Fox language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fox Meshkwahkihaki |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | United States, Mexico | |
| Region: | Central Oklahoma, Northeastern Kansas, Iowa, and Coahuila, Mexico | |
| Total speakers: | 200-1000 | |
| Language family: | Algic Algonquian Fox |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | alg | |
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | either: sac — Fox and Sauk kic — Kickapoo |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Fox (known by a variety of different names, including Mesquakie, Meskwaki, Mesquakie-Sauk, Mesquakie-Sauk-Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and others) is an Algonquian Indian language, spoken by around 1000 Fox, Sauk, and Kickapoo in various locations in the Midwestern United States. There are three distinct dialects: Fox (also called Mesquakie, Meskwaki, and Meshkwahkihaki), Sauk (also called Sac, and Sac and Fox), and Kickapoo (also called Kikapú; considered by some to be a separate but closely-related language). Few children now speak the language, making it highly endangered, and if Kickapoo is counted as a separate language rather than a dialect of Fox, then there are only between 200 and 300 speakers.
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[edit] Phonology
The consonant phonemes of Fox are given in the table below. There are eight vowel phonemes: short /a, e, i, o/ and long /a:, e:, i:, o:/.
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | k | ||
| Affricate | ʧ | ||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Semivowel | w | j |
There are also preaspirated stops and affricate: /ʰp ʰt ʰʧ ʰk/. The only cluster is apparently ʃk, or any consonant or cluster followed by a semivowel.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Native Languages of the Americas: Mesquakie-Sauk
- Mesquakie Language Report on Ethnologue
- Kickapoo Language Report on Ethnologue
[edit] References
- Bloomfield, Leonard. 1925. "Notes on the Fox Language." International Journal of American Linguistics 3:219-32.
