Biloxi () is an extinct Siouan-Catawban language formerly spoken by the Native American Biloxi tribe in present-day Mississippi, Louisiana, and southeastern Texas.
Classification Biloxi is an Ohio Valley, or Southeastern, Siouan language. It is related to Ofo and Tutelo.
History
The Biloxi tribe first encountered Europeans in 1699, along the Pascagoula River.Dorsey & Swanton 1912 By the mid-18th century, they had settled in central Louisiana. Some Biloxi were also noted in Texas in the early 19th century."Biloxi Tribe: Louisiana, Mississippi, Native American" Access Genealogy. February 22, 2009, updated July 26, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
By the early 19th century, their numbers had already begun to dwindle. By 1934, the last native speaker, Emma Jackson, was in her eighties.Einaudi 1976, pp. 1–3. Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas spoke with her in 1934 and confirmed that she knew the language.Dalby 2003, p. 224.
Phonology Multiple possible inventories have been suggested. This article follows that of Einaudi (1976).
Vowels Along with contrastive nasalization, Biloxi also has phonemic vowel length.
+ Biloxi vowels Front Central Back Close Mid () Open
Dorsey & Swanton (1912) postulated phonemic vowel length, which Haas and Swadesh verified in speaking with Emma Jackson in 1934. Their findings appeared in Haas (1968).
Also, there may still be some uncertainty about whether certain words contain /ą/ or /an/.
+ Example words Phoneme Word Gloss /i/ "it falls" /u/ "he gives" /o/ "anything rubbed or smeared" /a/ "he gathers"/į/"dung, manure"/e/"louse"/ǫ/"he sees"/ą/"he holds"
Consonants + Biloxi consonants Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Glottal Stop Fricative Nasal Approximant
Biloxi may also have a phonemic aspiration distinction for some segments.Ameka 2006, pp. 537–540.
+ Example words Phoneme Word Gloss /p/ "head" /t/ "house" /k/ "when" /d/ "he went"/m/"ground"/c/"they lie down"/x/"where"/n/"he stands"/w/"very"/s/"yellow"/h/"and"/y/"this"
+ Marginal phonemesEinaudi 1976, p.136 Phoneme Examples /b/ /f/ /š/ ("bottle") ("hog")
Phonotactics Syllable structure is (C)(C)(C)V(C) or (C)V(C)(C). However, three-consonant clusters are rare.
Most words end in a vowel. The others usually end in /k/ or /x/ as a result of deletion: from ("he fell").
Few consonant clusters end syllables. Most exceptions are caused by vowel deletion: from ("horse").
The following consonant clusters are observed:Einaudi 1976, p.25
+ 2-consonant clusters p t d c k s x h m n w y p ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ? t ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ? ✓ ✓ d ? c ✓ ✓ ✓ k ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ s ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ x ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ h m n ✓ ✓ ? ✓ ✓ w y
Geminates do not occur. /n/ sonorants and probably /d/ occur only as the second elements of clusters. /h/ and /m/ are never the second element. Fricatives do not co-occur.
There are a few three-consonant clusters, all of the form C+s+stop or C+x+glide and some with alternate forms: +3-consonant clustersClusterExamplepst~ ("she sews")psd~ ("knife") (also )tsp ("it adheres") (?)tsk~ ("fly") ("infant")kst ("he is stingy")nsk ("butterfly")pxw~ ("he punches")txy ("letter")kxw ("he sits on a swing") ("always")kxy ("loop")
Grammar Morphophonemics
There are many verb roots and two mode markers with the morphophonemically-conditioned alternation e~a~i (underlying E):
("go") , ("be") ("cause") ("say") (optative mode marker) (potential mode marker)
The alternation depends on the following morpheme:
E → /a/E → /i/E → /e/ , hortatory mode marker , potential mode marker , negative imperative mode; embedded negative mode marker , imperative mode marker (female to female) , imperative mode marker (female to male) , subjunctive mode marker , strong negative imperative mode marker , ? , , completive mode marker, intensifierelsewhere
Nouns and verbs whose stems end in or change to before the plural marker : + → ("their hair")
That may occur with ("to eat") also: + → ~ ("they eat")
The rule may optionally also apply in compounds and across word boundaries if the next element starts with CV: + → ("both arms")
Nouns that end in and can undergo pluralization change to : + → ("their father").
Verbs whose stems end in , , or optionally lose their before the plural marker: + → ("they sew") + → ("they pulled it off her head") + → ("they grabbed") ||k(i)|| → x/___k occurs optionally across morpheme or word boundaries. + + → + → ("you untie me") → ("when it was reclining") but + + → ("it is too large for me")
The rule may cause the previous vowel to denasalize. + + → + → ("you have not forgotten us") → ("he sat until")
Verbs whose stems end in or may optionally change to before the negative mode marker : + → ("they were unwilling")
Stems ending in optionally become . + + + → + → ("I did not take it from him")
The dative marker becomes before a vowel. + + → ("they said to him")
(However, Einaudi cites one counterexample, + → ("they were drinking it for him"), perhaps with a glottal stop inserted.)
The following rule is optional in compounds and across word boundaries and obligatory everywhere else:
V1V1 → V1
V1V2 → V2
+ + + → ("you do not make it") + → ("panther skin")
However, there are a few words with two adjacent vowels, such as ("day") and ("be sick").
Two morphophonemically identical syllables may not appear contiguously, but the former is dropped. + → ("she does not give")
Einaudi finds one counterexample: + → ("she wanted to hit him").
C1C1 → C1
+ + → + → ("you kill")
The following rule optionally applies to compounds:
XV#CY → XCY
+ → ("hand + round" = "fist")
That may lead to otherwise-disallowed clusters, including geminates: + + → ("eagle + head + white" = "bald eagle") + → ("snake + chief" = "rattlesnake")
The following rule applies to compounds:
Vn#C → V̨#C
+ → + → ("eight")
The following rules are conditioned by person markers on nouns and verbs:
Stems beginning with and some beginning with undergo the following (obligatory for h-stems but optional for Y-stems): → or ,
+ + → ("I know") + + → ("I come from")
However, that does not apply for y-initial (rather than Y-initial) stems: + → ("I sing")
The following rule applies before roots and the dative marker : →
+ → ("I come back hither") + + → ("I gave him")
→ (optionally or )
+ → ("I sit") + → ("we cheat")
→ (optional except before and for unless it was covered by the previous rule)
+ → ("I hate him") but + → ("I am a boy")
→ followed by a vowel
+ → ("I make")
Optionally, → ~ followed by or
+ → ("you go home") + → ("you carry on your shoulder")
→ followed by a consonant
+ + → + → ("you (plural) eat")
→ ~~ followed by a vowel
+ + → ("you fear greatly") + → ("you shall be so") + → ("you say")
The use of different allomorphs in free variation is attested for some verbs.
The next four rules combine personal affixes and so apply only to verbs:
+ → followed by a consonant
+ + → ("I kick you")
+ → followed by a vowel
+ + → ("I seek you")
+ →
+ + → ("I hit him") ||ay + nk|| → /yąk/ (which may undergo further changes as described above)
+ + → ("you take me")
The subjunctive mode marker undergoes the following rule:
→ after i or į
("she must have done it")
The habitual mode marker optionally undergoes the following rule:
→ after a vowel
→ ("she is always so") but → ("I am still hungry")
The auxiliary undergoes the following rule:
→
→ ("I was, but")
Morphology The three word classes in Biloxi are verbs, substantives (nouns and pronouns), and particles. Only the first two take affixes.
Verbs are always marked for person and number and may also take dative, reciprocal, reflexive, and/or instrumental markers as well as mode markers, the object specifier, and auxiliaries. They are at or immediately before the end of clauses.
All nominal affixes may also be used with verbs, but nouns use a subset of the verbal affixes. They may not use dative, reciprocal, reflexive, or instrumental markers, or mode markers, or auxiliaries.
Particles serve many functions, including noun phrase marking and acting as adverbials.
Inflection Nouns Nouns may be inflectable or, as most are, non-inflectable.
The former group inflects for person and number. It contains names of body parts and kin terms, which must inflect, and a few other personal possessions, with optional inflection. The person markers are for the first person, for the second person, and for the third person.
They may be pluralized with the marker . The noun's number itself is not marked explicitly.
Examples of inflected nouns are below: ("throat") → ("my throat"), ("your throat"), ("their throats") ("father") → ("your father"), ("our father")
Here are examples of optionally inflected nouns: ("house") → / ("my house") ("shirt") → ("your shirt")
Personal pronouns are formed by inflecting the root for person and number. (It may also have been done once by the demonstratives and .) Pronouns are always optional and emphasized. Singular pronouns may occur as the subject or the object, but the plurals are always subjects (see ).
+ Biloxi pronouns ("I") ("we") ("you") ("you all") ("he, she, it") ("they")
Biloxi has two common demonstratives: ("this") and ("that"). They may be marked for plurality as and , but that is very rare since they are used if plurality is unmarked elsewhere, and it is marked on the verb in noun phrases with classificatory verbs: ("these running men")
Verbs
Verbs inflect for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular vs. plural), and mode (many possibilities, including some less understood mode markers).
Morphemes within verbs have the following order:
+ Verbal morpheme order () person thematic dative, reciprocal, reflexive instrumentals root number mode
Verbs may either be classificatory or normal. Classificatory verbs specify the subject's position (sitting, standing, etc.) and differ from normal verbs in that the first person is not inflected for person.
Inflection for person and number is identical to inflected nouns: 1st person 2nd person 3rd person pluralizes referent of prefix (not used for inanimate subjects)
Because of the rules determining the surface manifestations of some combinations of person markers, 2nd-person-on-1st and 3rd-person-on-1st forms are identical, e.g. ("you hit me, he hit me"). Also, 2nd-person-subj., 2nd-person-on-3rd, and 3rd-person-on-2nd are identical; for example, ("you see" / you see him" / "they see you").
marks animate plurality (except with some motion verbs). ("we have not forgotten you") ("we did not know")
However, is not used:
In the presence of the plural auxiliary ("are"): ("they were looking at it") When the sentence has already been marked as plural: ("they climbed up, and were falling continually") If it is followed by a plural motion verb: ("they took it and were returning")
Some (but not all) verbs of motion mark plurality with the prefix inserted directly before the root: ("he goes") → ("we go"), ("you (pl.) go"), ("they go") ("he goes homeward") → ("we go homeward")
But there are counterexamples (even ones derived from the same roots): ("he goes thither") → ("we go thither"), ("you (pl.) go thither")
The morpheme marks plural objects when they are not specified elsewhere. It comes after and before all mode markers. ("he sent them") ("she named them (in the past)")
There are two examples of being reduced to : ("I will kick you pl.") ("I will give it to you pl.")
may be added to some verb roots to mark an unspecified indefinite object: ("carry on back") → ("I carried something on my back") ("gather") → ("I gather things")
Mode markers
There are many mode markers in Biloxi. Some are common and well understood, while others are infrequent and have elusive meanings.
+ Mode markers Mode Marker Position Examples Comments Follows: Precedes:Declarative mode (male speaker)always last ("I will say it")