COMPOSITION OF THE CADDOAN LINGUISTIC STOCK' 



By ALEXANDER LESSER and GENE WELTFISH 



New York, N. Y. 



CLASSIFICATION 



The Caddoan linguistic stock, named after the language of the 

 Caddo, is composed of four major languages. Pawnee, Wichita, 

 Kitsai,^ and Caddo. Of these, the Kitsai had never developed 

 dialectic differentiation; the Wichita and Caddo probably each in- 

 cluded several dialects, but as at present spoken are known only in 

 one form; and the Pawnee today occurs in three dialects. On the 

 basis of present knowledge, the broad relationships of the four 

 languages can be indicated as follows: Pawnee, Wichita, and Kitsai 

 are, in relation to each other, about equally divergent, save that 

 Kitsai in phonetic structure and some forms is probably closer to 

 Pawnee than Wichita is to Pawnee. All three, however, are mu- 

 tually unintelligible. Caddo is the most divergent of the four 

 languages. The general interrelationships of these languages and 

 their dialects can be summarized by the following table:* 



' Based on field research for the Committee on American Indian Languages. 



'' The authors have preferred this spelling of Kichai. Kitsai approximates 

 more closely the phonetic character of the native name. 



' In the transcription of native names and words of this treatment, the authors 

 have followed the recommendations embodied in Phonetic Transcription of 

 Indian Languages, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 66, no. 6, September, 1916. 

 Briefly summarized, the characteristics represented are as follows: 



Consonajits: 



h, m, n, h, and y have their usual values. 



p, t, and k (except in Caddo) are intermediates, neither quite sonant nor quite 

 surd. Pawnee final t is nasalized, indicated by superior n (t°). Caddo t is surd 

 d sonant; Caddo k is, however, intermediate. 



s is throughout surd, somewhat more sibilant than English s. 



c is the usual sound of sh in English show. 



X closely approximates the ch of German ich. 



r in Pawnee and Arikara is a single trilled r made with the tip of the tongue on 

 the alveolar ridge (see also Boas, Handbook of American Indian Languages, 

 Bull. 40, Bur. Amer. Ethnol., pt. 1, p. 17, 1911); in Kitsai and Wichita where a 

 distinct n occurs, the r more nearly approximates the English r, but it is never 

 made as far back in the mouth or trilled as strongly. Caddo r is more strongly 

 trilled. 



The affricative ts is intermediate where t is intermediate. In Caddo it is surd. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 87, No. 6 



