Ethnicity Catawba people | ISO 639-3 chc | |
Extinct probably early 20th century; before 1960 Language family SiouanEasternCatawba | ||
Catawba is one of two Eastern Siouan languages of the eastern US, which together with the Western Siouan languages formed the Siouan language family.
The last native speaker of Catawba died before 1960. Red Thunder Cloud, apparently an impostor born Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West, claimed to speak the language until he died in 1996 (Goddard 2000). The Catawba tribe is now working to revive the Catawba language.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels/ Nasals
There also exists an /o/ sound in words like hawuʰ (other sources say hawó, and it is pronounced as hah-woh) meaning thank you. /o/ can possibly be written out, and may have a nasal and a long sound as well. Consonants and vowels can be aspirated or breathy sounded. Vowels can also be accented (e.g. /á/).
References
Catawba language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA