Abstract:

This dissertation is an investigation into the pronominal prefix system of Onondaga, a Northern Iroquoian language currently spoken in central New York and southern Ontario. The Iroquois pronominal prefix system was described by Floyd Lounsbury in his seminal work on Iroquoian languages, Oneida Verb Morphology , first published in 1953. In that work Lounsbury presented a single comprehensive table that captured many of the unique properties of the Iroquoian pronominal prefix system. The organization of that table has been applied to the Onondaga pronominal prefix system in Onondaga - English/English - Onondaga Dictionary (Woodbury 2003). I have used this table extensively while teaching Onondaga language and grammar at the Onondaga Nation Territory during the past 6 years. During that time I have made a number of valuable discoveries and observations concerning the pronominal prefix system and the organization of Lounsbury's (1953) table.

One of the most important observations is that the table, though highly accurate, is too complicated for a beginning student of an Iroquoian language. I was forced to reorganize the information many times, and I found that if I split the table into two parts, a 'reading' of the meanings and a 'listing' of all the variants that occur, the table became more understandable. It was also through the various reorganizations that the enormous scope of the pronominal prefix system became evident. Whereas the system had once seemed vast and random it now appeared finite and orderly. Many patterns and regularities emerged that were not apparent from a single table. The patterns I discovered will hopefully aid the student immensely in understanding the workings of the Onondaga pronominal prefix system.

In this dissertation the Onondaga pronominal prefix system is reorganized as two separate tables representing the two elements of every prefix: form and meaning. Unique observations and discoveries that emerged from this reorganization are discussed. These are derived directly from teaching Onondaga grammar and language classes at the Onondaga Nation Territory. Finally, a summation of each pronominal prefix and its characteristics is provided in an Appendix.