Adai (also Adaizan, Adaizi, Adaise, Adahi, Adaes, Adees, Atayos) is an extinct Native American language that was spoken in northwestern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

Classification

It was once proposed that there may be a connection between Adai and the nearby

Caddoan languages The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of ...

, but this now seems unlikely.Grant, Anthony P. 1995. ''John Sibley's Adai vocabulary: a contribution to Caddoan Lexicography?'' Paper presented at 1995 Siouan-Caddoan Conference, Albuquerque. 15pp. (Contains the entire vocabulary of Adai from MS in American Philosophical Soc.)

Vocabulary

Adai is known only from a list of 275 words from 1804 by John Sibley.Sibley, John. 1804. ''A vocabulary of the Adaye or Adaize Indians''. Manuscript. (See also Mithridates Vol. 3, part 3., p. 278.) The manuscript word list below has been reproduced from Grant's (1995) transcriptions. (Note: Due to the poor printing in Grant (1995), the text below may not be entirely accurate and will need to be re-checked.)

Nouns

Adjectives

Pronouns

Verbs

Numerals

Others

References

* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .

External links

OLAC resources in and about the Adai language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adai language Unclassified languages of North America Extinct languages of North America Indigenous languages of the North American Southeast Languages of the United States Languages extinct in the 19th century 19th-century disestablishments in North America