Cayuse language
The Cayuse language is an extinct unclassified language formerly spoken by the Cayuse Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Oregon. The Cayuse name for themselves was Liksiyu.Classification
Similarities to Molala, the language of people to the south of them in central Oregon, are thought to have been due to contact.
Edward Sapir had originally grouped Cayuse with Molala as part of a Waiilatpuan branch with the Plateau Penutian languages; the Waiilatpuan group had been originally proposed by Horatio Hale, based on his 1841 field work with the Cayuse people at Waiilatpu Mission. However, Cayuse has little documentation, and that which is documented is inadequately recorded.Pronouns
Cayuse pronouns listed by Horatio Hale :
Cayuse pronouns listed by McBean:Verbs
Cayuse verb paradigms documented by Henry W. Henshaw:
;'hungry'
;'thirsty'Vocabulary
In 1910 or 1911, Stephens Savage, a Molala speaker, had told Leo Frachtenberg that the following five words were identical in both Cayuse and Molala.
Limited lexical items in Cayuse had also been collected by Bruce Rigsby, Melville Jacobs, Verne Ray, and Theodore Stern. Their Cayuse informants had highly limited knowledge of Cayuse and were more fluent in Sahaptin or Nez Perce.Hale (1846)
A word list of Cayuse with nearby 200 lexical items was documented by Horatio Hale. The word list has been reproduced below.Nouns
Adjectives
Pronouns
Adverbs and others
Numerals
Verbs
