Wichita | |
---|---|
Kirikirʔi:s | |
Native to | United States |
Region | West-central Oklahoma |
Ethnicity | 2,100 Wichita people (2007) |
Extinct | 30 August 2016[1] with the death of Doris McLemore. |
Caddoan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | wic |
Glottolog | wich1260 |
ELP | Wichita |
Linguasphere | > 64-BAC-a 64-BAC > 64-BAC-a |
![]() Distribution of Native American languages in Oklahoma | |
Wichita is an extinct Caddoan language once spoken in Oklahoma by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. The last fluent heritage speaker, Doris Lamar-McLemore, died in 2016,[2] although in 2007 there were three first-language speakers alive.[3] This has rendered Wichita functionally extinct; however, the tribe offers classes to revitalize the language[4] and works in partnership with the Wichita Documentation Project of the University of Colorado, Boulder.[5]