Fox (known by a variety of different names, including Mesquakie, Meskwaki, Mesquakie-Sauk, Mesquakie-Sauk-Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and others) is an Algonquian Indian language, spoken by around 1000 Fox, Sauk, and Kickapoo in various locations in the Midwestern United States. There are three distinct dialects: Fox (also called Mesquakie, Meskwaki, and Meshkwahkihaki), Sauk (also called Sac, and Sac and Fox), and Kickapoo (also called Kikapú; considered by some to be a separate but closely-related language). Few children now speak the language, making it highly endangered, and if Kickapoo is counted as a separate language rather than a dialect of Fox, then there are only between 200 and 300 speakers. Oklahoma is a state in the southern United States, lying mostly in the lower Great Plains, and its U.S. postal abbreviation is OK; others abbreviate the states name Okla. ... State nickname: The Sunflower State Official languages None Capital Topeka Largest city Wichita Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) Senators Sam Brownback (R) Pat Roberts (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 15th 82,277 mi²; 213,096 km² 0. ... State nickname: The Hawkeye State Official languages English Capital Des Moines Largest city Des Moines Governor Thomas Vilsack (D) Senators Chuck Grassley (R) Tom Harkin (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 26th 145,743 km² 0. ... Coahuila (formal name: Coahuila de Zaragoza) is one of Mexicos 31 component states. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Algic languages are an indigenous language family of North America. ... Algonquian languages The Algonquian (also Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (others are Wiyot and Yurok of northwestern California). ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The Kickapoo are Native American tribes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Unicode is an industry standard whose goal is to provide the means by which text of all forms and languages can be encoded for use by computers. ... Algonquian languages The Algonquian (also Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (others are Wiyot and Yurok of northwestern California). ... The Fox tribe of Native Americans are an Algonquian language-speaking group that are now merged with the allied Sac tribe as the Sac and Fox Nation. ... For the abbreviation or acronym SAC, please see SAC. The Sauks or Sacs (Asakiwaki in their own language) are a group of Native Americans whose original territory may have been along the St. ... The Kickapoo are Native American tribes. ... The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ...

Phonology

The consonant phonemes of Fox are given in the table below. The vowels are short and long /i u e o a/.

There are also preaspirated stops and affricate: /ʰp ʰt ʰʧ ʰk/. The only cluster is apparently ʃk, or any consonant or cluster followed by a semivowel. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth). ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... The vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the human larynx. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... (adj. ... Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ...

External links

• Native Languages of the Americas: Mesquakie-Sauk
• Mesquakie Language Report on Ethnologue
• Kickapoo Language Report on Ethnologue

References

• Bloomfield, Leonard. 1925. "Notes on the Fox Language." International Journal of American Linguistics 3:219-32.