Kiowa Language

Hā́chò Oklahoma!

[háːʦò okʰl̪ahoma]          (HAAH-tso oke-lah-ho-mah!)

Note: There isn't a word for "hello" in Kiowa; "hā́chò?" means something like "how's it going?"

There have been many orthographies devised for writing Kiowa, but none are official. I have chosen to use the one made by Parker McKenzie, a Kiowa linguist. The phrase would be written differently in the different orthographies; here it is in the ones that I know of:

• Háátsow Owkhlahowma!  (Salmi)
• há·cò okʰlahoma!  (Watkins)
• Háhtsow Owkhlahhowmah!  (SIL)
• hæ·´tsow` owkhdlæhowmæ!  (Harrington)
• hʜ̄́tsòu ouk‘dlʜhoumʜ!  (Harrington)

 

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©2003 Benjamin Bruce. Some Rights Reserved.

 

• KiowaOK.com – The Official Website of the Kiowa Tribe
• Cauijoga – Andrew McKenzie's webpages about Kiowa
• Kiowa language article at Wikipedia
• An Unofficial Practical Orthography for the Kiowa Language, by Olli Salmi
• Kiowa at Native-Languages.org
• Kiowa Language Sampler & Legend CD for sale from the V.I.P. Publishing Co.
• Kiowa Language Programs for sale at Buffalo Trails
• LanguageGeek.com – Free downloadable keyboards for typing in Kiowa

 

Click here for a longer text in Kiowa.

Séndé ā́hêl nàu chā́gau cī́dê.  Hègáu áuvcau bejṑdā́u déèm èsáthdḗdê.  Negáu Séndé jṓnê, “Hā́, sègī́dàu.  Háundé táimél bàcū́yáu; áuvcàutáuf háungáu émyáigùnmàu gàu gyàiáibáaldàdàu.  Háundé táimél bàcū́yáu.  Bàā́ nàu béyáigùn; táimél bàcū́yáu.  Béyáigùn.”

Seyndey was-traveling-along and the-prairie-dogs were-encamped. Wherever there their-houses were they-sat-sunning-themselves. Whereupon Seyndey said, "Ha, nephews. Seemingly lonely ye-sit; away-from-here others are-dancing and are-enjoying-themselves. Seemingly lonely ye-sit. Come-ye and let-us-dance-with-merriment; lonely ye-sit. Let-us-dance-with-merriment."

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Source:  Harrington, John P. 1946. "Three Kiowa Texts." International Journal of American Linguistics, 12:4:237-242, accessed from the Rosetta Project.
Rewritten in the McKenzie orthography by Benjamin Bruce.

"Thank you" in Kiowa

"Thank you" is said thus in the Kiowa language:

ā̀hō̂

It is pronounced [àːhôː] (aah-ho).

It is very important that tone and length be observed when pronouncing this word, because it is very similar to the word àhṓ, meaning "kill him!"

 

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©2003 Benjamin Bruce. Some Rights Reserved.

Source: Salmi, Olli. "An Unofficial Practical Orthography for the Kiowa Language." Internet: <http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~olsalmi/kiowa.html> 2003.

Kiowa alphabet

There have been many orthographies devised for writing Kiowa, however, none have been made official. I have decided to use the one made by Parker McKenzie, a Kiowa linguist and native speaker of the language.

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiced Stop	b	d			g
Voiceless Stop	f	j			c
Aspirated Stop	p	t			k
Ejective Stop	v	th			q
Ejective Affricate			x
Voiceless Affricate			ch
Voiceless Fricative			s			h
Voiced Fricative			z
Nasal	m	n
Lateral Approximant		l
Approximant				y

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a	au

Diphthongs

	Front	Back
High		ui
Mid		oi
Low	ai	aui

Suprasegmentals

ā	a	á	à	â
[aː]	[ã]	[á]	[à]	[â]

Notes

• The glottal stop exists in Kiowa, but it is probably not phonemic.
• The approximant [w] occurs in a very few interjections and loanwords.
• The combination sy is pronounced [ʃ].
• l is [l] in syllable-initial position, [dl] in syllable-final position, and [d̥l] in utterance-final position.
• l and n are palatalized before i.
• On the letter au and on diphthongs, diacritics are always placed on the first letter. Example: Cáuigú, "Kiowas."

 

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©2006 Benjamin Bruce. Some Rights Reserved.

Source: Watkins, Laurel J. A Grammar of Kiowa. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984, accessed from the Rosetta Project.