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 and in northern Mexico. 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). If Kickapoo is counted as a separate language rather than a dialect of Fox, then there are only between 200 and 300 speakers of Fox.

Most speakers are elderly or middle-aged, and there are no children learning the language (with the possible exception of Kickapoo children of Mexico), making it highly endangered. Prominent scholars doing research on the language include Ives Goddard and Lucy Thomason of the Smithsonian Institution and Amy Dahlstrom of the University of Chicago.

Phonology

The consonant phonemes of Fox are given in the table below. There are eight vowel phonemes: short /a, e, i, o/ and long .

Other than those involving a consonant plus /j/ or /w/, the only possible consonant cluster is ʃk.

See also

• Sac and Fox Nation

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.