Quapaw, or Arkansas, is a

Siouan language Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the enti ...

of the Quapaw people, originally from a region in present-day

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

. It is now spoken in Oklahoma. It is similar to the other

Dhegihan languages The Dhegihan languages are a group of Siouan languages that include Kansa–Osage, Omaha–Ponca, and Quapaw. Their historical region included parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the Great Plains, and southeastern North America. T ...

: Kansa, Omaha,

Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode ...

and

Ponca The Ponca ( Páⁿka iyé: Páⁿka or Ppáⁿkka pronounced ) are a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the P ...

Written documentation

The Quapaw language is well-documented in field notes and publications from many individuals including by George Izard in 1827, by Lewis F. Hadly in 1882, from 19th-century

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

James Owen Dorsey James Owen Dorsey (October 31, 1848 – February 4, 1895) was an American ethnologist, linguist, and Episcopalian missionary in the Dakota Territory, who contributed to the description of the Ponca, Omaha, and other southern Siouan languages. H ...

, in 1940 by Frank T. Siebert, and, in the 1970s by linguist Robert Rankin. The Quapaw language does not conform well to English language phonetics, and a writing system for the language has not been formally adopted. All of the existing source material on the language utilizes different writing systems, making reading and understanding the language difficult for the novice learner. To address this issue, an online dictionary of the Quapaw language is being compiled which incorporates all of the existing source material known to exist into one document using a version of the International Phonetic Alphabet which has been adapted for Siouan languages.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Revitalization

Ardina Moore Ardina Moore (née Revard, December 1, 1930 – April 19, 2022) was a Quapaw/Osage Native American from Miami, Oklahoma. A fluent Quapaw language speaker, she developed a language preservation program and taught the language to younger tribal ...

taught Quapaw language classes through the tribe."Quapaw Language."
''Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma.'' Retrieved 9 Dec 2013. As of 2012, Quapaw language lessons are available online or by DVD. An online audio lexicon of the Quapaw language is available on the tribal website to assist language learners. The lexicon incorporates audio of first language speakers who were born between 1870 and 1918. The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Quapaw,

, Kaw,

, and Omaha speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization. A Quapaw Tribal Youth Language and Cultural Preservation Camp teaches the language to children, and the Quapaw Tribal Museum offers classes for adults.

Notes

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

Native American language revitalization Indigenous languages of Oklahoma Western Siouan languages {{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub