Biloxi is an extinct Siouan language, which was once spoken by the Biloxi tribe in present-day Mississippi, Louisiana, and southeastern Texas.

History

The Biloxi tribe first encountered Europeans in 1699, along the Pascagoula River. By the mid-18th century, they had settled in central Louisiana. Some were also noted in Texas in the early 19th century. By the early 19th century, their numbers were already dwindling. By 1934, the last native speaker, Emma Jackson, was in her eighties. Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas spoke with her in 1934 and confirmed that she spoke the language.

Classification

Biloxi is an Ohio Valley, or Southeastern, Siouan language. It is related to Ofo and Tutelo.

Phonology

Multiple possible inventories have been suggested. This article follows that of Einaudi (1976).

Vowels

Along with contrastive nasalization, Biloxi also has phonemic vowel length. Notes: Dorsey & Swanton (1912) postulated phonemic vowel length, which was verified by Haas and Swadesh in speaking with Emma Jackson in 1934. Their findings appeared in Haas (1968). Also, there may still be some uncertainty as to whether certain words contain /ą/ or /an/.

Consonants

Notes: Biloxi may also have a phonemic aspiration distinction for some segments.

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is (C)(C)(C)V(C) or (C)V(C)(C). However, clusters of three consonants are rare. Most words end in a vowel. The others usually end in /k/ or /x/ as a result of deletion: tox from toho "he fell." Few consonant clusters end syllables. Most exceptions are caused by vowel deletion: tohoxk from tohoxka "horse." The following consonant clusters are observed: Geminates do not occur. /n/ sonorants and probably /d/ occur only as the second elements of clusters. /h/ and /m/ are never the second element. Fricatives do not co-occur. There are a few three-consonant clusters, all of the form C+s+stop or C+x+glide and some with alternate forms:

Grammar

Morphophonemics

There are many verb roots and two mode markers with the morphophonemically-conditioned alternation eai (underlying ||E||): The alternation depends on the following morpheme: Nouns and verbs whose stems end in -Vhi or -Vhį change to -Vx before the plural marker -tu: That may occur with duti 'to eat' also: The rule may optionally also apply in compounds and across word boundaries if the next element starts with CV: Nouns that end in -di and can undergo pluralization change to -x: ||adi + tu|| > /axtu/ 'their father'. Verbs whose stems end in -Vki, -Vpi, or -si optionally lose their -i before the plural marker: The rule may cause the previous vowel to denasalize. Verbs whose stems end in -ti or -hi may optionally change to -x before the negative mode marker ni: Stems ending in -si optionally become -s. The dative marker ki becomes kiy before a vowel. (However, Einaudi cites one counterexample, ||ki + į|| > /kiį/ 'they were drinking it for him', perhaps with a glottal stop inserted.) The following rule is optional in compounds and across word boundaries and obligatory everywhere else: V1V1 > V1 V1V2 > V2 However, there are a few words with two adjacent vowels: naǫ 'day', hauti 'be sick', etc. Two morphophonemically identical syllables may not appear contiguously, but the former is dropped. Einaudi finds one counterexample, ||kite + te|| > /kite te/ 'she wanted to hit him'. C1C1 > C1 The following rule optionally applies to compounds: XV#CY > XCY That may lead to otherwise-disallowed clusters, including geminates: The following rule applies to compounds: Vn#C > V̨#C The following rules are conditioned by person markers on nouns and verbs: Stems beginning with /h/ and some beginning with /y/ (morphophonemically distinguished as ||Y||) undergo the following (obligatory for h-stems but optional for Y-stems): However, that does not apply for y-initial (rather than Y-initial) stems: The following rule applies before roots and the dative marker ki: (optionally) ||ay|| > /aya~ya/ /___k,x The use of different allomorphs in free variation is attested for some verbs. The next four rules combine personal affixes and so apply only to verbs: The subjunctive mode marker ||xo|| undergoes the following rule: The habitual mode marker ||xa|| optionally undergoes the following rule: The auxiliary ande undergoes the following rule:

Morphology

The three word classes in Biloxi are verbs, substantives (nouns and pronouns), and particles. Only first two take affixes. Verbs are always marked for person and number and may also take dative, reciprocal, reflexive, and/or instrumental markers as well as mode markers, the object specifier, and auxiliaries. They are at or immediately before the end of clauses. All nominal affixes may also be used with verbs, but nouns use a subset of the verbal affixes. They may not use dative, reciprocal, reflexive, or instrumental markers or mode markers or auxiliaries. Particles serve many functions, including noun phrase marking and acting as adverbials.

Inflection

Nouns

Nouns may be inflectable or, as most are, non-inflectable. The former group inflects for person and number. It contains names of body parts and kin terms, which must inflect, and a few other personal possessions, with option inflection. The person markers are nk- for the first person, ay- second person, and Ø- for the third person. They may be pluralized with the marker -tu. The noun's number itself is not marked explicitly. Examples of inflected nouns are below: Here are examples of optionally-inflected nouns: Personal pronouns are formed by inflecting the root indi for person and number. (It may once also have been done by the demonstratives he and de.) Pronouns are always optional, and are emphasis. Singular pronouns may occur as either the subject or the object, but the plurals are always subjects (see -daha). Biloxi has two common demonstratives: de 'this' and he 'that'. They may be marked for plurality as denani and henani, but that is very rare since they are used if plurality is unmarked elsewhere, and it is marked on the verb in noun phrases with classificatory verbs:

Verbs

Verbs inflect for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular vs. plural), and mode (many possibilities, including some less-well understood mode markers). Morphemes within verbs have the following order: Verbs may either be classificatory or normal. Classificatory verbs specify the subject's position (sitting, standing, etc.) and differ from normal verbs in that the first person is not inflected for person. Inflection for person and number is identical to inflected nouns: Because of the rules determining the surface manifestations of some combinations of person markers, 2nd person on 1st and 3rd person on 1st forms are identical, e.g. yaxtedi 'you hit me, he hit me'. Also, 2nd person subj., 2nd person on 3rd, and 3rd person on 2nd are identical, e.g. idǫhi 'you see, you see him, they see you'. -tu marks animate plurality (except with some motion verbs). However, -tu is not used: Some (but not all) verbs of motion mark plurality with the prefix a- inserted directly before the root: But there are counterexamples (even ones derived from the same roots): daha marks plural objects when they are not specified elsewhere. It comes after -tu and before all mode markers. Examples: There are two examples of daha being reduced to ha: a- may be added to some verb roots to mark an unspecified indefinite object:

Mode markers

There are many mode markers in Biloxi. Some are common and well understood, while others are infrequent and have elusive meanings.

Derivation

Nouns

Nouns may be derived either through nominalizing verbs or by compounding. Verbs are nominalized via the prefix a-: Compound nouns may either be formed by combining two nouns or a noun and a verb. (Some morphophonemic rules are involved, see above.) noun + noun: noun + verb:

Pronouns

For the personal pronoun indi, see above. įkowa may be used as a reflexive pronoun. It is possible that both of these, and perhaps the reflexive pronoun -įxki- (see below) are derived from a root in.

Interrogatives

A number of interrogatives come from the prefix ca- (with vowel elision following morphophonemic rules): Some are derived from pronouns:

Verbs

Verbal derivation may occur by root derivation (reduplication and compounding) or stem derivation (thematic prefixes, dative markers, reciprocals, reflexives, and instrumentals.)

Reduplication

Reduplication, common in Biloxi, is used for intensification or distributiveness. Usually, the first CVC of the root is reduplicated but sometimes it is only the first CV:

Compounding

Verbal compounds may be noun + verb or verb + verb. It seems that most noun-verb compounds are formed by using the verb ǫ 'do, make': Examples of verb-verb compounds: Some of the above compounds end up having adjacent vowels, since syncope in compounds is optional.

Thematic prefixes

Thematic prefixes come after person markers and before dative markers and instrumentals.

Dative, reciprocal, and reflexive markers

The dative marker ki- (kiy- before vowels) is used after thematic prefixes. It is peculiar in that it may be used if someone else's body parts are the direct object (the "dative of possession"). It appears as kik- before ǫ 'do, make' and gives it a benefactive gloss (kikǫ daha 'he made for them'). (It should not be mistaken for kiki-.) The reduplicated kiki- marks reciprocity. The plural marker -tu is then optional. įxki- (or ixki-, perhaps because of the denasalizing morphopohnemic rule above) marks reflexives. It normally comes immediately after person markers, but in some third-person cases, ki- may come before it:

Instrumental prefixes

Instrumentals serve to mark how the event was carried out and immediately precede the root.

Adverbs

Adverbs may be derived from connectives, pronouns, and verbs and particles via a number of affixes:

Connectives

There are various instances of derived connectives:

Numerals

Derived numbers contain predictable vowel syncope (see above). 11-19 are derived via the formula 'X sitting on Y' ('Y Xaxehe'). 20-99 are derived via the formula 'X sitting on Y Zs' ('Z Y Xaxehe') Ordinal numerals (1st, 2nd, 3rd) are not attested. To express 'once', 'twice', 'three times', etc.', use the verb de 'to go' before cardinal numbers: To form multiplicatives, use akipta 'to double' before cardinal numbers:

Syntax

Biloxi is a left-branching SOV language. Its lexical categories include interjections (I), adverbials (A), subjects (S), objects (O), verbs (V), and connectives (C). The three types of phrases are: There are dependent and independent clauses, and major and minor sentences. (see below)

Interjections

Interjections may be:

Interjectory particles

Animal cries

Vocatives

Vocatives are almost always unmarked: There are only three exceptions:

Adverbials

Adverbials most often appear directly before the verb, but they may also act as subjects and object. They may not follow verbs or precede connectives in sentence-initial position. Adverbials may be:

Adverbial particles

Some particles: (Also, see "adverbs", above.) Usage examples:

Postpositional phrases

(For vowel elision, see above.) Notes: Almost all of the above allow following de or yą. de has the expected meaning 'here' or 'this', while yą may be glossed 'the' or 'yonder'. Prepositions are sometimes used without modifying a noun, becoming adverbial:

Multiplicatives

Such as:

Some interrogatives

Subjects and Objects

Subjects and objects are formed almost identically, save for the fact that the nominal particle ką may only be used after objects. A subject or object must include a simple noun (N), and may optionally also include a verb (V), nominal particle (np), and/or demonstrative pronoun (dp), in that order. If the noun is a personal pronoun, it may only (optionally) be followed by either a demonstrative pronoun or a nominal particle, but not both. For other pronouns (e.g. de 'this'), they may not be followed by anythihng. Examples: N V N np N dp N V np N V dp N np dp N V np dp Possession in S's and O's is expressed by the possessor followed by the possessed, followed by np's. Two subjects may be juxtaposed with reciprocal verbs: Additives may be expressed by juxtaposition followed by the np yą, but this is not used often due to ambiguity (it might be interpreted as a possessive phrase): Alternatives are expressed with juxtaposition followed by the particle ha (not otherwise an np):

Nominal particles (np)

Biloxi has many nominal particles, and for the most part their function is unclear. A non-exhaustive list: For the most part it's unclear what conditions the use of a particular np (or ∅), but the following can be said:

Verbs

Simple verbs (not causatives or expanded verbs, see below) must contain a person marker, root, and number marker, and optionally the following: Prefixes: Suffixes:

Auxiliary constructions

Biloxi contains a defective auxiliary verb (h)andE/yukE (ande is used in singular, yuke for plural). By itself it may mean 'to be' or 'to stay', but with another verb it lends durativity. The plural marker -tu is not used with yuke since the defective form itself already serves to mark number. When the auxiliary construction is used, both the main verb and the auxiliary are inflected. Examples: Generally to express the negative the stem is negated, rather than the auxiliary:

Classificatory verbs

Biloxi contains five classificatory verbs, which indicate duration and position of the subject: (See above for morphophonemic explanation of ||mąki|| > /max/.) They may be used alone as verbs (kuhik mąx ką 'when it was lying high') but often reinforce synonymous roots: They are used mostly with animates. Classificatory verbs are only inflected for 2nd person (not 1st) when used as auxiliaries. hamakiamaki is used as the plural form for all five classificatory verbs (even optionally for mąki and ne, which have their own plural forms mąxtuamąki and ne):

Causatives

The causative verb ||YE|| comes after (uninflected) stems to form a causative construction. In first and second person ha (sometimes h if followed by a vowel, see 3.1 above) is inserted between the stem and ||YE||. Examples:

Expanded verbs

Serial verb constructions occur with two or three verbs in sequence. All are of the same person and number, but only the final stem has suffixes:

Connectives

Connectives may be co-ordinating or subordinating:

Co-ordinating

Subordinating

All subordinating connectives end the clause. ką is the most common by far and may be related to the np ką.

Clauses

Clauses may end no more than one clause final connective. Subordinating connectives are used to create dependent clauses. In clauses, the following order generally holds: (Connective) (Subject) (Object) (Adverb) Verb (Connective) There are occasional examples of S and/or O occurring after the verb, always with animates. O rarely precedes S, possibly for emphasis. Direct objects always precede indirect objects: ąya xi yandi ąxti yą int ką ku 'the chief gave him the woman'. Full sentences always end in independent clauses. Embedded sentences are not usually marked, but the horatory marker hi can be used if the embedded action has not yet occurred, and ni can be used if the action was not performed. wo (or wi) is used for mistaken ideas.

Inline citations and notes

Sources referenced