Karankawa is the extinct, unclassified language of the Texas coast, where the Karankawa people migrated between the mainland and the barrier islands. It was not closely related to other known languages in the area, many of which are also poorly attested, and may have been a language isolate. A couple hundred words are preserved, collected in 1698, 1720, and 1828; in the 1880s, three lists were collected from non-Karankawa who knew some words. Karankawa has sometimes been included with neighboring languages in a Coahuiltecan family, but that is now thought to be spurious.

Phonology

There were also possible lateral affricate sounds [tɬ, dɮ] which were represented as <kl, gl>.

Vocabulary

Though only a few hundred words of the Karankawa language are preserved, the following are selected words recorded by Albert Gatschet, a late Victorian anthropologist and linguist, referenced from the last fluent speakers of the language.

Swanton (1940)

The following vocabulary list of Karankawa is from John Swanton (1940). ! gloss !! Karankawa