Iroquoian languages

The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, almost all surviving Iroquoian languages are severely or critically endangered, some languages only have a few elderly speakers remaining. The two languages with the most speakers, Mohawk (Kenien’kéha) in New York and Cherokee, are spoken by less than 10% of the populations of their nations. Northern Iroquoian (Lake Iroquoian) Iroquois Proper (Five Nations) Seneca (severely endangered) Cayuga (severely endangered) Onondaga (severely endangered) Susquehannock or Conestoga () Mohawk–Oneida Oneida (severely endangered) Mohawk Huronian () Huron-Wyandot (severely endangered) Petun (Tobacco) () Tuscarora–Nottoway Tuscarora () Meherrin () Nottoway (severely endangered) Unclassified Wenrohronon or Wenro () Neutral () Erie () Laurentian () Southern Iroquoian Cherokee South Carolina-Georgia dialect ( Lower dialect) () North Carolina dialect ( Middle or Kituwah dialect) (severely endangered) Oklahoma dialect ( Overhill or Western dialect) (definitely endangered) (*) — language extinct/dormant Evidence is emerging that what has been called the Laurentian language appears to be more than one dialect or language. Ethnographic and linguistic field work with the Wyandot tribal elders (Barbeau 1960) yielded enough documentation for scholars to characterize and classify the Huron and Petun languages. The languages of the tribes that constituted the tiny Wenrohronon, the powerful Conestoga Confederacy and the confederations of the Neutral Nation and the Erie Nation are very poorly documented in print. The Neutral were called Atiwandaronk, meaning 'they who understand the language' by the Huron (Wyandot people). They are historically grouped together, and geographically the Wenro's range on the eastern end of Lake Erie placed them between the larger confederations.