Catawba language
Catawba (/kəˈtɔːbə/) is one of two Eastern Siouan languages of the eastern US, which together with the Western Siouan languages formed the Siouan language family.
| Catawba | |
|---|---|
| Katapa | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | South Carolina |
| Ethnicity | Ye Iswąˀ (Catawba) |
| Extinct | 1959, with the death of Samuel Taylor Blue[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | chc |
| Glottolog | cata1286 |
| ELP | Catawba[2] |
| Linguasphere | 64-ABA-ab |
The last native speaker of Catawba died before 1960.[1] Red Thunder Cloud, apparently an impostor born Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West, claimed to speak the language until he died in 1996 (Goddard 2000). The Catawba tribe is now working to revive the Catawba language.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | ||||
| Affricate | tʃ | |||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
There is also a [ɡ] sound, which happens to be an allophone of /k/. /ʃ/ is rare.
Vowels
| Short | Long | Nasal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | iː | ĩ |
| Mid | e | eː | ẽ |
| Open | a | aː | ã |
| Back | u | uː | ũ |
Short vowel sounds /i, e, a, u/ can be unstressed, ranging to [ɪ, ə~ɛ, ɑ, ʊ]. Back vowel sounds can range from /u/ to [o], and a short /a/ can range to a back vowel sound [ɑ].[3]
References
- Catawba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Endangered Languages Project data for Catawba.
- Rudes, Costa, Blair, David (2003). Essays in Algonquian, Catawban, and Siouan Linguistics in Memory of Frank T. Siebert, Jr.
External links
- Ives Goddard, 2000. "The Identity of Red Thunder Cloud", Smithsonian Institution, reprinted from Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter. (accessed 8 Apr 2010)
- Catawba Indian Language
- Catawba Texts
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