Kickapoo language
Kickapoo (endonym: Metotheeneniaatoweeheni) is either a dialect of the Fox language or a closely related language, closely related to, and mutually intelligible with, the dialects spoken by the Sauk people and Meskwaki people. Their language is included in the Central Algonquian languages subgroup of the Algonquian languages family, itself a member of the Algic languages family. In 1985, the Kickapoo Nation's School in Horton, Kansas, began a language-immersion program for elementary school grades to revive teaching and use of the Kickapoo language in kindergarten through grade 6. Efforts in language education continue at most Kickapoo sites. In 2010, the Head Start Program at the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas reservation, which teaches the Kickapoo language, became "the first Native American school to earn Texas School Ready! (TSR) Project certification." Despite these efforts, there are no children who are first-language users of Kickapoo, as they choose to speak English instead. Also in 2010, Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia participated in the elaboration of a Kickapoo alphabet. The Kickapoo in Mexico are known for their whistled speech. Texts, recordings, and a vocabulary of the language are available. The Kickapoo language and members of the Kickapoo tribe were featured in the movie The Only Good Indian (2009), directed by Greg Wilmott and starring Wes Studi. This was a fictionalized account of Native American children forced to attend an Indian boarding school, where they were forced to speak English and give up their cultural practices.
| Kickapoo | |
|---|---|
| Metotheeneniaatoweeheni[1] | |
| Native to | United States, Mexico |
| Ethnicity | Kickapoo people |
Native speakers | 1,043 Kickapoo in the US (2017–2021)[2] 60 Kickapoo in Mexico (2020 census)[3] |
Algic
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kic |
| Glottolog | kick1244 |
| ELP | Kickapoo |
Kickapoo (endonym: Metotheeneniaatoweeheni)[1] is either a dialect of the Fox language or a closely related language, closely related to, and mutually intelligible with, the dialects spoken by the Sauk people and Meskwaki people. Their language is included in the Central Algonquian languages subgroup of the Algonquian languages family, itself a member of the Algic languages family.
In 1985, the Kickapoo Nation's School in Horton, Kansas, began a language-immersion program for elementary school grades to revive teaching and use of the Kickapoo language in kindergarten through grade 6.[4] Efforts in language education continue at most Kickapoo sites.
In 2010, the Head Start Program at the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas reservation, which teaches the Kickapoo language, became "the first Native American school to earn Texas School Ready! (TSR) Project certification."[5] Despite these efforts, there are no children who are first-language users of Kickapoo, as they choose to speak English instead.[1]
Also in 2010, Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia participated in the elaboration of a Kickapoo alphabet.[6] The Kickapoo in Mexico are known for their whistled speech.
Texts,[7] recordings,[8] and a vocabulary[9] of the language are available.
The Kickapoo language and members of the Kickapoo tribe were featured in the movie The Only Good Indian (2009), directed by Greg Wilmott and starring Wes Studi. This was a fictionalized account of Native American children forced to attend an Indian boarding school, where they were forced to speak English and give up their cultural practices.[10]
Sounds
[edit]Consonants
[edit]Eleven consonant phonemes are used in Kickapoo:
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar/ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | tʃ | k | ||
| Fricative | θ | s | h | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | j | w |
- The voiceless sounds can sometimes be voiced as [b, d, dʒ, ɡ, ð, z].
- /p/ in word-initial position can also be aspirated as [pʰ].
- /tʃ/ can also be pronounced as [ts].[11]
- Glides /w, j/ may also be heard as non-syllabic vowels [o̯, i̯].[12]
- /w/ can be pronounced as [ʔ] in fast speech.[1]
Vowels
[edit]The eight vowel sounds in Kickapoo are: short /a, ɛ, i, o/ and long /aː, ɛː, iː, oː/.[12]
- Sounds /a, ɛ, i, o/, can also be phonetically heard as allophones [ə, ɛ~e, ɪ, ʊ~o] and /aː, ɛː, iː, oː/ can be heard as [äː, æː, iː, ɔː].[1]
Writing system
[edit]A Kickapoo alphabet was developed by Paul Voorhis in 1974 and was revised in 1981.[13] A new orthography is used by the Kickapoo Language Development Program in Oklahoma.[14]
| Letter | a | aa | ch | e | ee | h | i | ii | k | m | n | o | oo | p | s | t | th | w | y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | ə | ɑ | tʃ | e | æ | h | ɪ | i | k | m | n | o | ɔ | p | s | t | θ | w | j |
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Bluecloud, Mosiah Salazar (2020). A Sketch Grammar of the Kickapoo Language (PDF). The University of Arizona.
- ^ "Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2017-2021". Census.gov. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
- ^ Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
- ^ Reaves, Michell Reaves (2001-08-11). "Canku Ota - Aug. 11, 2001 - Indians Value Their Language". Canku Ota (Many Paths), an Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America, Medill News Service (42). Archived from the original on October 29, 2018. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ "Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas First Native American Tribe to Achieve Texas School Ready! Certification". Newswise, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ "Kickapoo Language Prepared to be Written". Art Daily. 2010-04-12. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ "OLAC resources in and about the Kickapoo language". Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ "Recordings for study of the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Ojibwa, and Sauk-and-Fox :: American Philosophical Society". Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ "OLAC Record: Kickapoo vocabulary". 1988. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ "Kickapoo Language, Culture to be Featured in Film". Hiawatha World Online. 2007-09-12. Archived from the original on 2012-08-10. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
- ^ Voorhis, Paul H. (1974). Introduction to the Kickapoo Language. Indiana University Publications.
- ^ a b Voorhis, Paul H. (1967). Kickapoo Grammar. Ann Arbor.
- ^ Cowan, William (1981). Papers of the Thirteenth Algonquian Conference. Ottawa, Canada: Carleton University. pp. 81–89. ISBN 9780770901233.
- ^ a b Bluecloud 2020, p. 17-24.
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