Koasati (also Coushatta) is a Native American language of Muskogean origin. The language is spoken by the Coushatta people, most of whom live in Allen Parish north of the town of Elton, Louisiana, though a smaller number share a reservation near Livingston, Texas, with the Alabama people. In 1991, linguist Geoffrey Kimball estimated the number of speakers of the language at around 400 people, of whom approximately 350 live in Louisiana.Geoffrey Kimball. 1991. Koasati Grammar. Reprinted in 1994 in: Koasati Grammar. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. The exact number of current speakers is unclear, but Coushatta Tribe officials claim that most tribe members over 20 speak Koasati.April 9, 2009. Comments Pertaining to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Broadband Initiatives. www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/comments/7B49.pdf In 2007, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, in collaboration with McNeese State University and the College of William and Mary, began the Koasati (Coushatta) Language Project as a part of broader language revitalization efforts with National Science Foundation grant money under the Documenting Endangered Languages program.Koasati (Coushatta) Language Project.
Koasati is most closely related to the Alabama language but, though the Coushatta and Alabama have historically lived near each other, their languages are no longer mutually intelligible without extensive exposure. The language is also related to the Mikasuki language; some native speakers of Coushatta report they can understand Mikasuki without previous exposure to the language.
Phonology
Vowels Koasati has three vowels, all of which occur as short and long and can be nasalized. The following chart is based on Kimball's work. Kimball describes what is normally the close-mid back vowel /o/ as "high back" vowel, hence its placement in the chart below.Geoffrey Kimball. 1991. Koasati Grammar. Reprinted in 1994 in: Koasati Grammar. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. p. 23. He notes that /o/ sometimes has the allophone [u] and is raised to [ʊ] in closed word-final syllables.
Short Long Front Central Back Front Central Back High (close) Low (open)
In 2007, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana developed and approved its own orthographic system.The Coushatta Alphabet. In this system, long vowels are written by doubling the vowel (e.g., [aː] as aa), and nasalized vowels are underlined (e.g., [õ] or [ǫ] as o̱).
Vowel length in Koasati can be contrastive. For example, vowel length distinguishes meaning for "bean" and "plate", as well as "big" and "horse". Vowel nasalization most often occurs word-finally as a phrase-terminal marker. In Koasati, the end of a phrase is basically marked by either deletion of the final unaccented vowel or the nasalization of the final vowel when deleting it would eliminate phonological information relevant to the phrase's meaning. For example, the final vowel in "he/she will cook it" is nasalized instead of deleted, and therefore is distinguished from the more emphatic , where the irrealis future suffix -laha- indicates that the action will certainly occur, whereas the irrealis future suffix -laho- does not provide such certainty.
Consonants Koasati has the consonants given in the table below, based on Geoffrey Kimball's work.Geoffrey Kimball. 1991. Koasati Grammar. Reprinted in 1994 in: Koasati Grammar. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. IPA transcriptions occur in brackets when different from the orthography provided by Kimball. LabialDentalPalato-alveolarVelarGlottal Stop plain p t c k ʼ voiced bFricative plainf th sh voicedh NasalmnLateral lGlidewy
Not included in this chart is a glottal glide (marked ꞉) that Kimball uses in his own consonant chart, presumably to represent the lengthened vowel sounds of Koasati. In the Tribe's official orthography, the is represented by and the is represented by , with no distinction for aspiration. Additionally, Kimball notes that and are aspirated in initial and medial positions. However, the website for the Koasati Language Project explicitly states that these consonants are never aspirated.More on the alphabet. The occurs most often before , as in "river", spelled in the official orthography, thereby distinguished from "tail".
Syllable structure Koasati has both light (CV, VC, V) and heavy (CVC) syllables. Consonant clusters occur across syllables but not within. All monomorphemic Koasati words end in light syllables, while the penultimate syllable can be light but is usually heavy, and it is usually preceded by one or more light syllables, as with the construction CV.CVC.CV as in the word "fence". Other shapes, in which one or more heavy syllables precede a heavy penultimate syllable (e.g. CV.CVC.CVC.CV as in "butterfly"), or alternate heavy and light syllables (e.g. CVC.CV.CVC.CV. as in pa꞉piyá꞉ka "bridge"), are usually the result of the compounding of two words or a once-productive rule of syncope in which the vowel of every second syllable except the final syllable was deleted. Vowel clusters occur in Koasati, unlike in other Muskogean languages where such clusters are made impossible by metathesis and vowel deletion. These clusters occur in Koasati due to the use of locative prefixes that end in a vowel and class 1A negative transitive verbs since these do not undergo the processes of metathesis and vowel deletion. Clusters beginning with /a꞉/ and /i꞉/ are most frequent, and all clusters are generally spoken with a glottal stop between vowels.
Tone Koasati has low [ ` ], high [ ´ ], and high rising–falling [ ˇ ] pitch accents, as well as a fourth unmarked mid-level tone. All noun roots must have one high-pitch accented syllable. The location of the accent depends on the properties of the penultimate syllable. With a few exceptions, the accent falls on the final syllable unless the penultimate syllable contains a long vowel. These pitch accents can be contrastive, as with 'It is a mink.' and 'It is not air-dried.'. Pitch placement on verbs is motivated by morphology. Most indicative verbs take the high accent, though a few take the low accent. Intensive verbs take the high rising–falling accent.
Phonological processes /c/ in Kimball's orthography, or /ch/ in the official Tribe orthography, is sometimes realized as [ts] before resonants: cf. awó yáhci "it is just like grandpa" is realized as [awó yahtsi]. In rare cases, /k/ is labialized to [kʷ] before /o/: cf. akkó "that" → [akkʷó] /s/ has the palatal allophone [š] word-initially before /o/ and intervocalically: cf. sopátlit "she cleaned it" → [šopátlit] When /s/ occurs both before and after a vowel, the allophone of the first /s/ harmonizes with that of the second. For example, sóslit ('he skinned them') is not pronounced [šoslit] but [sóslit]. Rarely, /s/ can have the allophone [r] when it occurs word-finally: cf. o꞉támmo꞉s "it is just sunset" → [o꞉támmo꞉r] In the word-final position, /h/ becomes a voiceless continuation of the vowel it follows. This can also occur following vowels in other positions. For example, iltóhnot "she worked" becomes [iltóónot]. /h/ can be voiced to [ɦ], usually before c, as discussed above with [haɦchi]. /l/ is sometimes realized as /n/, as with intolihná "work" → [iltolihná]. Rarely, it is realized as [r] intervocalically. The vowel /i/ shifts to [ɪ] in all closed syllables, and /o/ shifts to [ʊ] when it occurs in closed word-final syllables: cf. hókfit "she put it on" → [hókfɪt]; íkbot "he did not kill it" → [íkbʊt] The vowels /i/ and /o/ also rarely have the allophones [ɛ] and [u] respectively, though the underlying reason is unclear: cf. yilahá "orange (fruit)" → [yɛlahá]; solitá꞉wa "soldier" → [sulitá꞉wa]
Morphology Koasati is a polysynthetic language with fairly extensive verbal prefixing and suffixing.
Nouns Two sets of prefixes mark noun possession in Koasati. The am-set generally identifies alienable possession and a relatively small set of kinship terms and body parts, while the ca-set identifies inalienable possession and most kinship terms and body parts. These prefixes mark person and number on possessing nouns as follows:
am-setca-set Gloss1st person (sing.)am-ca-"my"2nd person (sing.)cim-ci-"your"3rd personim- "his/her/its/their"1st person (plur.)kom-ko-"our"2nd person (plur.)hacim-haci-"your"
Verbs
Position classes Kimball identifies the following position classes for prefixes and suffixes that can be added to Koasati verb roots: Prefixes Position 1: positive and negative subject prefixes Position 2: locative prefix a-, or the prefix ak- which indicates action on the surface of a person (skin) or thing Position 3: locative prefixes Position 4: pronominal prefixes (ca-) Position 5: pronominal prefixes (am-) Position 6: distributive prefix ho-/oh-, iterative prefix hoho-/ohoh- Position 7: instrumental prefixes Position 8: directional prefixes Position 9: indefinite nouns na꞉si-/na꞉s-/nas- ('something') and a꞉ti-/a꞉t-/at-/a- ('someone') Root Suffixes Position 1: adverb Position 2: diminutive/intensive Position 3: habitual Position 4: intention Position 5: ability Position 6: realis/irrealis Position 7: deduction Position 8: modality Position 9: dubiative Position 10: hearsay Position 11: auditory Position 12: tense Position 13: consequence Position 14: discourse functions Position 15: enclitics
Prefixes Unlike its frequently used cognates in other Muskogean languages, the general locative prefix a- (Position 2) is falling out of use. Positions 4 and 5 relate to the am- and ca- sets discussed above with nouns. They contain the direct and indirect object prefixes respectively and are used to cross-reference the direct and indirect objects of verbs, as well as mark possession on nominalized verbs. For example, the Position 5 prefix ac- is used to mark possession on the root of the nominalized verb meaning "to photograph" in the following way:
A sampling of verbal prefixes, in this case, specific locative prefixes of Position 3, follows: itta- "action on the ground; action in fire" o꞉-/o꞉w- "action in water" pa꞉- "action on a raised, artificial, or non-ground surface" on- "action on a vertical surface or in a vertical plane" itta- "action in the middle of something" ibi꞉- "action on the human face" ico꞉- "action on or in the human mouth" no꞉- "action on the human neck" nok- "action in the human throat"
Suffixes Kimball recorded over seventy suffixes to fill the fifteen suffix positions. All but eleven of these suffixes can technically co-occur with all other suffixes that do not occupy the same position class. Kimball provides the following example as a possibility:
In the first word, all units that follow the root -ilá- "arrive" are suffixes filling the various position classes.
A sample of suffixes, in this case, Position 5 suffixes of ability, follows: -bá꞉no- "regularly, occasionally" -bí꞉no- "reluctantly, shyly" -halpi꞉sa- "to be able to" -yáhli- "be obliged to, really"
Kimball notes that of these, only -halpi꞉sa- "to be able to" is used frequently.
Verbal number Muskogean languages such as Koasati have a three-way number distinction in their verbs, with singular, dual, and plural forms. Some of these forms are suppletive. For example,
'To dwell', in the first person, with full suppletion (singular aat, dual asw, plural is):
(The angle braces, , separate the two parts of the root.)
'To smell' is non-suppletive hofn:
'To go about', partially suppletive (SG/DU aay, PL yomahl):
'To run', partially suppletive (SG waliik, DU/PL tołk):
Verb grades Like other Muskogean languages, Koasati has verb grades, or an ablaut system in which morphological and phonemic changes (in this case infixation and nasalization) can be used to alter the meaning of verb.
H-grade