Wichita language


Wichita is an extinct Caddoan language once spoken in Oklahoma by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. The last fluent heritage speaker, Doris Lamar-McLemore, died in 2016, although in 2007 there were three first-language speakers alive. This has rendered Wichita functionally extinct; however, the tribe offers classes to revitalize the language and works in partnership with the Wichita Documentation Project of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dialects

When the Europeans began to settle North America, Wichita separated into three dialects; Waco, Tawakoni, and Kirikiri:s. However, when the language was threatened and the number of speakers decreased, dialect differences largely disappeared.

Status

As late as 2007 there were three living native speakers, but the last known fluent native speaker, Doris Lamar-McLemore, died on 30 August 2016. This is a sharp decline from the 500 speakers estimated by Paul L. Garvin in 1950.

Classification

Wichita is a member of the Caddoan language family, along with modern Caddo, Pawnee, Arikara, and Kitsai.

Phonology

The phonology of Wichita is unusual, with no pure labial consonants, and possibly a three vowel system using only height for contrast.

Consonants

Wichita has 10 consonants. In the Americanist orthography generally used when describing Wichita, is spelled, and is.
Though neither Rood nor Garvin include nasals in their respective consonant charts for Wichita, Rood's later inclusion of nasals in phonetic transcription for his 2008 paper support the appearance of at least.
Original Word EndingChangeResultWichita Example
No Change
-
-

Wichita has either three or four vowels, depending on analysis:
FrontBack
Highɪ ~ i ~ e
Midɛ ~ æ
Lowɒ ~ a

These are transcribed as.
Word-final vowels are devoiced.
Though Rood employs the letter in his transcriptions, Garvin instead uses, and asserts that is a separate phoneme. However, considering the imprecision in vowel sound articulation, what is likely important about these transcriptions is that they attest to a back vowel that is not low.
Taylor uses Garvin's transcription in his analysis, but theorizes a shift of *u to medially in Wichita, but does not have enough examples to fully analyze all the possible environments. He also discusses a potential shift from *a to, but again, does not have enough examples to develop a definitive hypothesis. Taylor finds only occurs with intervocalic glottal stops.
Rood argues that is not phonemic, as it is often equivalent to any vowel + + any vowel. For example, is frequently contracted to . There are relatively few cases where speakers will not accept a substitution of vowel + + vowel for ; one of them is 'eagle'.
Rood also proposes that, with three vowels that are arguably high, mid, and low, the front-back distinction is not phonemic, and that one may therefore speak of a 'vertical' vowel inventory. This also has been claimed for relatively few languages, such as the Northwest Caucasian languages and the Ndu languages of Papua New Guinea.
There is clearly at least a two-way contrast in vowel length. Rood proposes that there is a three-way contrast, which is quite rare among the world's languages, although well attested for Mixe, and probably present in Estonian. However, in Wichita, for each of the three to four vowels qualities, one of the three lengths is rare, and in addition the extra-long vowels frequently involve either an extra morpheme, or suggest that prosody may be at work. For example,
This contrasts with Mixe, where it is easy to find a three-way length contrast without the addition of morphemes.
Under Rood's analysis, then, Wichita has 9 phonemic vowels:
ShortLongOverlong
Highɪɪˑɪː
Midɛɛˑɛː
Lowaaˑaː

Tone

There is also a contrastive high tone, indicated here by an acute accent.

Syllable and phonotactics

While vowel clusters are uncommon, consonant clusters are ubiquitous in Wichita. Words may begin with clusters such as and . The longest cluster noted in Wichita is five consonants long, counting as a single consonant : 'while sleeping'. However, Wichita syllables are more commonly CV or CVC.

Grammar and morphology

Wichita is an agglutinative, polysynthetic language, meaning words have a root verb basis to which information is added; that is, morphemes are added to verb roots. These words may contain subjects, objects, indirect objects, and possibly indicate possession. Thus, surprisingly complex ideas can be communicated with as little as one word. For example, means "one makes himself a fire".
Nouns do not distinguish between singular and plural, as this information is specified as part of the verb. Wichita also does not distinguish between genders, which can be problematic for English language translation.
Sentence structure is much more fluid than in English, with words being organized according to importance or novelty. Often the subject of the sentence is placed initially. Linguist David S. Rood, who has written many papers concerning the Wichita language, recorded this example, as spoken by Bertha Provost in the late 1960s.
WichitahiɾaːwisɁihaːskijariːt͡seːhiɾeːweɁehikaɁat͡saːkikaɁakɁit͡sakihiɾaːɾɁtiɁinaːkiɾih
Word TranslationOld.time.peopleGodWhen.he.made.us.dwellEarthThisWhere.it.is.located

The subject of the sentence is ancestors, and thus the sentence begins with it, instead of God, or creation. This leads one to conclude Wichita has a largely free word-order, where parts of the sentence do not need to be located next to each other to be related.
The perfective tense demonstrates that an act has been completed; on the other hand, the intentive tense indicates that a subject plans or planned to carry out a certain act. The habitual aspect indicates a habitual activity, for example: "he smokes" but not "he is smoking." Durative tense describes an activity, which is coextensive with something else.
Wichita has no indirect speech or passive voice. When using past tense, speakers must indicate if this knowledge of the past is based in hearsay or personal knowledge. Wichita speakers also use a morpheme which amounts to two versions of "we"; one that includes the listener, and one that does not. Wichita also differentiates between singular, dual and plural number, instead of the simpler singular or plural designations commonly found.

Affixes

Some Wichita affixes are:

Instrumental suffixes

The suffix is Rá:hir, added to the base. Another means of expressing instrument, used only for body parts, is a characteristic position of incorporation in the verb complex.
  1. ha:rhiwi:cá:hir 'using a bowl'
  2. ika:rá:hir 'with a rock'
  3. kirikirɁi:sá:hir 'in Wichita '
  4. iskiɁo:rɁeh 'hold me in your arms'.
  5. keɁese:cɁíriyari 'you will shake your head'.

    Tense and aspect

One of these tense-aspect prefixes must occur in any complete verb form.
durative; directivea / i
aorist a…ki
perfect; recent pastara
future quotativeeheː
subjunctiveha…ki
exclamatory; immediate presentiskiri
oughtkara
optativekaɁa
futurekeɁe
future imperativekiɁi
participlena
interrogative indicativera
indicativeta
negative indicativeɁa

Note: kara
The aspect-marking suffixes are:
perfectiveØ
imperfectives
intentivestaris
genericːss

Other prefixes and suffixes are as follows:
Examples:
Ɂarasi 'cook'
á:kaɁarásisquotative aorist imperfectiveI heard she was cooking it
kiyakaɁarásisquotative aorist imperfectiveI heard she was cooking it
á:kaɁarásikiquotative aorist perfectiveI heard she was cooking it
á:kaɁarásistarisquotative aorist intentiveI heard she was planning on cooking it
kiyakaɁarásistarisquotative aorist intentiveI heard she was planning on cooking it
á:kaɁarásiki:ssquotative aorist genericI heard she always cooked it
kiyakaɁarásiki:ssquotative aorist genericI heard she always cooked it
ákaɁárasisaorist imperfectiveI know myself she was cooking it
ákaɁárasikiaorist perfectiveI know myself she cooked it
ákaɁarásistarisaorist intentiveI know myself she was going to cook it
ákaɁaraásiki:ssaorist genericI know myself she always cooked it
keɁárasikifuture perfectiveShe will cook it
keɁárasisfuture imperfectiveShe will be cooking it
keɁárasiki:ssfuture genericShe will always cook it
ehéɁárasikiquotative future perfectiveI heard she will cook it
ehéɁárasisquotative future imperfectiveI heard she will be cooking it
eheɁárasiki:ssquotative future genericI heard she will always be the one to cook it
taɁarásisindicative imperfectiveShe is cooking it; She cooked it
taɁarásistarisindicative intentiveShe's planning to cook it
taɁarásiki::sindicative genericShe always cooks it
ískirá:rásisexclamatoryThere she goes, cooking it!
aɁarásisdirective imperfectiveThen you cook it
haɁarásikiimperative imperfectiveLet her cook it
ki:Ɂárasikifuture imperative perfectiveLet her cook it later
ki:Ɂárasiki:ssfuture imperative genericYou must always let her cook it
á:raɁarásikiquotative perfect perfectiveI heard she cooked it
á:raɁarásistarisquotative perfect intentiveI heard she was going to cook it
áraɁárasikiperfect perfectiveI know she cooked it
keɁeɁárasisoptative imperfectiveI wish she'd be cooking it
keɁeɁárasikioptative perfectiveI wish she'd cook it
keɁeɁárasistarisoptative intentiveI wish she would plan to cook it
keɁeɁárasiki:ssoptative genericI wish she'd always cook it
keɁeɁárasiki:hi:Ɂoptative too lateI wish she had cooked it
karaɁárasisought imperfectiveShe ought to be cooking it
karaɁarásiki:ssought genericShe should always cook it
karaɁárasiski:hiɁought too lateShe ought to have cooked it

Modifiers

Case

In the Wichita language, there are only case markings for obliques. Here are some examples:

Instrumental case

Most nouns take a locative suffix kiyah:
But a few take the verbal -hirih:
Any verbal participle can be converted to a locative clause by the suffix -hirih
Wichita is a typical example of a polysynthetic language. Almost all the information in any simple sentence is expressed by means of bound morphemes in the verb complex. The only exception to this are noun stems, specifically those functioning as agents of transitive verbs but sometimes those in other functions as well, and specific modifying particles. A typical sentence from a story is the following:
wá:cɁarɁa kiya:kíriwa:cɁárasarikìtàɁahí:rikss niya:hkʷírih
wa:cɁarɁa 'squirrel'
kiya 'quotative' + a...ki 'aorist' + a 'preverb' + Riwa:c 'big + Ɂaras 'meat' + Ra 'collective' + ri 'portative' + kita 'top' + Ɂa 'come' + hi:riks 'repetitive' + s 'imperfective'
na 'participle' + ya:k 'wood' + r 'collective' + wi 'be upright' + hrih 'locative'
'The squirrel, by making many trips, carried the large quantity of meat up into the top of the tree, they say.'
Note that 'squirrel' is the agent and occurs by itself with no morphemes indicating number or anything else. The verb, in addition to the verbal units of quotative, aorist, repetitive, and imperfective, also contain morphemes that indicate the agent is singular, the patient is collective, the direction of the action is to the top, and all the lexical information about the whole patient noun phrase, 'big quantity of meat'.

Gender

In the Wichita language, there is no gender distinction.

Person and possession

The verb 'have, possess' in Wichita is /uR... Ɂi/, a combination of the preverb 'possessive' and the root 'be'. Possession of a noun can be expressed by incorporating that noun in this verb and indicating the person of the possessor by the subject pronoun:
Nouns can be divided into those that are countable and those that are not. In general, this correlates with the possibility for plural marking: Countable nouns can be marked for dual or plural; if not so marked, they are assumed to be singular. Uncountable nouns cannot be pluralized.
Those incountable nouns that are also liquids are marked as such by a special morpheme, kir.
Those incountable nouns that are not liquid are not otherwise marked in Wichita. This feature is labeled dry mass. Forms such as ye:c 'fire', kirɁi:c 'bread', and ka:hi:c 'salt' are included in this category.
Wichita countable nouns are divided into those that are collective and those that are not. The collective category includes most materials, such as wood; anything that normally comes in pieces, such as meat, corn, or flour; and any containers such as pots, bowls, or sacks when they are filled with pieces of something.
Some of the noncollective nominals are also marked for other selectional restrictions. In particular, with some verbs, animate nouns require special treatment when they are patients in the sentence. Whenever there is an animate patient or object of certain verbs such as u...raɁa 'bring' or irasi 'find', the morpheme |hiɁri| also occurs with the verb. The use of this morpheme is not predictable by rule and must be specified for each verb in the language that requires it.
Like hiɁri 'patient is animate', the morpheme wakhahr, means 'patient is an activity'.
Countable nouns that are neither animate nor activities, such as chairs, apples, rocks, or body parts, do not require any semantic class agreement morphemes in the surface grammar of Wichita.
The morpheme |ra:k| marks any or all non-third persons in the sentence as plural.
The morpheme for 'collective' or 'patient is not singular'. The shape of this varies from verb to verb, but the collective is usually |ru|, |ra|, or |r|.
The noncollective plural is usually |Ɂak|. Instead of a morpheme here, some roots change form to mark plural. Examples include:
WordSingularPlural
cookɁarasiwa:rasɁi:rɁ
eatkaɁacɁa
killkiɁessa

A surface structure object in the non-third-person category can be clearly marked as singular, dual, or plural. The morpheme ra:k marks plurality; a combination oh hi and Ɂak marks dual. Singular is marked by zero.
If both agent and patient are third person, a few intransitive verbs permit the same distinctions for patients as are possible for non-third objects: singular, dual, and plural. These verbs allow the morpheme wa to mark 'dual patient'. In all other cases the morphemes ru, ra, r, or Ɂak means 'patient is plural'.
According to the Ethnologue Languages of the World website, the Wichita language is "dormant", meaning that no one has more than symbolic proficiency. The last native speaker of the Wichita language, Doris Jean Lamar McLemore, died in 2016. The reason for the language's decline is because the speakers of the Wichita language switched to speaking English. Thus, children were not being taught Wichita and only the elders knew the language. "Extensive efforts to document and preserve the language" are in effect through the Wichita Documentation Project.

Revitalization efforts

The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes offered language classes, taught by Doris McLemore and Shirley Davilla. The tribe created an immersion class for children and a class for adults. Linguist David Rood has collaborated with Wichita speakers to create a dictionary and language CDs. The tribe is collaborating with Rood of the University of Colorado, Boulder to document and teach the language through the Wichita Documentation Project.