CHARACTERISTICS

So far as at present known, the Kiowa language has no affinity with any other, but it is possible that closer study and more abundant material will establish its connection with some one of the linguistic stocks on the headwaters of the Missouri and the Columbia, the region from which the tribe has migrated to the south. All of the language that has hitherto been printed is comprised in a list of one hundred and eighty words collected by Bartlett in 1852 ("Personal Narrative," 1854), and in fifteen songs of the ghost dance, published by the author in 1896 in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. To these may be added a few words and sentences printed in phonetic type in a little paper called "The Glorious Sun," published at irregular intervals in 1895 at Anadarko by Lewis D. Hadley. There is also in possession of the Bureau an extended manuscript vocabulary with texts collected on the reservation by Albert S. Gatschet in 1880.

Although the Kiowa language is really vocalic, nearly every syllable ending in a vowel and there being but few double consonants, yet the frequency of the explosive or aspirated sounds renders it unpleasing to the ear and unfitted for melodious musical composition, such as we find in the Arapaho and Caddo songs. It has, however, a forcible effect in oratory on account of the strong distinct enunciation of nearly every vowel and syllable, the vigor of the gutturals and dentals, and the redundance of the sonorous o. The distinct emphasis put upon nearly every syllable gives to sentences the effect of a chant or recitation, while the frequent rising inflection lends a querulous tone to an ordinary conversation.

The language lacks f, v, and r. In attempting to pronounce English words, p, b, and l are substituted, respectively, for these sounds, while ch is changed to ts. The diphthong au is also wanting, and short û occurs only in a few words of foreign origin. With the exception of ă short or obscure, the vowels are generally long. D has a slight explosive sound and approximates t. Before l it is softened or sometimes even entirely elided, the vowel being lengthened to supply the hiatus. Thus in Bartlett's vocabulary we find ol, k'ul, and kol for âdal, k`odal, and gadal. The same change is made by the Kiowa in pronouncing English words of like character, as sā̈̈l for saddle. The most common vowel sounds are a, ä, e, and o; â with certain speakers becomes o, and e is weakened to i. Nasal vowels are frequent. There are several aspirated or medial sounds and a strong explosive k`. Below is given the list of sounds according to the Bureau system, nasals being indicated by ñ. A frequent rising inflection at the end of words, represented by some authors by means of a final h, is here indicated by the accent ´.

Like all other living languages, the Kiowa is undergoing a process of gradual change, and many archaic forms and expressions are used by the old men, particularly in reciting myths, which are unknown or difficult of interpretation by the younger people. The same fact has been noted among other tribes (Matthews, 5). The changes are more rapid in Kiowa on account of the tribal custom, already mentioned, of substituting new words for any which suggest the name of a person recently deceased. Even such common words as dog, bird, and moccasin have thus been entirely changed within a few years, and some old men remember as many as three different words used at different periods for the same object. As this process has been going on for an indefinite length of time, it of course adds difficulties to the work of investigating the linguistic affinities of the language. In most, if not all cases, however, the new word is not an actual new creation, but a new combination of old root forms.

In most tribes we find the priests using in their ceremonial rites a peculiar dialect, full of archaic forms and figurative expressions unintelligible to the common people. This is probably true also of the Kiowa.

Traces of dialectic forms appear in the language, and from this fact and from statements of the old people, it is probable that some at least of the six recognized Kiowa tribal divisions previously described, were originally distinct, but cognate and allied, tribes, speaking different dialects. The extinct K`uăto particularly are said to have spoken the language in a peculiar manner.

A few words from other Indian languages, occurring in the text, are also included in the glossary. Corrupted popular forms of Indian words are printed in capital letters.

Sounds