Kiowa language should not be confused with Kiowa Apache language.
Kiowa | |
Nativename: | Cáuijògà/Cáuijò꞉gyà |
States: | United States |
Region: | western Oklahoma |
Ethnicity: | Kiowa people |
Speakers: | 20 |
Date: | 2007 |
Ref: | [1] |
Familycolor: | American |
Fam1: | Tanoan |
Iso3: | kio |
Lingua: | 64-CBB-a |
Map: | Kiowa lang.png |
Mapcaption: | Distribution of the Kiowa language after migration to the Southern Plains |
Map2: | Lang Status 40-SE.svg |
Notice: | IPA |
Glotto: | kiow1266 |
Glottorefname: | Kiowa |
Person: | Cáui |
People: | Cáuigú |
Language: | Cáuijògà |
Country: | Cáuidàumgà |
Kiowa or Cáuijògà/Cáuijò꞉gyà ("language of the Cáuigù (Kiowa)") is a Tanoan language spoken by the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma in primarily Caddo, Kiowa, and Comanche counties. The Kiowa tribal center is located in Carnegie. Like most North American indigenous languages, Kiowa is an endangered language.
Although Kiowa is most closely related to the other Tanoan languages of the Pueblos, the earliest historic location of its speakers is western Montana around 1700. Prior to the historic record, oral histories, archaeology, and linguistics suggest that pre-Kiowa was the northernmost dialect of Proto-Kiowa-Tanoan, spoken at Late Basketmaker II Era sites. Around AD 450, they migrated northward through the territory of the Ancestral Puebloans and Great Basin, occupying the eastern Fremont culture region of the Colorado Plateau until sometime before 1300. Speakers then drifted northward to the northwestern Plains, arriving no later than the mid-16th century in the Yellowstone area where the Kiowa were first encountered by Europeans. The Kiowa then later migrated to the Black Hills and the southern Plains, where the language was recorded in historic times.[2]
Colorado College anthropologist Laurel Watkins noted in 1984 based on Parker McKenzie's estimates that only about 400 people (mostly over the age of 50) could speak Kiowa and that only rarely were children learning the language. A more recent figure from McKenzie is 300 adult speakers of "varying degrees of fluency" reported by Mithun (1999) out of a 12,242 Kiowa tribal membership (US Census 2000).
The Intertribal Wordpath Society, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving native languages of Oklahoma, estimates the maximum number of fluent Kiowa speakers as of 2006 to be 400.[3] A 2013 newspaper article estimated 100 fluent speakers.[4] UNESCO classifies Kiowa as 'severely endangered.' It claims the language had only 20 mother-tongue speakers in 2007, along with 80 second language speakers, most of whom were between the ages of 45 and 60.[1]
The University of Tulsa, the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha offer Kiowa language classes.
Kiowa hymns are sung at Mount Scott Kiowa United Methodist Church.[5]
Starting in the 2010s, the Kiowa Tribe offered weekly language classes at the Jacobson House, a nonprofit Native American art center in Norman, Oklahoma. Dane Poolaw and Carol Williams taught the language using Parker McKenzie's method.[6]
Alecia Gonzales (Kiowa/Apache, 1926–2011), who taught at USAO, wrote a Kiowa teaching grammar called Thaum khoiye tdoen gyah|italic=unset: beginning Kiowa language. Modina Toppah Water (Kiowa) edited Saynday Kiowa Indian Children’s Stories, a Kiowa language book of trickster stories published in 2013.[4] [7]
In 2022, Tulsa Public Schools signed an agreement with the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma to teach Kiowa language and culture in the district.[8] The Kiowa do have a Kiowa Language Department in 2024[9]
See main article: Kiowa phonology.
There are 23 consonants:
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | |||||
ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
voiced | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
Approximant | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
Kiowa distinguishes six vowel qualities, with three distinctive levels of height and a front-back contrast. All six vowels may be long or short, oral or nasal. Four of the vowels occur as diphthongs with a high front off-glide of the form vowel + pronounced as //j//.
There are 24 vowels:
Front | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | ||
Close | oral | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /uː/ |
nasal | pronounced as /ĩ/ | pronounced as /ĩː/ | pronounced as /ũ/ | pronounced as /ũː/ | |
Mid | oral | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /oː/ |
nasal | pronounced as /ẽ/ | pronounced as /ẽː/ | pronounced as /õ/ | pronounced as /õː/ | |
Open | oral | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | pronounced as /ɔː/ |
nasal | pronounced as /ã/ | pronounced as /ãː/ | pronounced as /ɔ̃/ | pronounced as /ɔ̃ː/ |
Back | |||
High | pronounced as /uj/ | ||
---|---|---|---|
Mid | pronounced as /oj/ | ||
Low | pronounced as /aj/ | pronounced as /ɔj/ |
Contrasts among the consonants are easily demonstrated with an abundance of minimal and near-minimal pairs. There is no contrast between the presence of an initial glottal stop and its absence.
Example | Meaning | ||
---|---|---|---|
pronounced as //pʼ// | pronounced as //pʼí// | 'female's sister' | |
pronounced as //pʰ// | pronounced as //pʰí// | 'fire; hill; heavy' | |
pronounced as //p// | pronounced as //pĩ// | 'food eating' | |
pronounced as //b// | pronounced as //bĩ// | 'foggy' | |
pronounced as //tʼ// | pronounced as //tʼáp// | 'deer' | |
pronounced as //tʰ// | pronounced as //tʰáp// | 'dry' | |
pronounced as //t// | pronounced as //tá// | 'eye' |
The ejective and aspirated stops are articulated forcefully. The unaspirated voiceless stops are tense, while the voiced stops are lax.
The voiceless alveolar fricative pronounced as //s// is pronounced pronounced as /[ʃ]/ before pronounced as //j//
Orthography | Pronunciation | Meaning | |
---|---|---|---|
sét | pronounced as /[sét]/ | 'bear' | |
syân | pronounced as /[ʃẽnˀ]/ | 'be small' | |
sân | pronounced as /[sânˀ]/ | 'child' |
The lateral pronounced as //l// is realized as pronounced as /[l]/ in syllable-initial position, as lightly affricated pronounced as /[ɫ]/ in syllable-final position, and slightly devoiced in utterance-final position. It occurs seldom in word-initial position.
célê | pronounced as /[séːʲlêʲ]/ | 'set' | |
gúldɔ | pronounced as /[ɡúɫdɔ]/ | 'be red, painted' | |
sál | pronounced as /[sáɫ]/ | 'be hot' |
The dental resonants pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //n// are palatalized before pronounced as //i//.
tʰàlí | pronounced as /[tʰàlʲí]/ | 'boy' | |
bõnî | pronounced as /[bõʷnʲî]/ | 'see' |
All consonants may begin a syllable but pronounced as //l// may not occur word-initially outside of loan-words (pronounced as //la.yãn// 'lion'). The only consonants which may terminate a syllable are pronounced as //p, t, m, n, l, j//.
Certain sequences of consonant and vowel do not occur: dental and alveolar obstruents preceding pronounced as //i// (*pronounced as /tʼi, tʰi, ti, di, si, zi/); velars and pronounced as //j// preceding pronounced as //e// (*pronounced as /kʼe, kʰe, ke, ɡe, je/). These sequences do occur if they are the result of contraction: pronounced as //hègɔ èm hâ/ [hègèm hâ]/ 'then he got up'
The glide pronounced as //j// automatically occurs between all velars and pronounced as //a//, except if they are together as the result of a conjunction (pronounced as //hègɔ á bõ꞉/ [hègá bõ꞉]/ 'then he saw them'), or in loanwords (pronounced as /[kánò]/ 'American' >Sp. Americano).
Nasalization of voiced stops operates automatically only within the domain of the pronominal prefixes: voiced stops become the corresponding nasals either preceding or following a nasal. The velar nasal that is derived from pronounced as //ɡ// is deleted; there is no pronounced as //ŋ// in Kiowa.
Underlying pronounced as ///ia/// surfaces in alternating forms as pronounced as //ja// following velars, as pronounced as //a// following labials and as pronounced as //iː// if accompanied by falling tone.
Obstruents are devoiced in two environments: in syllable-final position and following a voiceless obstruent. Voiced stops are devoiced in syllable-final position without exception. In effect, the rule applies only to pronounced as //b// and pronounced as //d// since velars are prohibited in final position.
The palatal glide pronounced as //j// spreads across the laryngeals pronounced as //h// and pronounced as //ʔ//, yielding a glide onset, a brief moment of coarticulation and a glide release. The laryngeals pronounced as //h// and pronounced as //ʔ// are variably deleted between sonorants, which also applies across a word boundary.
Kiowa orthography was developed by native speaker Parker McKenzie, who had worked with J. P. Harrington and later with other linguists. The development of the orthography is detailed in Meadows & McKenzie (2001). The tables below show each letter of the Kiowa alphabet and its corresponding phonetic value (written IPA).[10]
au | pronounced as /ɔ/ | aui | pronounced as /ɔj/ | |
a | pronounced as /a/ | ai | pronounced as /aj/ | |
e | pronounced as /e/ | |||
i | pronounced as /i/ | |||
o | pronounced as /o/ | oi | pronounced as /oj/ | |
u | pronounced as /ʷ/ (as (ǥu, gu, kʼu, ku)) | ui | pronounced as /uj/ |
The mid-back vowel pronounced as //ɔ// is indicated by a digraph (au). The four diphthongs indicate the offglide pronounced as //j// with the letter (i) following the main vowel. Nasal vowels are indicated by underlining the vowel letter: nasal o is thus (o̲). Long vowels are indicated with macron diacritics: long o is thus (ō). Short vowels are unmarked. Tone is indicated with diacritics. The acute accent (´) represents high tone, the grave accent (`) indicates low tone, and the circumflex (ˆ) indicates falling tone, exemplified on the vowel o as (ó) (high), (ò) (low), (ô) (falling). Since long vowels also have tones, the vowel symbols can have both a macron and a tone diacritic above the macron: (ṓ) (long high), (ṑ) (long low), (ō̂) (long falling).
ƀ | pronounced as /p/ | n | pronounced as /n/ | |
b | pronounced as /b/ | ñ or ᵰ | (nasal vowel) | |
ꟈ | pronounced as /t/ | pʼ | pronounced as /pʼ/ | |
d | pronounced as /d/ | p | pronounced as /pʰ/ | |
ǥ | pronounced as /k/ | s | pronounced as /s/ | |
g | pronounced as /ɡ/ | tsʼ | pronounced as /t͜sʼ/ | |
h | pronounced as /h/ | ts | pronounced as /t͜s/ | |
kʼ | pronounced as /kʼ/ | tʼ | pronounced as /tʼ/ | |
k | pronounced as /kʰ/ | t | pronounced as /tʰ/ | |
l | pronounced as /l, dɮ/ | w | pronounced as /w/ | |
m | pronounced as /m/ | y | pronounced as /j/ | |
z | pronounced as /z/ |
The palatal glide pronounced as /[j]/ that is pronounced after velar consonants (ǥ, g, kʼ, k) (which are phonetically pronounced as //ɡ, k, kʰ, kʼ//, respectively) is not normally written.[11] There are, however, a few exceptions where pronounced as /[ɡ]/ is not followed by a pronounced as /[j]/ glide, in which case an apostrophe (’) is written after the g as (g’). Thus, there is, for example, (ga) which is pronounced pronounced as /[ɡja]/ and (g’a) which is pronounced pronounced as /[ɡa]/. The glottal stop pronounced as //ʔ// is also not written as it is often deleted and its presence is predictable. A final convention is that pronominal prefixes are written as separate words instead of being attached to verbs.
The alphabetical order is monophthong followed by diphthong; these are intercallated among the consonants as in the English alphabet. Vowel length and tone are ignored, except when two words are otherwise spelled the same. The nasalization mark comes after the vowel but is alphabetized as a separate letter, e.g. (auiñ) for pronounced as //ɔ̃i̯// comes between auin and auio. The length mark appears after the nasalization mark, e.g. (auñ꞉) for pronounced as //ɔ̃ː// and (aiñ꞉) for pronounced as //ãːi̯//.
Kiowa, like other Tanoan languages, is characterized by an inverse number system. Kiowa has four noun classes. Class I nouns are inherently singular/dual, Class II nouns are inherently dual/plural, Class III nouns are inherently dual, and Class IV nouns are mass or noncount nouns. If the number of a noun is different from its class's inherent value, the noun takes the suffix -gau (or a variant).
class | singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
I | – | – | -gau | |
II | -gau | – | – | |
III | -gau | – | -gau | |
IV |
Mithun (1999:445) gives as an example chē̲̂ "horse/two horses" (Class I) made plural with the addition of -gau: chē̲̂gau "horses". On the other hand, the Class II noun tṓ̲sè "bones/two bones" is made singular by suffixing -gau: tṓ̲sègau "bone."
Kiowa verbs consist of verb stems that can be preceded by prefixes, followed by suffixes, and incorporate other lexical stems into the verb complex. Kiowa verbs have a complex active–stative pronominal system expressed via prefixes, which can be followed by incorporated nouns, verbs, or adverbs. Following the main verb stem are suffixes that indicate tense/aspect and mode. A final group of suffixes that pertain to clausal relations can follow the tense-aspect-modal suffixes. These syntactic suffixes include relativizers, subordinating conjunctions, and switch-reference indicators. A skeletal representation of the Kiowa verb structure can be represented as the following:
pronominal prefix | - | incorporated elements (adverb + noun + verb) | - | VERB STEM | - | tense/aspect-modal suffixes | - | syntactic suffixes |
---|
The pronominal prefixes and tense/aspect-modal suffixes are inflectional and required to be present on every verb.
Kiowa verb stems are inflected with prefixes that indicate:
All these of the categories are indicated for only the primary animate participant. If there is also a second participant (such as in transitive sentences), the number of the second participant is also indicated. A participant is primary in the following cases:
The term non-agent here refers to semantic roles including involitional agents, patients, beneficiaries, recipients, experiencers, and possessors.
Person | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1st | à- | è- | ||
2nd | èm- | mà- | bà- | |
3rd | – | è̲- | á- | |
Inverse | è- |
Non-agent Number | 1st-Sg. | 2nd-Sg. | 2nd-Dual | 2nd-Pl. | 3rd-Sg. | 3rd-Dual | 3rd-Pl. | 1st-Dual/Pl. 3rd-Inverse | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sg. | gà- | à- | má-`- | bá-`- | – | é̲-`- | á-`- | é-`- | |
Dual | nèn- | mèn- | mén- | bèj- | è̲- | én- | èj- | èj- | |
Pl. | gàj- | bàj- | mán-`- | báj-`- | gà- | én-`- | gá-`- | éj-`- | |
Inverse | dé- | bé- | mén-`- | béj- | é- | én- | è- | éj- |