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Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 43:3 (2016) ► pp.363–391

Gender Asymmetries in Iroquoian Languages and their Cultural Correlates

| Adam Mickiewicz University

This article examines the approaches to grammatical gender in Northern Iroquoian languages, ranging from the earliest references made by French missionaries in the 1630s to contemporary studies. The author focuses on two motifs in descriptions of Iroquoian gender: the supposedly ‘primitive’ nature of its morphological expression, which was mentioned predominantly in 18th-century accounts of Huron, and the asymmetries between the expression of masculine and feminine reference, which have been the main topic of the accounts of Mohawk, Oneida and Onondaga since the late 19th century. By tracing the two motifs the close links that were established between gender and culture patterns are illustrated, frequently leading to contradictory explanations concerning diachronic scenarios as well as more general impressionistic properties attributed to the languages and their speakers.

Published online: 21 December 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.43.3.05kil
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Joseph, John E.
2022. Review of Kilarski (2021): A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America. Historiographia Linguistica 49:2-3 ► pp. 405 ff. DOI logo
Kilarski, Marcin
2018. American Indian Languages in the Eyes of 17th-Century French and British Missionaries. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 53:s1 ► pp. 295 ff. DOI logo
Kilarski, Marcin
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[no author supplied]
2021. A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 129], DOI logo

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