Kiowa language
| Kiowa | |
|---|---|
| Cáuijògà / Cáuijò:gyà | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | western Oklahoma |
| Ethnicity | Kiowa people |
|
Native speakers
|
100 fluent speakers (2013) |
|
Tanoan
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | kiow1266 |
| Linguasphere | 64-CBB-a |
Pre-contact distribution of the Kiowa language
|
|
Kiowa /ˈkaɪ.əwə/ or Cáuijògà / Cáuijò:gyà (″language of the Cáuigù (Kiowa)″) is a Tanoan language spoken by the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma in primarily Caddo, Kiowa, and Comanche counties. The Kiowa tribal center is located in Carnegie. Like most North American languages, Kiowa is an endangered language.
Colorado College anthropologist Laurel Watkins noted in 1984 based on Parker McKenzie's estimates that only about 400 people (mostly over the age of 50) could speak Kiowa and that only rarely were children learning language. A more recent figure from McKenzie is 300 adult speakers of "varying degrees of fluency" reported by Mithun (1999) out of a 12,242 Kiowa tribal membership (US Census 2000).
The Intertribal Wordpath Society, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving native languages of Oklahoma, estimates the maximum number of fluent Kiowa speakers as of 2006 to be 400. A 2013 newspaper article estimated 100 fluent speakers.
The Kiowa Tribe offers weekly language classes at the Jacobson House, a non-profit Native American center in Norman, Oklahoma. Dane Poolaw and Carol Williams teach the language using Parker McKenzie's method.
The University of Tulsa, the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha offer Kiowa language classes.
...
Wikipedia