The Kitsai (also Kichai) language is an extinct member of the

Caddoan language family The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of sp ...

. The French first record the Kichai people's presence along the upper Red River in 1701. By the 1840s Kitsai was spoken in southern

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, but by the 1930s no native speakers remained. It is thought to be most closely related to Pawnee. The Kichai people today are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi), Waco and

Tawakonie The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita an ...

), headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Phonology

Consonants

Kitsai's consonant inventory consists of the phonemes shown in the chart below. The phoneme /c/ is analyzed below as a palatal stop, even though its typical realization is

alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * ...

with

delayed release A delayed release or late release may refer to: * Delayed release (film), the delayed release of a film to the public * Delayed release (pharmacology), oral medicines that do not immediately disintegrate and release the active ingredient(s) into t ...

, so as to not have an affricate "series" consisting of only one phoneme. Similarly, /w/ is analyzed as a velar (i.e. labio-velar) rather than a labial so as to not be the only labial consonant.

Vowels

Kitsai has the following vowel phonemes:

Documentation

Kitsai is documented in the still mostly-unpublished field notes of anthropologist Alexander Lesser, of

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...

. 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.Salvador Bucca and Alexander Lesser
"Kitsai Phonology and Morphophonemics,"
(University of Chicago Press, 1969): 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 Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

and prepare a grammar of the language. In the 1960s, Lesser shared his materials with

Salvador Bucca Salvador Bucca (1920-2005) was professor of linguistics at the University of Buenos Aires. He was a Guggenheim fellow in 1958. He was a specialist in the Kitsai language and the indigenous languages of Argentina. His papers and recordings relating t ...

of the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, and they published scholarly articles on Kitsai.

Vocabulary

Some Kitsai words include the following:"Kitsai and Caddoan Word Set."
''Native Languages.'' (retrieved 3 May 2010) *Bear: Wari:ni *Corn: Kotay *Coyote: 'Taxko *Grass: A'tsi'u *Man: Wí:ta *Sweet potato: 'Ihts *White: Kaxtsnu *Wind: Ho'tonu *Woman: Tsakwákt

Notes

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. .

External links

Native Languages

{{Caddoan languages Caddoan languages Extinct languages of North America Wichita tribe Languages extinct in the 1930s