The Kiowa-Tanoan languages are a Native American language family.

Most of the languages—Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa—are spoken in the Pueblos of New Mexico and called collectively Tanoan, while Kiowa is spoken in mostly southwestern Oklahoma.

The Kiowa-Tanoan family is sometimes hypothesized to be related to the Uto-Aztecan family. This is still being investigated.

Kiowa-Tanoan languages

The Kiowa-Tanoan language family has seven languages grouped into four branches.

A. Kiowa

• Kiowa: 1,092 speakers (1990 census)

B. Tiwa

• I. Northern Tiwa
  • Taos: 803 speakers (1980 census)
  • Picuris : 101 speakers (1990 census)
• II. Southern Tiwa
  • Southern Tiwa (dialects: Sandia - 144 speakers, Isleta - 1588 speakers, Ysleta del Sur - extinct)
• III. Piro
  • Piro (extinct)

D. Tewa

• Tewa: total of 1,298 speakers (1980 census) (dialects: Arizona Tewa and the Rio Grande Tewa dialect group: Santa Clara - 207 speakers, San Juan - 495 speakers, San Ildefonso - 349 speakers, Nambe - 50 speakers, Pojoaque - 25 speakers, and Tesuque - 172 speakers)

E. Jemez

• Jemez (a.k.a. Towa): 1,301 speakers (1990 census)

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.