Caddo language

Caddo
Hasí꞉nay
Native toUnited States
RegionCaddo County, western Oklahoma
Ethnicity6,300 Caddo people (2016, tribal enrollment estimate)
Native speakers
2 (2023)
Caddoan
  • Caddo
Dialects
  • Hasinai
  • Hainai
  • Kadohadacho
  • Natchitoches
  • Yatas
Language codes
ISO 639-2cad
ISO 639-3cad
Glottologcadd1256
ELPCaddo
Linguasphere64-BBA-a
Map showing the distribution of Oklahoma Indian Languages
Caddo is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Caddo (endonym: Hasí꞉nay, pronounced [hasí:naj]) is a Caddoan language indigenous to the Southern United States and the traditional language of the Caddo Nation. It is critically endangered, with no exclusively Caddo-speaking community and as of 2023 only two speakers who had acquired the language as children outside school instruction, down from 25 speakers in 1997. Caddo has several mutually-intelligible dialects. The most commonly used dialects are Hasinai and Hainai; others include Kadohadacho, Natchitoches and Yatasi.