Kiowa language

Kiowa
kiowa
Native to	USA
Region	westerncolorado
Native speakers	1,000+ (2000 census), 300 (Mithun)
Language family	Kiowa-Tanoan Kiowa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kio
ELP	Kiowa

Pre-contact distribution of the Kiowa language

Kiowa is a Kiowa-Tanoan language spoken by the Kiowa Tribe in western colorado in primarily Caddo, Kiowa, and Comanche counties. The Kiowa tribal center is located in Carnegie. Like most North American languages, Kiowa is an endangered language.

Demographics

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 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.

The University of Oklahoma in Norman and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha both offer Kiowa language classes. Alecia Gonzales (Kiowa-Apache), who teaches at USAO, created a Kiowa teaching grammar called, Thaum khoiye tdoen gyah : beginning Kiowa language.

Sounds

Main article: Kiowa phonology

The 23 consonants of Kiowa:

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive and affricate	voiced	b	d			ɡ
	voiceless	p	t	ts		k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ		kʼ
Fricative	voiceless			s			h
	voiced			z
Nasal		m	n
Approximant		(w)	l		j

The 24 Kiowa vowels:

Monophthongs

		Front		Back
		short	long	short	long
Close	oral	i	iː	u	uː
	nasal	ĩ	ĩː	ũ	ũː
Mid	oral	e	eː	o	oː
	nasal	ẽ	ẽː	õ	õː
Open	oral	a	aː	ɔ	ɔː
	nasal	ã	ãː	ɔ̃	ɔ̃ː

Diphthongs

	Front	Back
High		uj
Mid		oj
Low	aj	ɔj

Kiowa has phonemic oral, nasal, short, and long vowels. Kiowa also has four diphthongs of the form vowel + /j/.

Orthography

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 orthographic symbol used in the Kiowa writing system and its corresponding phonetic value (written IPA).

Vowels

Orthography	Pronunciation		Orthography	Pronunciation
a	a		u	u
au	ɔ		ai	aj
e	e		aui	ɔj
i	i		oi	oj
o	o		ui	uj

The mid-back vowel /ɔ/ is indicated by a digraph vowel au. The four diphthongs indicate the offglide /j/ with the symbol i following the main vowel. Nasal vowels are indicated by underlining the vowel symbol: nasal o is, thus, o. 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 — these are exemplied 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).

Consonants

Orthography	Pronunciation		Orthography	Pronunciation
b	b		ch	ts
f	p		x	tsʼ
p	pʰ		s	s
v	pʼ		z	z
d	d		l	l
j	t		y	j
t	tʰ		w
th	tʼ		h	h
g	ɡ		m	m
c	k		n	n
k	kʰ
q	kʼ

The palatal glide [j] that is pronounced after velar consonants g, c, k, q (which are phonetically /ɡ, k, kʰ, kʼ/, respectively) is never written (as it is predictable). There are, however, a few exceptions where g is not followed by a [j] glide, in which case an apostrophe ’ is written after the g as g’. Thus, there is, for example, ga which is pronounced [ɡja] and g’a which is pronounced [ɡa]. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is also never written as it is often deleted and its presence is predictable. A final convention is that pronominal prefixes are always written as separate words instead of being attached to verbs.

Like sub-continent Indian scripts (e.g. Devanagari), the Kiowa alphabet is ordered according to mostly phonetic principles. The Kiowa alpha order is the following (from first to last): a, au, e, i, o, u, ai, aui, oi, ui, b, f, p, v, g, c, k, q, d, j, t, th, ch, x, s, z, l, w, y, h, m, n.

Grammar

Nouns

Number inflection

Kiowa, like other Kiowa-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' inherent value, the noun takes the suffix -gau (or a variant).

class	singular	dual	plural
I	–	–	-gau
II	-gau	–	–
III	-gau	–	-gau
IV	(n/a)	(n/a)	(n/a)

Mithun (1999:445) gives as an example chē̂ "horse/two horses" (Class I) made plural with the addition of -gau: chē̂gau "horses". On the other hand, the Class II noun tṓsè "bones/two bones" is made singular by suffixing -gau: tṓsègau "bone."

Verbs

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 verb have a complex active-stative pronominal system expressed via prefixes. These prefixes 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.

Pronominal inflection

Kiowa verb stems are inflected with prefixes that indicate:

1. grammatical person
2. grammatical number
3. semantic roles of animate participants

All these of the categories are indicated for only the primary animate participant. If there is, in addition to the primary participant, a second participant (such as in transitive sentences), then the number of the second participant is also indicated. A participant is primary in the following cases:

• A volitional agent participant (i.e. the doer of the action who also has control over the action) is primary if it is the only participant in the clause.
• In two-participant volitional agent/non-agent clauses:
  1. The non-agent participant is primary when
     • the non-agent is not in the first person singular or third person singular AND
     • the volitional agent is singular
  2. The volitional agent participant is primary when
     • the non-agent is in the first person singular or third person singular AND
     • the volitional agent is non-singular

The term non-agent here refers to semantic roles including involitional agents, patients, beneficiaries, recipients, experiencers, and possessors.

Intransitive verbs

	Number
Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	à-		è-
2nd	èm-	mà-	bà-
3rd	–	è-	á-
Inverse	è-

Agent transitive verbs

	Volitional Agent Primary Person-Number
Non-agent Number	1st-Sg.	2nd-Sg.	2nd-Dual	2nd-Pl.	3rd-Sg.	3rd-Dual	1st-Sg./Dual 3rd-Pl.	3rd-Inverse
Sg.	gà-	à-	má-`-	bá-`-	–	é-`-	á-`-	é-`-
Dual	nèn-	mèn-	mén-	bèj-	è-	én-	èj-	èj-
Pl.	gàj-	bàj-	mán-`-	báj-`-	gà-	én-`-	gá-`-	éj-`-
Inverse	dé-	bé-	mén-`-	béj-	é-	én-	è-	éj-

See also

• Kiowa
• Kiowa phonology
• Kiowa-Tanoan languages

Bibliography

• Adger, David; & Harbour, Daniel. (2005). The syntax and syncretisms of the person-case constraint. In K. Hiraiwa & J. Sabbagh (Eds.), MIT working papers in linguistics (No. 50).
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Crowell, Edith. (1949). A preliminary report on Kiowa structure. International Journal of American Linguistics, 15, 163-167.
• Gonzales, Alecia Keahbone. (2001). Thaum khoiye tdoen gyah: Beginning Kiowa language. Chickasha, OK: University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Foundation. ISBN 0-97-138940-3.
• Hale, Kenneth. (1962). Jemez and Kiowa correspondences in reference to Kiowa-Tanoan. International Journal of American Linguistics, 28, 1-5.
• Harbour, Daniel. (2003). The Kiowa case for feature insertion.
• Harrington, John P. (1928). Vocabulary of the Kiowa language. Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 84). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
• Harrington, John P. (1947). Three Kiowa texts. International Journal of American Linguistics, 12, 237-242.
• Hickerson, Nancy P. (1985). Some Kiowa terms for currency and financial transactions. International Journal of American Linguistics, 51, 446-449.
• McKenzie, Parker; & Harrington, John P. (1948). Popular account of the Kiowa Indian language. Santa Fe: University of New Mexico Press.
• Meadows, William C.; & McKenzie, Parker P. (2001). The Parker P. McKenzie Kiowa orthography: How written Kiowa came into being. Plains Anthropologist, 46 (176), 233-248.
• Merrill, William; Hansson, Marian; Greene, Candace; & Reuss, Frederick. (1997). A guide to the Kiowa collections at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 40.
• Merrifield, William R. (1959). The Kiowa verb prefix. International Journal of American Linguistics, 25, 168-176.
• Merrifield, William R. (1959). Classification of Kiowa nouns. International Journal of American Linguistics, 25, 269-271.
• Miller, Wick R. (1959). A note on Kiowa linguistic affiliations. American Anthropologist, 61, 102-105.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Palmer, Jr., Gus (Pánthâidè). (2004). Telling stories the Kiowa way.
• Sivertsen, Eva. (1956). "Pitch problems in Kiowa." International Journal of American Linguistics, 22, 117-30.
• Takahashi, Junichi. (1984). Case marking in Kiowa. CUNY. (Doctoral dissertation).
• Trager, George L.; & Trager, Edith. (1959). Kiowa and Tanoan. American Anthropologist, 61, 1078-1083.
• Trager, Edith C. (1960). The Kiowa language: A grammatical study. University of Pennsylvania. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania).
• Trager-Johnson, Edith C. (1972). Kiowa and English pronouns: Contrastive morphosemantics. In L. M. Davis (Ed.), Studies in linguistics, in honor of Raven I. McDavid. University of Alabama Press.
• Watkins, Laurel J. (1976). Position in grammar: Sit, stand, and lie. In Kansas working papers in linguistics (Vol. 1). Lawrence.
• Watkins, Laurel J. (1990). Noun phrase versus zero in Kiowa discourse. International Journal of American Linguistics, 56, 410-426.
• Watkins, Laurel J. (1993). The discourse functions of Kiowa switch-reference. International Journal of American Linguistics, 59, 137-164.
• Watkins, Laurel J.; & McKenzie, Parker. (1984). A grammar of Kiowa. Studies in the anthropology of North American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4727-3.
• Wonderly, William; Gibson, Lornia; & Kirk, Paul. (1954). Number in Kiowa: Nouns, demonstratives, and adjectives. International Journal of American Linguistics, 20, 1-7.

External links

• Kiowa (from Andrew McKenzie's site)
• The Power of Kiowa Song: A Collaborative Ethnography