Kansa (native name: Kaáⁿze Íe), sometimes known as Kaw or Kanza, is a Siouan-Catawban language of the Dhegihan group once spoken by the Kaw people of Oklahoma. Vice President Charles Curtis spoke Kansa as a child. The last mother-tongue speaker, Walter Kekahbah, died in 1983.
Classification Kansa is a Dhegihan language, a broader category containing other languages such as Quapaw, Omaha–Ponca, and Osage. This group of languages is a subset of the Mississippi Valley Siouan languages, which is further of a subset of the Siouan-Catawban languages.
History The speakers of Kansa, known as the Kaw people, lived together with the Dhegihan language-speakers in a larger nation known as the Dhegihan. This group was originally situated north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River and then moved west down the Ohio River. Following their westward migration, the Dhegihan branched into five indigenous tribes known as Ponca, Osage, Omaha, Quapaw and Kaw people. Later on, many Kaw people migrated west of Missouri river and were called "People of the Southwind." The languages of the five tribes originating from the single Dhegiha group are quite similar, and have been regarded as dialects of each other.
Geographic distribution
The Kansa Sioux language was mostly spoken in the U.S. state of Kansas.
Scholarship and resources
Pioneering anthropologist and linguist James Owen Dorsey collected 604 Kansa words in the 1880s and also made about 25,000 entries in a Kansa-English dictionary which has never been published.Unrau, William E. The Kansa Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673-1873. Norman: U of OK Press, 1971, p. 12 Dorsey also collected 24 narratives, historical accounts, and personal letters from nine Kansa speakers.Kaanze Weyaje: Kanza Reader. Kanza Language Project, Kaw City, OK: Kaw Nation, 2010, p. xiii
In 1974, linguist Robert L. Rankin met Walter Kekahbah (d. 1983), Ralph Pepper (d. 1982), and Maud McCauley Rowe (d. 1978), the last surviving native speakers of Kansa. Rankin made extensive recordings of all three, especially Rowe, and his work over the next 31 years documented the language and helped the Kaw Nation to develop language learning materials.Ranney, Dave. “Researchers try to preserve Indian languages.”, accessed 12 Apr 2011
Language revitalization Kansa has no native speakers. Members of the tribe now use English, while some still understand certain Kansa phrases and words. As part of a broader trend toward Native language revitalization efforts, the Kaw Nation offers online language learning for Kansa second language speakers (as of 2012).
The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Kansa, Quapaw, Osage, Omaha and Ponca speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization.
Phonology Kansa has 29 consonants and 8 vowels.
+ConsonantsBilabialDentalAlveolarPost-alveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosive/Affricatevoiced tense aspirated glottalized Fricativevoiceless voiced Nasal Approximant
+VowelsFrontBackClose Mid Open /ɛ/ is phonetically open-mid, whereas /o/ is phonetically close-mid. Additionally, /a/ and /o/ can also be pronounced as [ə] and [u] respectively.
Orthography + Kansa alphabet Upper case Lower case Pronunciation Example Kansa English translation A a arm Aⁿ is written as before , , or , and before , , or . In written communications where cannot be written or are used instead. aⁿ yes (female speaker) B b I go Č may be written as when cannot be written easily. č cow Čh may be written as when cannot be written easily. čh strike D d look at E e like, as G g make H h fish I i egg Iⁿ is written as before , , or , and before , , or . In written communications where cannot be written or are used instead. iⁿ gravel J j lake K k turtle Kh kh third son K' k' dice L l striped M m blanket N n water O o wear Oⁿ oⁿ boiling P p nose Ph ph thud P' p' blink S s black Sh sh brown T t deer T' t' bent Ts' ts' dead U u bird's tail W w bone X x tattoo Y y jaw Z z yellow Zh zh red Ɣ may be written as in contexts where cannot be written ɣ cry ’ ’ use
Grammar Nouns Kansa does not mark nouns for number or gender. The number of a particular noun can be determined from the verb, an article or from context. For example, the word could be translated to English as "squirrel" or "squirrels" depending on context, in the sentence , (), it must be a single squirrel because of the article .
Verbs Kansa is a SOV language and the verbs are inflected based on the person and number of their subjects and objects. For example, in the sentence (), the object , (), comes before the verb ().
Kansa does not have verb tenses.
Vocabulary
Kansa has a great deal of vocabulary in common with the other languages of the Dhegiha Siouan group. The following table compares cognates in Kansa and Osage: English Osage Kansa house man woman
References
External links
Kansa language at the Kaw Nation (extensive online language study resources and texts) Kaw Indian Language (Kansa, Kanza) OLAC resources in and about the Kansa language English to Kansa Dictionary Kansa Talking Dictionary Kanza Language for Families and Communities Examining the Development of Kaw Writing