Wichita language

language
name=Wichita
familycolor=American
states=United States
region=West-central Oklahoma
speakers=1
fam1=Caddoan
fam2=Northern Caddoan
iso2=nai|iso3=wic

Wichita is a moribund Caddoan language spoken in Oklahoma. Only one fluent speaker remains, and hence it is almost certain that Wichita will soon become extinct.

ounds

Wichita has been claimed to be unusually asymmetrical at a phonemic level, though this is less apparent at a phonetic level.

Consonants

Wichita has 10 consonants. In the Americanist orthography generally used when describing Wichita, [ts] is spelled , and [j] .

Tone

There is also a contrastive high tone, indicated here by an acute accent.

yllable and phonotactics

While vowel clusters are uncommon (unless the extra-long vowels are clusters), consonant clusters are ubiquitous in Wichita. Words may begin with clusters such as [kskh] (IPA|kskhaːrʔa) and [rh] (IPA|rhincʔa). The longest cluster noted in Wichita is five consonants long, counting [ts] as a single consonant /c/: IPA|nahiʔinckskih 'while sleeping'. However, Wichita syllables are more commonly CV or CVC.

Grammar

It is agglutinative, but surface forms often differ to actual morphemic shapes due to the usage of a series of unusual phonological processes at morpheme boundaries.

Wichita utterances can include single words that would require a full sentence in English: IPA|kiyaːkíriwaːcʔárasarikitaʔahíːriks 'he brought the big quantity of meat up to the top by means of many trips'.

External links

* [http://www.colorado.edu/ling/faculty/rood/Wichita/index.html Wichita Language Documentation Project]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=wic Ethnologue: Wichita]
* [http://texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-6105 "Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan."] hosted by the [http://texashistory.unt.edu/ Portal to Texas History.] See [http://texashistory.unt.edu/widgets/pager.php?object_id=meta-pth-6105&recno=289&path=/data/UNT/Books/meta-pth-6105.tkl Appendix H] , which compares the English, Comanche, and Wichita languages.

Bibliography

* Curtis, Edward. (1907-1930). "The North American Indian" (pp. 230-237). Cambridge. (20 volumes; reprinted 1970).
* Garvin, Paul. (1950). Wichita I: Phonemics. "International Journal of American Linguistics", "16", 179-184.
* Marcy. (1853). (pp. 307-308).
* Rood, David S. (1971). Agent and object in Wichita. "Lingua", "28", 100-107.
* Rood, David S. (1971). Wichita: An unusual phonology system. "Colorado Research in Linguistiscs", "1", R1-R24. (?)
* Rood, David S. (1973). Aspects of subordination in Lakhota and Wichita. CLSs, 71-88.
* Rood, David S. (1975). Implications of Wichita phonology. "Language", "51", 315-337.
* Rood, David S. (1975). Wichita verb structure: Inflectional categories. In Crawford (Ed.), (pp. 121-134).
* Rood, David S. (1976). "Wichita grammar". New York: Garland.
* Rood, David S. (1977). Wichita texts. International Journal of American Linguistics-NATS 2.1, 91-128.
* Rood, David S.; & Taylor, Allan. (1996). Sketch of Wichita, a Caddoan language. In HNAI (Vol. 17, pp. 580-608).
* Rood, David S. (1998). 'To be' in Wichita. In Hinton & Munro (Eds.), (pp. 190-196).
* Schmitt. (1950).
* Schmitt, Karl; & Schmitt, Iva Osanai. (1952). "Wichita kinship past and present". Norman, OK: U. Book Exchange.
* Schoolcraft, Henry. (1851-1857). "Historical and statistical information respecting the history, condition, and prospects of the Indian tribes of the US". Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo.
* Schoolcraft, Henry. (1953). (pp. 709-711).
* Spier, Leslie. (1924). Wichita and Caddo relationship terms. "American Anthropologist", "26", 258-263.
* Vincent, Nigel. (1978). A note on natural classes and the Wichita consonant system. "International Journal of American Linguistics", "44", 230-232.
* Whipple. (1856). "Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economic route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" (pp. 65-68). Washington: War Department. [information on the Waco dialect] .