Bidai (also spelled Beadeye, Bedias, Bidey, Viday, etc.; autonym: ) is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken by the Bidai people of eastern Texas. Zamponi (2024) notes that the numerals do not appear to be related to those of any other languages and hence proposes that Bidai may be a language isolate.
Word list Rufus Grimes, a Texan settler in Navasota, Grimes County, sent a letter dated November 15, 1887, to Albert S. Gatschet that contained several Bidai words. The word list was published in Gatschet (1891: 39, fn. 2).Gatschet, Albert S. 1891. The Karankawa Indians, the coast people of Texas. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology.
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Bidai |- | one || namah |- | two || nahonde |- | three || naheestah |- | four || nashirimah |- | five || nahot nahonde |- | six || nashees nahonde |- | boy || púskus |- | corn || tándshai
Comparison of numerals Below is Zamponi's (2024) comparison of Bidai numerals with those of neighboring languages.
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! language !! one !! two !! three !! four !! five !! six |- | Bidai || namah || nahonde || naheestah || nashirimah || nahot nahonde || nashees nahonde |- | W. AtakapaGatschet, Albert S. & John R. Swanton. 1932. Dictionary of the Atakapa language accompanied by text material. (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 108). Washington: Government Printing Office. || tanuʹk, taʹnuk || tsīk || lāt || (h)imatoʹl || nīt, nit || latsīʹk |- | KarankawaGrant, Anthony P. 1994. Karankawa linguistic materials. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics 19(2). 1–56. || náatsa || háikia || kaxáji || hájo hakn || náatsa béhema || hájo háikia |- | TonkawaHoijer, Harry. 2018. Tonkawa texts: a new linguistic edition. Edited by Thomas R. Wier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. || we·ʔis-pax || ketay || metis || sikit || kaskwa || sikwa·law |- | CaddoChafe, Wallace. 2018. The Caddo language: a grammar, texts, and dictionary based on materials collected by the author in Oklahoma between 1960 and 1970. Petoskey, MI: Mundart Press. || ’wísts’i’ || bít || daháw’ || híwí’ || diːsik’an || dáːnkih |- | AdaiGrant, Anthony P. 1995. John Sibley’s Adai vocabulary: a contribution to Caddoan lexicography? Paper presented at the 15th annual Siouan and Caddoan Languages Conference, Albuquerque, NM. || nancas || nass || colle || tacache || seppacan || pacanancus |- | Mobilian JargonDrechsel, Emanuel J. 1996. An integrated vocabulary of Mobilian Jargon, a native American pidgin of the Mississippi Valley. Anthropological Linguistics 38. 248–354. || (a)čaf(f)a || tok(o)lo || točena || ošta || taɫape || han(n)ale
Anthony Grant (1995) finds the following cognates shared with Choctaw and Mobilian Jargon.Grant, Anthony P. 1995. "A note on Bidai." European Review of Native American Studies 9:45–47.
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! language !! boy !! corn |- | Bidai || púskus || tándshai |- | Choctaw || poškoš ~ poskos ‘child’ || tãci’ |- | Mobilian Jargon || posko(š) ~ poškoš ‘baby, child’ || tãče ‘baby, child’
See also Akokisa language Bayogoula language Calusa language Congaree language Cusabo language Guale language Sewee language Shoccoree-Eno language
References