The Kitsai (also Kichai) language is an extinct member of the Caddoan language family. 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: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, but by 1940 no native speakers remained. It is thought to be most closely related to

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

. The Kichai people today are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi),

Waco Waco ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 population of 146,608, making i ...

and Tawakonie), headquartered in

Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko is a city in and the county seat of Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is 50 miles (80.5 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. History Anadarko got its name when its post offic ...

Phonology

Consonants

Kitsai's

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

inventory consists of the

phonemes A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...

shown in the chart below. The phoneme /c/ is analyzed below as a

palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

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 * M ...

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 ...

, 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: When adjacent to //, the vowels // and // appear to mostly exist in free variation with // and // respectively. There are a few instances where // does not occur next to //, like the word for "owl" (pronounced //), but this is rare. Ultimately, the phonemic status of // is unclear.

Documentation

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

Alexander Lesser Alexander Lesser (1902–1982) was an American anthropologist. Working in the Boasian tradition of American cultural anthropology, he adopted critical stances of several ideas of his fellow Boasians, and became known as an original and critical th ...

, of

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...

. 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. 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 from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

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

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821, the UBA has educa ...

, 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) * * * * * * * * *

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