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, fluent speaker of Catawba was Missouri Brindle' The

Catawba tribe The Catawba, also known as Issa, Essa or Iswä but most commonly ''Iswa'' (Catawba: '' Ye Iswąˀ'' – "people of the river"), are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans, known as the Catawba Indian Nation. Their current lands ar ...

is now working to revitalize and preserve the Catawba language.

Phonology

Consonants

There is also a [] sound, which happens to be an allophone of //. // rarely occurs.

Vowels

: : : Short vowel sounds // can be unstressed, ranging to []. Back vowel sounds can range from // to [], and a short // can range to a back vowel sound [].

Errata

Red Thunder Cloud, an impostor, born Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West, claimed to be the last speaker of the language. At his death in 1996 it was revealed that he was neither Catawba nor even Native American, but had learned what he knew of the language from books, and from listening to the last known native speaker,

Samuel Taylor Blue Samuel Taylor Blue (c. 1871–1959) was a Native American Chief of the Catawba Nation from 1931–1938, 1941–1943, and 1956–1958. He was a leading figure in the tribal community, whether or not he was formally serving as Chief at that ti ...

and his half-sister, Sally Gordon, when he visited the Catawba reservation. This had apparently been enough to fool the ethnologists who wrote about him.

References

External links

*Ives Goddard, 2000
"The Identity of Red Thunder Cloud"
Smithsonian Institution, reprinted from ''Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter''. (accessed 2021-05-25)

* Catawba Texts Catawban languages Catawba Extinct languages of North America Languages extinct in the 20th century {{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub