| Language name: | KIOWA |
| UPSID number: | 6785 |
| Alternate name(s): | |
| Classification: | North American, Kiowa-Tanoan |
| This language has | 42 segments |
| Its Frequency index is | 0.273360786 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
| The language has these sounds: | p tD k ? ph tDh kh b dD g p' tD' k' ts ts' h s z m nD dlD j i "e a+ O "o u i~ "e~ a+~ O~ "o~ u~ ui a+i oi Oi a+i~ ui~ oi~ Oi~ |
| Comment: | Kiowa is spoken by a few hundred speakers in south-central Oklahoma. Long and short variants of vowels occur, with many alternations predictable from syllable structure (Long in open, short in closed syllables). Kiowa has high and low tones and a HL combination that occurs only on heavy syllables (containing a long vowel, a diphthong or a vowel + sonorant sequence). HL is accompanied by significant glottalization. /dl/ does not occur initially; medially it is [l]. Dental and alveolar obstruents do not occur before /i/; velars and /j/ do not occur before /e/. A palatal glide is clearly heard between a velar and front /a/. |
| Source(s): | Sivertsen, E. 1956. Pitch problems in Kiowa. International Journal of American Linguistics 22: 117-130. Watkins, L.J. 1984. A Grammar of Kiowa. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London. Harrington, J.P. 1928. Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, bulletin 84. |