Pawnee language

Pawnee
Native to	United States
Region	North-central Oklahoma
Ethnicity	2,500 Pawnee (2007)
Native speakers	< 10 (2007)
Language family	Caddoan Northern Pawnee–Kitsai Pawnee–Arikara Pawnee
Language codes
ISO 639-3	paw
Glottolog	pawn1254
ELP	Pawnee
Linguasphere	64-BAB-b
Pre-contact distribution of Pawnee
Pawnee is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

The Pawnee language is a Caddoan language traditionally spoken by Pawnee Native Americans, currently inhabiting north-central Oklahoma. Historically, the Pawnee lived along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska.

Dialects

Two important dialect divisions are evident in Pawnee: South Band and Skiri. The distinction between the two dialects rests on differences in their respective phonetic inventory and lexicon. The Skiri dialect became extinct in 2001 with the death of Lula Nora Pratt.

Status

As of 2007, there are fewer than 10 native speakers, all elderly. The Pawnee Nation is developing teaching materials for the local high school and for adult language classes. There are also extensive documentary materials in the language archived at the American Indian Studies Research Institute. The Pawnee language can be heard spoken in the 2015 movie The Revenant. In 2019 and 2020, the Pawnee Nation posted online videos teaching the Pawnee language.

Phonology

The following describes the South Band dialect.

Consonants

Pawnee has eight consonant phonemes, and according to one analysis of medial- and final-position glottal stops, one may posit a ninth consonant phoneme.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p	t	k	(ʔ)
Affricate		ts
Rhotic		r
Fricative		s		h
Approximant			w

• /ʔ/ is predictable when it occurs in the middle of words. However, since /ʔ/ is not completely predictable at the end of words, it may also need to be considered a phoneme.

Vowels

Pawnee has four short vowel phonemes and four long counterparts (also phonemic).

	Front	Back
High	i/iː	u/uː
Mid-low	e/eː	a/aː

Morphology

Pawnee is an ergative-absolutive polysynthetic language.

Alphabet

The Pawnee alphabet has nine consonants and eight vowels. The letters are relatively similar in pronunciation to their English counterparts.

Consonants

Spelling	Sound (IPA)	English equivalents
p	p	poke, cup
t	t	top, cat
k	k	cool, stuck
c	ʃ ~ ts	shell, push ~ pants
s	s	silly, face
h	h	heart, ahead
r	r	car, ferry
w	w	wacky, away
′	ʔ	The "-" in uh-oh

Vowels

Spelling	Sound (IPA)	English equivalents
i	ɪ	sit
ii	i	feed
e	ɛ	red
ee	eɪ	paid
a	ʌ	nut
aa	ɑ	father
u	ʊ	book
uu	u	rude

Other alphabets

Here are other alphabets that are used sometimes in Pawnee texts.

Pawnee Alphabet #1

a

â

c

č

e

ê

h

i

î

k

p

r

s

t

u

û

w

‘

Pawnee Alphabet #2

a

aa

ch

e

ee

h

i

ii

k

o

oo

p

r

s

t

ts

u

uu

w

‘

References

• American Indian Studies Research Institute. (2008). Dictionary Database: Pawnee (Skiri and Southband dialects).
• American Indian Studies Research Institute. (2001). Pawnee Alphabet Book.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Parks, Douglas R. (1976). A grammar of Pawnee. New York: Garland.
• Taylor, Allan R. (1978). [Review of A grammar of Pawnee by D. Parks]. Language, 54 (4), 969-972.

External links

• Pawnee Language Program, sponsored by the Pawnee Nation and Indiana University