Caddo language
Encyclopedia
Caddo is the only surviving Southern Caddoan language
of the Caddo language family. It is spoken by the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Today, only 25 elderly speakers are estimated to remain, none of whom are monolingual Caddo speakers, making Caddo a critically endangered language. There are several mutually intelligible dialects of Caddo; some of the more prominent dialects include Kadohadacho, Hasinai, Hainai, Natchitoches, and Yatasi. Today, the most commonly used dialects are Hasinai and Hainai.
Caddo is linguistically related to the members of the Northern Caddoan language family; these include the Pawnee-Kitsai (Keechi) languages (Arikara
, Kitsai
, and Pawnee
) and the Wichita
language. Kitsai is now extinct, and Pawnee, Arikara, and Wichita each have fewer surviving speakers than Caddo does.
Another language, Adai, is postulated to have been a Caddoan language while it was extant, but because of scarce resources and the language’s extinct status, this connection is not conclusive, and Adai is generally considered a language isolate.
s. The IPA symbols for the consonants of Caddo are given below:
Caddo also features contrastive gemination
(lengthening) of consonants, which is generally indicated in orthography by a double letter; e.g. /hɑ́ttih/ ‘woman’.
However, there is a great deal of phonetic variation amongst the short vowels. The high front vowel /i/ is generally (but not always) realized as its lower counterpart /ɪ/, and the high back vowel /u/ is similarly often realized as its lower counterpart /ʊ/. The low back vowel /ɑ/ has a wider range of variation, pronounced (most commonly) as /ʌ/ when followed by any consonant except a semivowel or a laryngeal consonant, as a low central vowel (for which IPA lacks a symbol) at the end of an open syllable or when followed by a laryngeal consonant, and as /ə/ before a semivowel.
In general, the long vowels do not feature this kind of variation, but are simply lengthened versions of the phonemes represented in the chart.
Caddo also has four diphthongs, which can be written a number of different ways; the transcription below shows the typical Caddo Nation orthography (a vowel paired with a glide) and the IPA version, represented with vowels and offglides.
Tone occurs both lexically (as a property of the word), non-lexically (as a result of tonological processes), and also as a marker of certain morphological features; for instance, the past tense marker is associated with high tone.
These processes are generally not applicable in the case of proclitics (morphemes which behave like an affix and are phonologically dependent on the morpheme they are attached to, e.g. an apple in English).
(Melnar includes a third palatization process, /tj/ → [ts]. However, /ts/ is not a palatal affricate, so this process has not been included here. Nevertheless, it is probably the case that this third process does occur.)
Caddoan languages
The Caddoan languages are a family of Native American languages. They are spoken by Native Americans in parts of the Great Plains of the central United States, from North Dakota south to Oklahoma.-Family division:...
of the Caddo language family. It is spoken by the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Today, only 25 elderly speakers are estimated to remain, none of whom are monolingual Caddo speakers, making Caddo a critically endangered language. There are several mutually intelligible dialects of Caddo; some of the more prominent dialects include Kadohadacho, Hasinai, Hainai, Natchitoches, and Yatasi. Today, the most commonly used dialects are Hasinai and Hainai.
Caddo is linguistically related to the members of the Northern Caddoan language family; these include the Pawnee-Kitsai (Keechi) languages (Arikara
Arikara language
Arikara is a Caddoan language spoken by the Arikara people, who reside primarily at Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. Arikara is very close to the Pawnee language, but they are not mutually intelligible....
, Kitsai
Kitsai language
The Kitsai language is an extinct member of the Caddoan language family. It was spoken in Oklahoma by the Kichai tribe and became extinct in the 1930s. It is thought to be related to Wichita but more closely to Pawnee...
, and Pawnee
Pawnee language
The Pawnee language is a Caddoan language spoken by some Pawnee Native Americans now located in north central Oklahoma. Their traditional historic lands were along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska. Once the language of thousands of Pawnees, today Pawnee is spoken by a shrinking number of...
) and the Wichita
Wichita language
Wichita is a moribund Caddoan language spoken in Oklahoma by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. Only one fluent speaker remains, Doris McLemore, although in 2007 there were only three first language learners still alive...
language. Kitsai is now extinct, and Pawnee, Arikara, and Wichita each have fewer surviving speakers than Caddo does.
Another language, Adai, is postulated to have been a Caddoan language while it was extant, but because of scarce resources and the language’s extinct status, this connection is not conclusive, and Adai is generally considered a language isolate.
Consonants
Caddo has nineteen contrastive consonants, which is an normal-sized consonant inventory. It is somewhat unusual in that it lacks lateral consonantLateral consonant
A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....
s. The IPA symbols for the consonants of Caddo are given below:
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||
| Plosive | Voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
p | t | k | ʔ | |
| Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
b | d | ||||
| Ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
tʼ | kʼ | ||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
Voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
ts | tʃ | |||
| Ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
tsʼ | tʃʼ | ||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
s | ʃ | h | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
j | w | ||||
Caddo also features contrastive gemination
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
(lengthening) of consonants, which is generally indicated in orthography by a double letter; e.g. /hɑ́ttih/ ‘woman’.
Vowels
Caddo has three contrastive vowel qualities, /i/, /ɑ/, and /u/, and two contrastive vowel lengths, long and short, for a total of 6 vowel phonemes.| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
|||
| Low | ɑ ɑː |
However, there is a great deal of phonetic variation amongst the short vowels. The high front vowel /i/ is generally (but not always) realized as its lower counterpart /ɪ/, and the high back vowel /u/ is similarly often realized as its lower counterpart /ʊ/. The low back vowel /ɑ/ has a wider range of variation, pronounced (most commonly) as /ʌ/ when followed by any consonant except a semivowel or a laryngeal consonant, as a low central vowel (for which IPA lacks a symbol) at the end of an open syllable or when followed by a laryngeal consonant, and as /ə/ before a semivowel.
In general, the long vowels do not feature this kind of variation, but are simply lengthened versions of the phonemes represented in the chart.
Caddo also has four diphthongs, which can be written a number of different ways; the transcription below shows the typical Caddo Nation orthography (a vowel paired with a glide) and the IPA version, represented with vowels and offglides.
- ay /ɑj/ – Pronounced like English ‘eye’
- aw /ɑw/ – Pronounced like ‘’ou’’ in English ‘out’
- iw /iw/ – Pronounced like English ‘ew’
- uy /uj/ – Pronounced like ‘’uoy’’ in English ‘buoy’
Tone
Caddo is a tone language. There are three tones in Caddo: low tone, which is unmarked (ɑ); high tone, which is marked by an acute accent over the vowel (ɑ́); and falling tone, which is always long, and marked by a grave accent over the vowel (ɑ̀ː).Tone occurs both lexically (as a property of the word), non-lexically (as a result of tonological processes), and also as a marker of certain morphological features; for instance, the past tense marker is associated with high tone.
Tonological Processes
There are three processes that can create non-lexical high tone within a syllable nucleus. (Note: see the section below for an explanation of other phonological changes which may occur in the following examples.)- 1. H-deletion
- VhCC → VHighCC
- An /h/ before two consonants is deleted and the preceding vowel gains high tone.
- Ex: /kiʃwɑhn-t-ʔuh/ → [kiʃwɑ́nːt’uh] ‘parched corn’
- 2. Low tone-deletion
- VRVLowC → VHighRC
- A low tone vowel following a resonantSonorantIn phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and...
(sonorant consonant) is deleted and the preceding vowel gains high tone. - Ex: /sa-baka-nah-hah/ → [sawkɑ́nːhah] ‘does he mean it?’
- 3. Backwards assimilation
- VRVHigh → VHighRVHigh
- A vowel preceding a resonant and a high tone vowel gains high tone.
- Ex: /nanɑ́/ → [nɑ́nɑ́ː] ‘that, that one’
Vowel Syncope
There are two vowel syncope processes in Caddo, which both involve the loss of a low-tone vowel in certain environments. The first syncope process is already described as Low tone-deletion (above). The second syncope process is described below:- Interconsonantal Syncope
- VCVLowCV → VCCV
- A low-tone vowel in between a vowel-consonant sequence and a consonant-vowel sequence is deleted.
- Example (shown with intermediary form): /kak#(ʔi)t’us-jaʔah/ → kahʔit’uʃaʔah → [kahʔit’uʃʔah] ‘foam, suds’
Consonant Cluster Simplification
As a result of the syncope processes described above, several consonant clusters emerge which are then invariably simplified by way of phonological process. At the present stage of research, these processes seem to be unrelated, except that they represent a phonetic reduction in consonant clusters; therefore, they are listed below without much further explanation.- 1. nw → mm
- 2. tw → pp
- 3. tk → kk
- 4. n → m / __ [+labial]
- 5. ʔʔ → ʔ
- 6. hh → h
- 7. ʔ+Resonant → Resonant+ʔ / syllable final
Syllable Coda Simplification
Similar to the consonant cluster simplification process, there are four processes by which a syllable-final consonant is altered.- 1. b → w / syllable final
- 2. d → t / syllable final
- 3. k → h / syllable final (but not before k)
- 4. tʃ → ʃ / syllable final
Word Boundary Processes
There are three word-boundary processes in Caddo, all of which occur word-initially:- 1. n → t / # __
- 2. w → p / # __
- 3. y → d / # __
- Ex. /ni-huhn-id-ah/ → [tihúndah] ‘she returned it’
These processes are generally not applicable in the case of proclitics (morphemes which behave like an affix and are phonologically dependent on the morpheme they are attached to, e.g. an apple in English).
Glottalization
Caddo has a glottalization process by which any voiceless stop or affricate (except p) becomes an ejective when followed by a glottal stop.- Glottalization
- [-sonorant, -continuant, -voice, -labial, -spread glottis] → [+constricted glottis] / ___ [+constricted glottis, -spread glottis]
- A voiceless stop or affricate (except p) becomes an ejective when followed by a glottal stop.
- Ex. /sik-ʔuh/ → [sik’uh] ‘rock’
Palatalization
Caddo has a palatalization process which affects certain consonants when followed by /j/, with simultaneous loss of the /j/.- Palatalization
- a) /kj/ → [tʃ]
- b) /sj/ → [ʃ]
- Ex. /kak#ʔa-k’as-jaʔah/ → [kahʔak’a ʃʔah] ‘one’s leg’
(Melnar includes a third palatization process, /tj/ → [ts]. However, /ts/ is not a palatal affricate, so this process has not been included here. Nevertheless, it is probably the case that this third process does occur.)
Lengthening
Caddo has three processes by which a syllable nucleus (vowel) may be lengthened.- Syllable Lengthening Process One
- VHigh(Resonant)CVC# → VHigh(Resonant)ːCVC#
- When the second-to-last syllable in a word has a nucleus consisting of a high tone vowel (and, optionally, a resonant), and the last syllable has the form CVC, then the high tone nucleus is lengthened.
- Ex. /bak-‘ʔawɑ́waʔ/ → [bahʔwɑ́ːwaʔ] ‘they said’
- Syllable Lengthening Process Two
- V(Resonant)ʔ → V(Resonant) ː / in any prepenultimate syllable
- In any syllable before the penultimate, a glottal stop coda is deleted, and the remaining nucleus is lengthened.
- Ex. /hɑ́k#ci-(ʔi)bíhn-saʔ/ → [hɑ́hciːbíːsaʔ] ‘I have it on my back’
- Syllable Lengthening Process Three
- a) ij → iː
- b) uw →uː
- Any syllable nucleus consisting of ij or uw must convert to a long vowel.
Education and Preservation Attempts
The Caddo Nation is making a concentrated effort to save the Caddo language. The Kiwat Hasinay ('Caddo Home') foundation, located at the tribal home of Binger, Oklahoma, offers regular Caddo language classes, in addition to creating dictionaries, phrase books, and other Caddo language resources. They have also made a long-term project of trying to record and digitally archive Caddoan oral traditions, which are an important part of Caddo culture.External links
- Ethnologue report for Caddo
- Kiwat Hasinay Foundation
- Caddo Alphabet (PDF)
- Kúhaʔahat Oklahoma! - How to say "hello" in Caddo
- http://www.socrata.com/Education/CaddoLanguage/kerq-ib5s - Search-able Caddo Language Dictionary on Socrata, created by Michael Sheyahshe (replaces Caddo WebLEX)