Bidai (also spelled Beadeye, Bedias, Bidey, Viday, etc.; autonym: ) is an unclassified

extinct language An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of r ...

formerly spoken by the Bidai people of eastern Texas. Zamponi (2024) notes that the numerals do not appear to be related to those of any other languages and hence proposes that Bidai may be a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

Word list

Rufus Grimes, a Texan settler in Navasota, Grimes County sent a letter dated November 15, 1887 to Albert S. Gatschet that contained several Bidai words. The word list was published in Gatschet (1891: 39, fn. 2). :

Comparison of numerals

Below is Zamponi's (2024) comparison of Bidai numerals with those of neighboring languages. : Anthony Grant (1995) finds the following cognates shared with

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

and Mobilian Jargon.Grant, Anthony P. 1995. "A note on Bidai." ''European Review of Native American Studies'' 9:45–47. :

References

{{Native American Tribes in Texas Unclassified languages of North America Extinct languages of North America Indigenous languages of Mexico Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest Indigenous languages of Texas Languages extinct in the 19th century

Word list

Comparison of numerals

See also

References