6kho:nih he is not' will not to eat. After a secondary prefix, the form of the pro-nominal prefix is the same as that which appears after the optative or future morpheme (cf. The participle no?-, tsa?- casual and contrastive tha?- occur before the reduplication morpheme: no ?te: yacht.
IRREGULARITIES
The causative I [13.7] or instrumental [13.11]
Formal words containing i preceded by a consonant followed by a vowel contrast with colloquial words containing y instead of i and a length after the following vowel: formal nioya?tawe?oh/. Formal words containing the sequences khni and khny contrast with colloquial words containing ki and ky instead: formal khni?tyo?/. Formal words containing the sequences hni and hny, in which h is an allomorph of the inclusive person morpheme, contrast with colloquial words containing ti and ty instead: formal hni?tyo?/.
IDIOLECT VARIANTS
CHARTS
INDEX OF TERMS IN THE MORPHOLOGY
paint with it; with cause. brush, also the plant Hieracium aurantiacum or H. ake-, ha?teyohsohkwake:h all different colors. RT., sugar or hard maple (Acer saccharum): wahta. they bet on a shoe; with vb. e) e-, tese:- htahkwane:teh put on your tires or underpants. and dupl., try again: tethohtako. he will try again; with cause. I -'ht-, dat., and refl., I give up, I am entrusted: ?akatahtakwahta: ni: h I have given up, I have been entrusted. eh, -as, -6h), with dupl., make a furrow or ditch: teyohtatahkweh has made a groove, tewahtatahkwas makes channels.
I expect, Saša: beware of this, be careful. o?twasha?ke:t he bent; with nn. akashe:teh I count, ?oshe:teh is numbered, hashe:tas he counts, ?o?kh6yashe:t I. okwatasheta?tahkoh we use it for counting; with dist. satashe?- n o : t you have a basket of strawberries; plus inst., yotashe?notahkwa. with dupl., tewashe:h twenty; with part., se niwashe:h thirty; with nn. h/:)wist(a)-, se niyo:wistashe:h thirty dollars; no?tewe?nya?- eshaeshe:h thousand, lit. RT.
:ot camels; with vb. y)ot(a)-, ?akyotakwae:I was knocking wood, ?o?kyotakwa:when I was knocking wood, yeotakwae:sos black ash (Fraxinus nigra), lit.
