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Coffee, or Bean Soup?

Audio Clip of Donna Powless, Cayuga, Six Nations. Recorded a Friends of Allan Gardens program on June 22nd, 2023.

Of course coffee is a relatively recent addition to North America, but because it has become such an integral part of modern life, Haudenosaunee families created a word for it!

In the Cayuga language, the word for coffee is osáheˀdaˀ griˀ,

This is a compound word with the following components:

  • osáheˀdaˀ, meaning bean, and

  • griˀ, meaning liquid or soup.

So the Cayuga word for coffee, translated back to English is bean soup!