Tonkawa language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tonkawa
Native to	United States
Region	Western Oklahoma, South-central Texas and into New Mexico
Ethnicity	Tonkawa
Extinct	ca. 1940
Language family	Language isolate
Pre-contact distribution of the Tonkawa language
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The Tonkawa language was spoken by the Tonkawa people in parts of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. It is known as a language isolate, which means it's a language with no known relatives. It's like a unique family of one! Sadly, no one has spoken Tonkawa as their main language since the mid-1900s. Today, most Tonkawa people speak English.

Sounds of Tonkawa (Phonology)

Every language has its own set of sounds. Tonkawa had special sounds for its vowels and consonants.

Vowels

Tonkawa had 10 vowel sounds. Vowels are sounds like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'. In Tonkawa, each vowel could be short or long, which changed its meaning. Think of it like the difference between the 'i' in "sit" (short) and "seat" (long).

• Each vowel sound was different based on how it was made and how long it was held.
• There were five pairs of vowels, with one short and one long sound in each pair.

Consonants

Tonkawa had 15 consonant sounds. Consonants are sounds like 'b', 'c', 'd', 'f', 'g'.

• Some consonant sounds could change slightly depending on where they were in a word.
• For example, the 'ts' sound could sometimes sound more like 'ch', especially at the end of words.

How Sounds Change

Sometimes, when words were put together, their sounds would change.

• If a word started with an 'h' sound and something was added to the beginning, the 'h' might disappear.
• Vowels could also change their length depending on what sounds came after them.

Word Rhythm (Syllable Structure)

Tonkawa words had a special rhythm based on their syllables. A syllable is a unit of sound, like "syl-la-ble".

• In short words (two syllables), the stress (emphasis) was usually on the last syllable.
• In longer words, the stress moved to the second-to-last syllable.

Words in Tonkawa could be built in different ways, like:

• Consonant + Vowel: ka-la (mouth)
• Consonant + Vowel + Consonant: tan-kol (back of head)

How Words Are Built (Morphology)

In Tonkawa, words are built from smaller pieces called morphemes. These pieces can change the meaning or job of a word.

Word Parts

• Themes: These are the main parts of a word. Some themes can stand alone as a word, while others need extra pieces added to them.
• Affixes: These are small parts added to themes. They can be prefixes (added to the beginning) or suffixes (added to the end). Affixes change the meaning or how the word is used, like turning a noun into a verb.

Grammar

Unlike English, where words like pronouns and verbs are separate, Tonkawa often combines these ideas by adding small pieces (affixes) to words. Suffixes (pieces added to the end) were especially important.

• The order of words in a sentence was usually Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). For example, "Dog bone ate" instead of "Dog ate bone."
• Repeating parts of a verb (called reduplication) was common. This showed that an action happened many times, with a lot of energy, or was done by many people.

Nouns

Nouns are words for people, places, or things. In Tonkawa, nouns could sometimes stand alone. They didn't usually have many affixes added to them.

Verbs

Verbs are action words. In Tonkawa, verbs usually needed affixes to make them complete words. These affixes could change the verb's meaning or how it related to the subject.

Pronouns

Pronouns (like "he," "she," "they") were not always used as separate words. Instead, information about who was doing the action was often included as a prefix (added to the beginning) on the verb.

Demonstrative Pronouns

These pronouns point to something, like "this" or "that." In Tonkawa, you could add suffixes to them to make words like "that place" or "where."

Verb Suffixes

Suffixes added to verbs were very important. They showed things like when the action happened (past, present, future), if it was a negative action, or how it was done.

Enclitics

Enclitics are small words or parts of words that attach to the end of another word. In Tonkawa, they often showed if a sentence was a statement, a question, or part of a story.

Writing System

The Tonkawa language was written using a system similar to how linguists (people who study languages) write down sounds.

• Long vowels (like the 'a' in "father") were shown with a dot after them (a·).
• The 'ts' sound was written as 'c'.
• A special sound called the glottal stop (like the break in "uh-oh") was written as an apostrophe (') or a small question mark (^?).
• The 'y' sound was written as 'y'.

Example

Here are the first few sentences from a Tonkawa story called Coyote and Jackrabbit:

ha·csokonayla ha·nanoklaknoˀo xamˀalˀa·yˀik. ˀe·kʷa tanmaslakʷa·low hecne·laklaknoˀo lak. ha·csokonayla "ˀo·c!" noklaknoˀo. "ˀekʷanesxaw sa·ken nenxales!" noklaknoˀo. ˀe·ta tanmaslakʷa·lowa·ˀa·lak hewleklaknoˀo.

What it means:

Coyote / he was going along, it is said / on the prairie. When he did so / Jackrabbit / he was lying, it is said / (accusative). Coyote / "Oho!" / he said, it is said. "Horse /my / I have found it!" / he said, it is said. And then / that Jackrabbit (mentioned before) / he caught him, it is said.

Vocabulary

Here are some common words in Tonkawa:

See also

In Spanish: Idioma tónkawa para niños