Pawnee language

Pawnee
Native to United States
Region North-central Oklahoma
Ethnicity 2,500 Pawnee (2007)[1]
Native speakers
 10 (2007)[1]
Caddoan
  • Northern
    • Pawnee–Kitsai
      • Pawnee languages
        • Pawnee
Language codes
ISO 639-3 paw
Glottolog pawn1254[2]
Linguasphere 64-BAB-b
Pre-contact distribution of Pawnee

The Pawnee language is a Caddoan language spoken by some Pawnee Native Americans who now live in north-central Oklahoma. Their traditional historic lands were along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska.

Dialects

Two important dialect divisions are evident in Pawnee: South Band and Skiri. The distinction between the two dialects rests on differences in their respective phonetic inventory and lexicon.

Status

Once the language of thousands of Pawnees, today Pawnee is spoken by a shrinking number of elderly speakers. As more young people learn English as their first language, the status of Pawnee declines towards extinction. However, as of 2007, the Pawnee Nation is developing teaching materials for the local high school and for adult language classes. Now, there are extensive documentary materials in the language archived at the American Indian Studies Research Institute. [3]

Phonology

The following describes the South Band dialect.

Consonants

Pawnee has eight consonant phonemes, and according to one analysis of medial- and final-position glottal stops, one may posit a ninth consonant phoneme.

  Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Stop p t k (ʔ)
Affricate   ts    
Rhotic   r    
Fricative   s   h
Approximant     w  
  • /ʔ/ is predictable when it occurs in the middle of words. However, since /ʔ/ is not completely predictable at the end of words, it may also need to be considered as a (phonemic) consonant.

Vowels

Pawnee has four short vowel phonemes and four long counterparts (also phonemic).

  Front Back
 High  i/iː u/uː
 Mid-low  e/eː a/aː

Morphology

Pawnee is an ergative-absolutive polysynthetic language.

Alphabet

The Pawnee alphabet has 9 consonants and 8 vowels. The letters are relatively similar in pronunciation to their English counterparts.

Consonants

Spelling Sound (IPA) English equivalents
p p poke, cup
t t top, cat
k k cool, stuck
c ʃ ~ ts shell, push ~ pants
s s silly, face
h h heart, ahead
r r car, ferry
w w wacky, away
′ ʔ The "-" in uh-oh

Vowels

Spelling Sound (IPA) English equivalents
i ɪ sit
ii i feed
e ɛ red
ee eɪ paid
a ʌ nut
aa ɑ father
u ʊ book
uu u rude

Notes

  1. 1 2 Pawnee at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Pawnee". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ http://www.ethnologue.com/language/paw

References

  • American Indian Studies Research Institute. (2008). Dictionary Database: Pawnee (Skiri and Southband dialects).
  • American Indian Studies Research Institute. (2001). Pawnee Alphabet Book.
  • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
  • Parks, Douglas R. (1976). A grammar of Pawnee. New York: Garland.
  • Taylor, Allan R. (1978). [Review of A grammar of Pawnee by D. Parks]. Language, 54 (4), 969-972.
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