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Kansa language

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Siouan language of the Dhegihan group once spoken by the Kaw people

This article is about the Siouan language of the United States. For the Gur language spoken in Burkina Faso, seeKaansa language.

Kansa
Kaáⁿze Íe
Native to	United States
Region	Kansas,Oklahoma
Ethnicity	Kaw people^[1]
Extinct	1983, with the death of Walter Kekahbah^[2]^[1]
Revival	c. 12 L2 speakers (2007)^[1]
Language family	Siouan Western Siouan Mississippi Valley Dhegiha Kansa–Osage Kansa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`ksk`
Linguist List	`qlc` Kansa-Osage
Glottolog	`kans1243`
ELP	Kanza
Kansa is classified as Extinct by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. ^[3]

People	Kaáⁿze
Language	Kaáⁿze Íe
Country	Mozhóⁿ Kaáⁿze

Kansa (native name:Kaáⁿze Íe),^[4] sometimes known asKaw orKanza, is aSiouan language of theDhegihan group once spoken by theKaw people ofOklahoma.Vice President Charles Curtis spoke Kansa as a child. The last mother-tongue speaker, Walter Kekahbah, died in 1983.^[2]

Classification

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Kansa is aDhegiha Siouan language, a broader category containing other languages such asQuapaw,Omaha–Ponca, andOsage. This group of languages falls under Mississippi Valley Siouan, which is grouped under the largest category of theSiouan language family.^[5]

History

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The speakers of Kansa, known as the Kaw people, lived together with the Siouan-speakers in a united nation known as the Dhegiha Siouan group. This group was originally situated north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River and then moved west down the Ohio River.Following their westward migration, the Dhegiha Siouan group branched into five indigenoustribes (Sioux subgroups) known mainly as Ponca, Osage, Omaha, Quapaw or Kaw people. Later on, many Kaw people migrated west of Missouri river and were called "People of the Southwind."^[6] The languages of the five tribes originating from the single Dhegiha group are quite similar, and have been regarded as dialects of each other.^[5]

Geographic distribution

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The Kansa Sioux language was mostly spoken in the U.S. state of Kansas.^{[citation needed]}

Scholarship and resources

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Pioneering anthropologist and linguistJames Owen Dorsey collected 604 Kansa words in the 1880s and also made about 25,000 entries in a Kansa-English dictionary which has never been published.^[7] Dorsey also collected 24 narratives, historical accounts, and personal letters from nine Kansa speakers.^[8]

In 1974, linguistRobert L. Rankin met Walter Kekahbah (d. 1983), Ralph Pepper (d. 1982), and Maud McCauley Rowe (d. 1978), the last surviving native speakers of Kansa. Rankin made extensive recordings of all three, especially Rowe, and his work over the next 31 years documented the language and helped the Kaw Nation to develop language learning materials.^[2]

Language revitalization

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Kansa has no native speakers. Members of the tribe now use English, while some still understand certain Kansa phrases and words.^[6] As part of a broader trend toward Nativelanguage revitalization efforts, the Kaw Nation offers online language learning for Kansa second language speakers (as of 2012).^[2]

The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Kansa,Quapaw,Osage,Omaha andPonca speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization.^[9]

Phonology

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Kansa has 29 consonants and 8 vowels.^[10]

Consonants
		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d		dʒ		ɡ
	tense	pː	tː		tʃː		kː
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		tʃʰ		kʰ
	glottalized	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ			kʼ	ʔ
Fricative	voiceless			s	ʃ		x	h
Fricative	voiced			z	ʒ		ɣ
Nasal		m		n
Approximant		w		l		j

Vowels
	Front		Back
Close	iĩ	y
Mid	ɛ		oõ
Open	aã

/ɛ/ isphonetically open-mid, whereas /o/ is phoneticallyclose-mid. Additionally, /a/ and /o/ can also be pronounced as [ə] and [u] respectively.^[11]

Orthography

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Kansa alphabet^[11]
Upper case	Lower case	Pronunciation	Example
Upper case	Lower case	Pronunciation	Kansa	English translation
A	a	/a/	a	arm
Aⁿ^[12]	aⁿ	/ã/	aⁿhá	yes (female speaker)
B	b	/b/	ble	I go
Č^[13]	č	/tʃː/	česká	cow
Čh^{[note 1]}	čh	/tʃʰ/	čhiⁿ	strike
D	d	/d/	dómbe	look at
E	e	/ɛ/	égo	like,as
G	g	/g/	gáxe	make
H	h	/h/	ho	fish
I	i	/i/	itá	egg
Iⁿ^{[note 2]}	iⁿ	/ĩ/	ìⁿtánga	gravel
J	j	/dʒ/	je	lake
K	k	/kː/	ke	turtle
Kh	kh	/kʰ/	khága	third son
K'	k'	/kʼ/	k’óse	dice
L	l	/l/	léze	striped
M	m	/m/	miⁿ	blanket
N	n	/n/	ni	water
O	o	/o/	obáhaⁿ	wear
Oⁿ^{[note 2]}	oⁿ	/õ/	oⁿháⁿ	boiling
P	p	/pː/	pa	nose
Ph	ph	/pʰ/	phóke	thud
P'	p'	/pʼ/	yup’íⁿze	blink
S	s	/s/	sábe	black
Sh	sh	/ʃ/	shábe	brown
T	t	/tː/	ta	deer
T'	t'	/tʼ/	t’óxa	bent
Ts'	ts'	/tsʼ/	ts'e	dead
U	u	/y/	úbe	bird's tail
W	w	/w/	wahú	bone
X	x	/x/	xlexlé	tattoo
Y	y	/j/	yéba	jaw
Z	z	/z/	zíhi	yellow
Zh	zh	/ʒ/	zhúje	red
Ɣ^[14]	ɣ	/ɣ/	ɣagé	cry
’	’	/ʔ/	’oⁿ	use

^⟨Č⟩ may be written as⟨C⟩ when⟨Č⟩ cannot be written easily.
^^a ^b⟨ⁿ⟩ is written as⟨n⟩ before⟨g⟩,⟨k⟩,⟨kh⟩ or⟨k’⟩, and⟨m⟩ before⟨b⟩,⟨p⟩,⟨ph⟩ or⟨p’⟩. In written communications where⟨ⁿ⟩ cannot be written⟨~⟩ or⟨N⟩ are used instead.

Grammar

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Nouns

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Kansa does not mark nouns fornumber^[5]^[11] orgender.^[11] The number of a particular noun can be determined from the verb, an article or from context.For example, the wordsínga could be translated to English as "squirrel" or "squirrels" depending on context,^[5] in the sentenceSínga miⁿ aⁿdómbabe, (transl. We looked at a squirrel), it must be a single squirrel because of the articlemiⁿ.

Verbs

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Kansa is aSOV language^[11] and the verbs areinflected based on the person and number of theirsubjects andobjects.^[11] For example, in the sentenceni kóⁿbla (transl. I want water), the objectni, (transl. water), comes before the verbkóⁿbla (transl. I want).

Kansa does not have verb tenses.^[5]^{[dubious –discuss]}

Vocabulary

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This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(September 2025)

Kansa has a great deal of vocabulary in common with the other languages of the Dhegiha Siouan group.^[5] The following table compares cognates in Kansa and Osage:

English	Osage	Kansa
house	hcí	či
man	níhka	níka
woman	wak'ó	wak'ó

References

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^^a ^b ^cKansa atEthnologue (18th ed., 2015)(subscription required)
^^a ^b ^c ^dRanney, Dave. “Researchers try to preserve Indian languages.”, accessed 12 Apr 2011
^Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.
^"Kaáⁿze Íe – Kanza Language".Kaw Nation – People of the South Wind. Kaw Nation. Retrieved17 October 2025.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f"WebKanza - KANZA".www.kawnation.com. Archived fromthe original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved2017-05-01.
^^a ^b"Kaws (or Kanzas, Kansas) - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society".www.kshs.org. Retrieved2017-05-01.
^Unrau, William E.The Kansa Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673-1873. Norman: U of OK Press, 1971, p. 12
^Kaanze Weyaje: Kanza Reader. Kanza Language Project, Kaw City, OK: Kaw Nation, 2010, p. xiii
^"Dhegiha Gathering Agenda, 2012"(PDF). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2013-06-06. Retrieved2012-09-22.
^McBride, Justin T."Orthography and Ideology: Examining the Development of Kaw Writing"(PDF). Retrieved2017-02-23.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^fKanza Language for Families & Communities Volume 1 Online Edition(PDF). Kaw Nation of Oklahoma. 2003. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2015-10-02. Retrieved2016-12-31.
^⟨ⁿ⟩ is written as⟨n⟩ before⟨g⟩,⟨k⟩,⟨kh⟩ or⟨k’⟩, and⟨m⟩ before⟨b⟩,⟨p⟩,⟨ph⟩ or⟨p’⟩. In written communications where⟨ⁿ⟩ cannot be written⟨~⟩ or⟨N⟩ are used instead.
^⟨Č⟩ may be written as⟨C⟩ when⟨Č⟩ cannot be written easily.
^⟨Ɣ⟩ may be written as⟨Gh⟩ in contexts where⟨Ɣ⟩ cannot be written

External links

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Kansa language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

Kansa language at the Kaw Nation Archived 2014-05-22 at theWayback Machine (extensive online language study resources and texts)
Kaw Indian Language (Kansa, Kanza)
OLAC resources in and about the Kansa language
English to Kansa Dictionary Archived 2016-10-11 at theWayback Machine
Kansa Talking Dictionary Archived 2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine
Kanza Language for Families and Communities Archived 2015-10-02 at theWayback Machine
Examining the Development of Kaw Writing

Languages ofOklahoma

Italics indicate extinct languages * indicates extinct language in Oklahoma but still spoken elsewhere

Indigenous

Algic	Arapaho Cheyenne Delaware Potawatomi Mesquakie Ottawa Shawnee
Caddoan	Caddo Kitsai Pawnee Wichita
Iroquoian	Cayuga* Cherokee Seneca Wyandot
Muskogean	Alabama* Chickasaw Choctaw Hitchiti-Mikasuki Koasati Muscogee
Na-Dene	Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache Plains Apache
Siouan	Chiwere Kansa Osage Ponca Quapaw
Other	Comanche Kiowa Tonkawa Yuchi

Sign languages

Non-Indigenous

Category

Siouan languages

Western

Missouri River

Mandan

Mandan

Mississippi Valley

Dakotan	Assiniboine Sioux Dakota Lakota Stoney
Chiwere–Winnebago	Chiwere Ho-Chunk
Dhegihan	Kansa–Osage Omaha–Ponca Quapaw
(unclassified)	Mitchigamea