Tanoan languages
Encyclopedia
Tanoan təˈnoʊ.ən is a family of languages spoken in New Mexico
, Kansas
, Oklahoma
, and Texas
.
Most of the languages – Tiwa
(Taos, Picuris, Southern Tiwa), Tewa
, and Towa – are spoken in the Pueblo
s of New Mexico
(with one outlier in Arizona) and were the ones first given the collective name Tanoan, while Kiowa
is spoken mostly in southwestern Oklahoma
.
Kiowa–Towa might form an intermediate branch, as might Tiwa–Tewa.
languages, consisting of Tiwa, Tewa
and Towa. The inclusion of Kiowa
into the family was at first controversial; the once-nomadic Kiowa people of the Plains are culturally quite distinct from the Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa pueblos. However, it is now accepted that a Tanoan family without Kiowa would be paraphyletic, as any ancestor of the pueblo languages would be ancestral to Kiowa as well. Indeed, Kiowa may be closer to Towa than Towa is to Tiwa–Tewa. Thus technically Tanoan and Kiowa–Tanoan are synonyms. However, because of the cultural use of the name Tanoan, the more explicit term Kiowa–Tanoan is still commonly used for the language family.
The prehistory of the Kiowa people is little known, and the history behind the separation of the members of this language family into two groups ('Puebloan' and 'Plains') with radically distict lifestyles is entirely unknown. There is apparently no tradition of any ancient connection.
family in a hypothetical Aztec–Tanoan proposal. Although undemonstrated, many linguists find this hypothesis to be promising.
as reconstructed by Hale (1967) based on consonant correspondences in stem-initial position.
The evidence for *ɡ comes from prefixes; *ɡ has not been found in stem-initial position and thus is in parentheses above. Hale also reconstructs the nasalization feature for nasal vowels. Vowel quality and prosodic features like vowel length, tone, and stress have not yet been reconstructed for the Tanoan family. However, Hale (1967) does give certain sets of vowel quality correspondences.
The following table illustrates the reconstructed initial consonants in Proto-Tanoan and its reflexes in the daughter languages.
As can be seen in the above table, a number of phonological mergers have occurred in the different languages.
Cognate
sets supporting the above are listed below:
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Most of the languages – Tiwa
Tiwa languages
Tiwa is a group of two, possibly three, related Tanoan languages spoken by the Tiwa Pueblo, and possibly Piro Pueblo, groups in the U.S...
(Taos, Picuris, Southern Tiwa), Tewa
Tewa language
Tewa is a Kiowa–Tanoan language spoken by Pueblo people, mostly in the Rio Grande valley in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. The 1980 census counted 1,298 speakers, almost all of whom are bilingual in English...
, and Towa – are spoken in the Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
s of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
(with one outlier in Arizona) and were the ones first given the collective name Tanoan, while Kiowa
Kiowa language
Kiowa is a Kiowa–Tanoan language spoken by the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma in primarily Caddo, Kiowa, and Comanche counties. The Kiowa tribal center is located in Carnegie...
is spoken mostly in southwestern Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Languages
The Tanoan language family has seven languages in four branches:Kiowa–Towa might form an intermediate branch, as might Tiwa–Tewa.
Name
Tanoan has long been recognized as a major family of PuebloPueblo people
The Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States. Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "towns". Of the 21...
languages, consisting of Tiwa, Tewa
Tewa language
Tewa is a Kiowa–Tanoan language spoken by Pueblo people, mostly in the Rio Grande valley in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. The 1980 census counted 1,298 speakers, almost all of whom are bilingual in English...
and Towa. The inclusion of Kiowa
Kiowa language
Kiowa is a Kiowa–Tanoan language spoken by the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma in primarily Caddo, Kiowa, and Comanche counties. The Kiowa tribal center is located in Carnegie...
into the family was at first controversial; the once-nomadic Kiowa people of the Plains are culturally quite distinct from the Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa pueblos. However, it is now accepted that a Tanoan family without Kiowa would be paraphyletic, as any ancestor of the pueblo languages would be ancestral to Kiowa as well. Indeed, Kiowa may be closer to Towa than Towa is to Tiwa–Tewa. Thus technically Tanoan and Kiowa–Tanoan are synonyms. However, because of the cultural use of the name Tanoan, the more explicit term Kiowa–Tanoan is still commonly used for the language family.
The prehistory of the Kiowa people is little known, and the history behind the separation of the members of this language family into two groups ('Puebloan' and 'Plains') with radically distict lifestyles is entirely unknown. There is apparently no tradition of any ancient connection.
Genealogical relations
The Tanoan family has been connected to the Uto-AztecanUto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
family in a hypothetical Aztec–Tanoan proposal. Although undemonstrated, many linguists find this hypothesis to be promising.
Historical phonology
The chart below contains the reconstructed consonants of the Tanoan proto-languageProto-language
A proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly...
as reconstructed by Hale (1967) based on consonant correspondences in stem-initial position.
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Apical Apical consonant An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives... |
Apical Fricated |
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).... |
Velar Labial |
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... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiced VOICED Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation... |
*b | *d | *dz | (*ɡ) | *ɡʷ | |
| plain | *p | *t | *ts | *k | *kʷ | ||
| glottalized | *pʼ | *tʼ | *tsʼ | *kʼ | *kʷʼ | *ʔ | |
| aspirated | *pʰ | *tʰ | *tsʰ | *kʰ | *kʷʰ | ||
| 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 | |||||
| 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 | *h | |||||
| Glide Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:... |
*w | ||||||
The evidence for *ɡ comes from prefixes; *ɡ has not been found in stem-initial position and thus is in parentheses above. Hale also reconstructs the nasalization feature for nasal vowels. Vowel quality and prosodic features like vowel length, tone, and stress have not yet been reconstructed for the Tanoan family. However, Hale (1967) does give certain sets of vowel quality correspondences.
The following table illustrates the reconstructed initial consonants in Proto-Tanoan and its reflexes in the daughter languages.
| Proto-Tanoan | Taos | Tewa | Jemez | Kiowa | Proto-Tanoan | Taos | Tewa | Jemez | Kiowa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| consonant | environment | |||||||||
| *h | h | h | ∅ | h | *dz | j | j, dʒ | z | d | |
| *ʔ | ʔ | ʔ | ʔ | ∅ | *d | before oral vowel | l | d | d | |
| *p | p | p | p | p | before nasal vowel | n | n | n | ||
| *pʼ | pʼ | pʼ | pʼ | pʼ | *n | n | ||||
| *pʰ | pʰ | f | ɸ | pʰ | *w | w | w | w | j | |
| *b | m | m | m | b | *ɡʷ | kʷ | ɡ | |||
| *m | m | (*ɡ) | k | ɡ | k | |||||
| *t | t | t | t | t | *k | k | k | |||
| *ts | tʃ | ts | s | *kʷ | kʷ | kʷ | ɡ | |||
| *tʰ | tʰ | θ | ʃ | tʰ | *kʷʼ | kʷʼ | kʷʼ | kʼ | ||
| *tsʰ | s | s | *kʼ | kʼ | kʼ | kʼ | ||||
| *s | ɬ | c | s | *kʰ | x | x | h | kʰ | ||
| *tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | *kʷʰ | xʷ | xʷ | |||
| *tsʼ | tʃʼ | tsʼ | ||||||||
As can be seen in the above table, a number of phonological mergers have occurred in the different languages.
Cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
sets supporting the above are listed below:
| Taos | Tewa | Jemez | Kiowa | meaning(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *b | mɑ̃ | mãʔ | mĩ́ː | bɔ | "to bring" |
| *m | mæ̃̀n- | mãn | mãté | mɔ̃ː-dɔ | "hand" |
| *d (+ V) | līlū- | diː | délʔɨː | – | "fowl" |
| *d (+ Ṽ) | ˈnæ̃̄m- | nãn | nṍː | dɔ̃-m | "sand" (in Taos), "ground" (in Tewa, Kiowa), "space" (in Jemez) |
| *n | næ̃̄ | nãː | nĩ́ː | nɔ̃ː | first person singular |
| *ts | ˈtʃī | tsíː | sé | ta | "eye" |
| *t | tũ̀ | tṹ | tɨ̃́ | tõ- | "to say" |
| *tsʰ | sũ̀ | sũwẽ | sɨ̃́ | tʰõ-m | "to drink" |
| *tʰ | ˈtʰɤ̄ | θáː | ʃó | tʰa- | "to break" (in Taos, Tewa, Jemez), "to sever several" (in Kiowa) |
| *ts’ | ˈtʃʼɑ̄- | – | – | tʼɔ-l | "liver" |
| *t’ | tʼɑ́- | tʼon | tʼaː | tʼɔː | "antelope" |
| *dz | jɑ̄- | – | zǽː | dɔ | "song" (in Taos, Jemez), "to sing" (in Kiowa) |