Cahto (also spelled Kato) is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
Athabaskan language that was formerly spoken by the
Kato people of the Laytonville and Branscomb area at the head of the
South Fork of the Eel River. It is one of the four languages belonging to the ''California Athabaskan'' cluster of the
Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages
Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family.
California Athabaskan
: 1. Hupa (dining'-xine:wh, a.k.a. Hoopa-Chilula)
:: dialects:
::* Hupa
::* Tsnungwe
::: - tse:ning-xwe
::: - ...
. Most Kato speakers were bilingual in
Northern Pomo
Northern Pomo is a critically endangered Pomoan language, spoken by the indigenous Pomo people in what is now called California. The speakers of Northern Pomo were traditionally those who lived in the northern and largest area of the Pomoan terr ...
and some also spoke
Yuki.
Phonology
Consonants
Cahto has 26 consonant phonemes and 30 phones.
Vowels
Cahto has 9 vowel phonemes (including the diphthong) and 12 phones.
References
* University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnography 5(3):65-238.
* Goddard, Pliny Earle (1912). ''Elements of the Kato Language.'' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnography 11(1):1-176.
*
* Golla, Victor (2011). ''California Indian Languages.'' Berkeley: University of California Press. .
External links
Kato languageoverview at the
Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (originally the Survey of California Indian Languages) at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts ...
Kato Language (Cahto) nativelanguages.org
Experimental Cahto lexical databaseOLAC resources in and about the Kato languageKato basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages
Extinct languages of North America
Languages of the United States
Languages extinct in the 1960s
{{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub