Kiowa language

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Kiowa is a Kiowa-Tanoan language spoken by the Kiowa Tribe.

Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 2 Grammar 2.1 Number 3 References

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

The 21 consonants of Kiowa:

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiced	b	d			ɡ
	voiceless	p	t			k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
	ejective	p’	t’			k’	(ʔ)
Affricate	voiceless			ʦ
	ejective			ʦ’
Nasal		m	n
Fricative	voiceless			s			h
	voiced			z
Approximant	central	(w)			j
	lateral		l

[edit] Vowels

The 24 Kiowa vowels:

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

Kiowa has phonemic oral, nasal, short, and long vowels.

Kiowa also has four diphthongs of the form vowel + /j/.

	Front	Back
High		uj
Mid		oj
Low	aj	ɔj

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Number

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 -gɔ (or a variant).

class	singular	dual	plural
I	-	-	-gɔ
II	-gɔ	-	-
III	-ɡɔ	-	-ɡɔ
IV	(n/a)	(n/a)	(n/a)

Mithun gives as an example tsẽ:, "horse/two horses," (Class I) made plural with the addition of -gɔ: tsẽ:gɔ, "horses." On the other hand, the Class II noun t^hõ:se, "bones/two bones" is made singular by suffixing -gɔ: t^hõ:segɔ, "bone."

[edit] References

• 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.
• Hale, Kenneth. (1962). Jemez and Kiowa correspondences in reference to Kiowa-Tanoan. International Journal of American Linguistics, 28, 1-5.
• 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. Sante Fe: University of New Mexico Press.
• 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.
• 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. (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.