الكايوا

Kiowa (Cáuijògà, "Kiowa speech") is the ancestral language of the Kiowa Nation, originally Plains-buffalo nomads who migrated south from western Montana to Oklahoma in the 18th century, becoming part of the southern Plains horse-warrior culture alongside Comanche and Cheyenne. The Kiowa-Tanoan language family is one of the most fascinating in North America: Kiowa is connected by genealogical relationship to the Tanoan Pueblo languages (Tewa, Tiwa, Towa) of the southwestern US, despite vast geographic separation. Linguistically, Kiowa has classic Tanoan features: tonal (3 tones), nasal vowels, complex verb morphology marking person-number-tense. The language is critically endangered with active revitalization through the Kiowa Tribal Cultural Department.