Cahto language

Kato
Kato
Cahto
Native to	United States
Region	California (Eel River)
Ethnicity	Cahto people
Extinct	1960s
Revival	2010s
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Pacific Coast Athabaskan California Athabaskan Kato; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (proposed)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ktw
Glottolog	kato1244

Cahto (also spelled Kato) is an extinct 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. Most Kato speakers were bilingual in Northern Pomo and some also spoke Yuki. It went extinct in the 1960s.^[1]^[3]

Phonology

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
		Labial	Dental	central	lateral	Post- alveolar	Palatal	plain	labial	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩			ɲ ⟨ñ⟩
Plosive/ Affricate	unaspirated	p~b ⟨b⟩	t~d ⟨d⟩	ts ⟨ts⟩		t͡ʃ~d͡ʒ ⟨dj⟩	c~ɟ ⟨g⟩	k~g ⟨g⟩	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	k~q ⟨q⟩	ʔ ⟨′⟩
	ejective		tʼ ⟨t'⟩	tsʼ ⟨ts'⟩	tɬʼ ⟨L⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨tc'⟩	cʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kw'⟩
	aspirated		tʰ ⟨t⟩			t͡ʃʰ ⟨tc⟩	cʰ ⟨k⟩	kʰ ⟨k⟩
Fricative	voiceless			s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨ʟ⟩	ʃ ⟨c⟩					h ⟨h⟩
Fricative	voiced			z ⟨z⟩		ʒ		ɣ ⟨ɢ⟩
Approximant				l ⟨l⟩			j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Cahto has 26 consonant phonemes and 30 phones.

	Front	Central	Back	Diphthong
High	[i(ː)] ī	[ɪ] i ~ [ʊ] û	[u(ː)] ū	[ai] ai
High-Mid	[e(ː)] ē	[e] ɛ ~ [ə] ę	[o(ː)] ō
Low-Mid	[ɛ] ɛ ~ [ə] ę		[ʌ] ą ~ [a] a
Low	[a(ː)] ā, [ʌ] ą ~ [a] a

Cahto has 9 vowel phonemes (including the diphthong) and 12 phones.

^ ^a ^b Kato at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Anderson, Sally R. (1996-12-12). "Cahto Language Homepage". www.turtlenodes.com. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
^ Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26667-4. OCLC 668191602.

Goddard, Pliny Earle; Bill Ray (1909). Kato texts. The University Press. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 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.
Goddard, Pliny Earle (1916). Elements of the Kato language (PDF). University of California Press. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-052-026667-4.

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