Conventions
used in this Site

The pronunciation and dialect in this site are based on the West-Virginian Mingo. This pronunciation differs from Seneca mainly in the pronunciation of the clear (non-nasal) "o", which Mingo pronounces as "u" (so, for example, the West-Virginian Mingo word for "now" is "únë", where others say "ónë" ). For the most part, the reader can substitute an "o" for an "u" in this site, to obtain the Seneca version of the word. Mingo and Seneca differ also in some words and expressions (such as the Mingo use of the negation word "thë'ë", which is no longer used in Seneca). Generally, though, from the linguistic perspective, Mingo and Seneca are the same language.

Currently, several conventions exist for spelling the North-Iroquoian languages, and the process of standardization of the spelling is still ongoing.
All of the conventions use the Latin alphabet as a basis, and differ mainly in the way they depict the special characteristics of Northern Iroquoian languages (nasal vowels; long vowels).

This site uses a modern convention, used by the Mingo EGADS site.
The essential differences from (some of the) other conventions, are:

• a long vowel

  is denoted by an acute accent-mark (rather than a colon following the vowel)

• a nasal vowel

  is denoted by a "hook" under the vowel (rather than a following silent "n")

• a long and nasal vowel

  is (therefore) denoted by both an acute accent mark above it and a hook underneeth it (rather than by a silent "n" followed by a colon [e.g. "on:"]).

A font with these marks is available. If this font is not used, then the letters appear with different (though consistent) marks: the nasal mark appears as an umlaut (e.g. "ö"), and a long nasal vowel has a circumflex over it ("ô").
For example, in this spelling convention the name of the language is spelled "Ökwe'öwékhá'", rather than "Onkwe'onwe:kha:'".

The full description of the writing convention used in this site can be found in the Alphabet page

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