Kitsai language
| Kitsai | |
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | previously west-central Oklahoma and eastern Texas |
| Ethnicity | Kichai |
| Extinct | 1940, with the death of Kai Kai[1] |
Caddoan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kii |
| Glottolog | kits1249 |
| Linguasphere | 64-BAB-a |
The Kitsai (also Kichai) language is an extinct member of the
Phonology
Consonants
Kitsai's
| Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop
|
t | c [t͡s] | k | ʔ |
Fricative
|
s | h | ||
| Nasal | n | |||
| Sonorant | r | y [j] | w |
Vowels
Kitsai has the following vowel phonemes:
| Short | Long | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| [+HIGH]
|
i | u | iː | uː |
| [-HIGH] | e | a | eː | aː |
Documentation
Kitsai is documented in the still mostly-unpublished field notes of anthropologist Alexander Lesser, of Hofstra University. Lesser discovered five speakers of Kitsai in 1928 and 1929, none of whom spoke English. Communicating to the Kitsai speakers through Wichita/English bilingual translators, he filled 41 notebooks with Kitsai material.[7]
Kai Kai was the last fluent speaker of Kitsai. She was born around 1849 and lived eight miles north of Anadarko. Kai Kai worked with Lesser to record vocabulary and oral history and prepare a grammar of the language.[8]
In the 1960s, Lesser shared his materials with
Vocabulary
Some Kitsai words include the following:[9]
- wari:ni 'bear'
- kotay 'corn'
- 'taxko 'coyote'
- a'tsi'u 'grass'
- wí:ta 'man'
- 'ihts 'sweet potato'
- kaxtsnu 'white'
- ho'tonu 'wind'
- tsakwákt 'woman'
Notes
- ^ "Kitsai". Ethnologue. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
- ^ Sturtevant and Fogelson, 616
- ^ "Kichai Tribe". Access Genealogy. July 9, 2011. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
- ^ Sturtevant and Fogelson, 68
- ^ Kitsai language at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
(retrieved 3 May 2010)
- ^ Vantine, John Liessman (1980). Aspects of Kitsai Phonology (MA thesis). University of Manitoba.
- ^ S2CID 143469230.
- ^ "Science: Last of the Kitsai". Time. June 27, 1932. Archived from the original on March 10, 2008. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- ^ "Kitsai and Caddoan Word Set." Native Languages. (retrieved 3 May 2010)
References
- Sturtevant, William C., general editor, and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
External links
- Kitsai, Native Languages
- Caddoan languages and peoples