Tonkawa Language
The Tonkawa language is regarded as an independent linguistic stock, distinct from other Native American language families. Historically, the Tonkawa people inhabited areas in central Texas, specifically the Edwards Plateau, before being displaced by the Lipan Apache and Comanche tribes. By the late 19th century, they had moved to Indian Territory, and their modern settlement is near Fort Robinson, Oklahoma. Knowledge of the Tonkawa language has been preserved through the efforts of early informants and linguists, notably John Rush Buffalo and Harry Hoijer.
The Tonkawa language features a complex grammatical structure primarily characterized by affixation, which modifies word meanings and establishes relationships within sentences. It employs two main parts of speech: independent themes and themes with affixes. The language's verb forms are particularly intricate, often indicating tense, mode, and aspect while emphasizing observational rather than analytical relationships. Additionally, the language is noted for its polysynthetic tendencies, where meaning is derived from the combination of roots and affixes. Understanding Tonkawa requires attention to its unique grammatical rules, which prioritize verb forms and the interplay of meaning among its components.
Subject Terms
Tonkawa Language
Culture area: Plains
Tribe affected: Tonkawa
The Tonkawa language is considered by some experts to be an independent linguistic stock, unrelated to any other Native American language families. Smaller tribes such as the Sana, situated between the Tonkawa and the Coahuiltecan-speaking tribes, may have spoken a language related to the Tonkawa, but there is no evidence to prove so. A relationship between Tonkawa and the Coahuiltecan languages has been postulated, but the difficulty of proving this relationship is profound because of the scarcity of material. Therefore it is necessary to consider Tonkawa as an independent language.
According to the tribe's tradition, the Tonkawa centered its early modern activities on the Edwards Plateau west of the Colorado River in what is now central Texas. They were forced to the southeast by the advancing Lipan Apache and Comanche. On Stephen F. Austin’s map of the region, the Tonkawa were placed between the San Antonio and the Colorado rivers. By the late nineteenth century, the Tonkawa had been forced to relocate into Indian Territory and then again at Fort Griffin, Texas. In 1884 the Tonkawa were removed to reserved land in Indian Territory. They have remained there around their principal settlement, Fort Robinson, Oklahoma, where they live today.
Knowledge of the Tonkawa language stems largely from the informant John Rush Buffalo, a Tonkawa, Albert S. Gatschet, who collected Tonkawa material in 1884, and the systematic work of Harry Hoijer in the twentieth century.
The theme carries the concrete significance of the word or phrase. The affixes serve either to amplify or to restrict this meaning or to relate the word to the rest of the sentence. Grammatical variations in Tonkawa words are accomplished chiefly by affixation. The predominant form is through affixation (for example, the definite article, case, number, tense, mode, and aspect). Prefixes are used much more sparingly. They are more concrete in meaning than the suffixes, adding significance to the word rather than serving to relate it to other concepts in the sentence. The technique of combination ranges from a very loose semi-independent type of affix to a firm combination of theme and affix.
There are two parts of speech in Tonkawa: independent themes and themes plus affixes. The former indicate terms which may be nominal, act as an adjective, pronominal, or act as an adverb. The latter terms have verbal significance. The Tonkawa sentence is dominated by the verb complex. It includes the subject and object pronouns and defines the tense, mode, and aspect of the action. The verb is the most complex part in structure. It is generally synthetic, attributing to a subject something determined by observation rather than by analysis, with a tendency toward polysynthetic structure. Prefixes are all mixed relational in character. They serve to add both significance to the term and to relate it to other concepts in the sentence. They are all verbal prefixes. For example, da’ is used in combination with pronominal prefixes to indicate the indirect object of an intransitive verb: He’malew-o’c, “I dance”; da’-he’malew-o’c, “I dance with him.” Word order is only important in distinguishing function.