Cahto language

Not to be confused with Caddo language.

Cahto (also spelled Kato) is an extinct Athabaskan language that was formerly spoken by the Kato people of the Laytonville and Branscomb area at the head of the South Fork of the Eel River. It is one of the four languages belonging to the California Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages. Most Kato speakers were bilingual in Northern Pomo and some also spoke Yuki. It went extinct in the 1960s.^[1][3]

Kato
Cahto
Native to	United States
Region	California (Eel River)
Ethnicity	Cahto people
Extinct	1960s[1]
Revival	2010s[2]
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Pacific Coast Athabaskan California Athabaskan Kato
Writing system	Latin (proposed)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ktw
Glottolog	kato1244

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
				central	lateral			plain	labial
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩			ɲ ⟨ñ⟩
Plosive/ Affricate	unaspirated	p~b ⟨b⟩	t~d ⟨d⟩	ts ⟨ts⟩		t͡ʃ~d͡ʒ ⟨dj⟩	c~ɟ ⟨g⟩	k~g ⟨g⟩	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	k~q ⟨q⟩	ʔ ⟨′⟩
	ejective		tʼ ⟨t'⟩	tsʼ ⟨ts'⟩	tɬʼ ⟨L⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨tc'⟩	cʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kw'⟩
	aspirated		tʰ ⟨t⟩			t͡ʃʰ ⟨tc⟩	cʰ ⟨k⟩	kʰ ⟨k⟩
Fricative	voiceless			s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨ʟ⟩	ʃ ⟨c⟩					h ⟨h⟩
	voiced			z ⟨z⟩		ʒ		ɣ ⟨ɢ⟩
Approximant				l ⟨l⟩			j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Cahto has 26 consonant phonemes and 30 phones.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back	Diphthong
High	[i(ː)] ī	[ɪ] i ~ [ʊ] û	[u(ː)] ū	[ai] ai
High-Mid	[e(ː)] ē	[e] ɛ ~ [ə] ę	[o(ː)] ō
Low-Mid	[ɛ] ɛ ~ [ə] ę		[ʌ] ą ~ [a] a
Low	[a(ː)] ā, [ʌ] ą ~ [a] a

Cahto has 9 vowel phonemes (including the diphthong) and 12 phones.