Cahto language

Kato
Cahto
Region	California (Eel River)
Ethnicity	Cahto people
Extinct	1960s
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Pacific Coast Athabaskan California Athabaskan Kato
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.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental			Alveolar	Post-alveolar			Palatal			Velar			Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	[m] m				[n] n							[ŋ] ñ
Stop	[b] b	[tʰ] t	[tʼ] t'	[d] d	[ts] ts [tsʼ] ts'				Before front vowel			Before back vowel			[k]~[q] q	[ʔ] ′
									[cʰ] k	[cʼ] k'	[ɟ] g	[kʰ] k	[kʼ] k'	[g] g
Affricate					[tɬ] L	[t͡ʃʰ] tc	[t͡ʃʼ] tc'	[d͡ʒ] dj				[kʷ] kw [kʷ] kw'
Fricative					[s] s [z] z [ɬ] ʟ	[ʃ] c [ʒ] j						[ɣ] ɢ				[h] h
Approximant					[l] l				[j] y			([ʍ] w) [w] w

Cahto has 26 consonant phonemes and 30 phones.

Vowels

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

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

References

• 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. University of California Press. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
• Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-052-026667-4.

External links

• Kato language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Kato Language (Cahto), nativelanguages.org
• The Cahto ("Kato") Language
• Experimental Cahto lexical database
• OLAC resources in and about the Kato language
• Kato Bibliography
• Kato basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database