Caddoan languages
The Caddoan languages constitute a family of Native American languages of North America, which currently has fewer than 100 speakers, among all the languages that constitute the family.
Possibly these languages were originally spoken on the Great Plains, from South Dakota south to northeast Texas and east into the forested lands of Arkansas and Louisiana. Farther north were the Arikara, who moved north after contact with the Reserve settlement at Fort Berthold in North Dakota. The Arikara were an offshoot of the Pawnee, who originally lived in the Nebraska area but resettled in Pawnee, Olahoma. In the area that is now Kansas and part of Oklahoma lived the Wichita who are now near Anadarko, Oklahoma. Further south were the Kitsai, who settled with the Wichita in Oklahoma in the 19th century. The Louisiana-Arkansas and East Texas areas were inhabited by the Caddo who now live in the Anadarko region.
Family languages
The following information contains estimates on the number of speakers of these languages (in brackets the date of the estimates):
I. Northern Caddoan
- A. Paunio-Kitsai
- a. Kitsai
- 1. Kitsai (or Kichai) (†, 1940s)
- b. Paunio
- 2. Arikara (also called Ree) 200 (1973); 20 (1997)
- 3. Paunio (dialectos: South Bend, Skiri (also known as Skidi or Wolf) 200 (1973); 20 (1997)
- a. Kitsai
- B. Wichita
- 4. Wichita (dialectos: Wichita propaimente dicho, Waco, Towakoni) 50 (1973); 1 (2008)
II. Southern Caddoan
- 5. Caddo (dialects: Kadohadacho, Hasinai, Natchitoche, Yatasi) 300 (1973); 25 (1997)
Linguistic description
There is reasonable comparative work on the Caddoan languages that has made it possible to reconstruct both the phonological system of Proto-Caddoan and a number of features of the protolanguage.
Phonology
The following consonantal inventory has been reconstructed for Proto-Caddoan:
| the | apico-alveolar | palatal | ensure that | glotal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oclusive | ♪ | ♪ | ♪ | * | |
| African | * | ||||
| cold | ♪ | ♪ | |||
| approximate | ♪ | * | ♪ | ||
| Nose | ♪ |
The Pawni essentially has the previous system although in all positions /*n, *ɾ, *y/ > /ɾ/, and in initial position the arikara and pawni show some phoneme fusions. By contrast, Arikara has developed an additional number of affricates and sibilants, as well as some voiceless approximants. In Wichita /*p/ has disappeared giving /w/ in initial position and /kʷ/ in median position. Curiously, the reconstructed consonant system for Proto-Caddo appears to be the Proto-Iroquois phonological inventory (except for the fact that /*p does not appear / but /*kʷ/).
Regarding the vowels, a system of three consonants has been reconstructed /*i, *a, *u/.
Morphology
Lexical comparison
The following list of cognates serves as a point of comparison between the Caddoan languages:
| GLOSA | Northern Caddoan (Norcadan) | Caddoano South | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paunio | Arikara | Wichita | proto-NC | Caddo | |
| 'brazo' | pīru. | wīnu. | wīr.a | ♪win- | mīsuh |
| 'sangre' | pātu. | pātu. | wāckic.a | *pat- | bā.Uh |
| 'bone' | kīsu. | čīsu. | kīs.a | ♪kis- | |
| 'bone' | ripīku. | nipīku. | nikwīk.a | *nipik- | Nibih |
| 'intestino' | rēcu. | nēsu. | niyācrēcu.a | *riyac- | nahč'uh |
| 'pierna' | kāsu. | kāxu. | kās.a | ♪kas- | k'āsuh |
| 'higado' | karīku. | karīku. | karik.a | *karik- | kank'uh |
| 'mofeta' | riwit | niwit | niwīc | ♪niwit | wihit |
| 'sol' | sakūru. | šakūnu. | sākhir.a | ♪ sak'uh | |
| 'madera' | rāku. 'box' | hāku. 'box' | hāk.a/ -yāk- | ♪ yak- | already..k'uh |
Relationship with other families
It has been proposed that the Caddoan languages together with the Sioux languages and the Iroquoian languages would constitute a hypothetical family called Macro-Sioux, although the evidence to date is inconclusive.
The evidence is mainly morphological: person prefixes on verbs, some, aspectual suffixes on verbs, plural marks on animates, etc.
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