The Neches River ( / ˈ n eɪ tʃ ɪ z / ) begins in Van Zandt County west of Rhine Lake and flows for 416 miles (669 km) through the piney woods of east Texas , defining the boundaries of 14 counties on its way to its mouth on Sabine Lake near the Rainbow Bridge . Two major reservoirs, Lake Palestine and B. A. Steinhagen Reservoir are located on the Neches. The Angelina River (containing Sam Rayburn Reservoir ) is a major tributary with its confluence at the north of Lake B. A. Steinhagen. Tributaries to the south include Village Creek and Pine Island Bayou , draining much of the Big Thicket region, both joining the Neches a few miles north of Beaumont . Towns and cities located along the river including Tyler , Lufkin , and Silsbee , although significant portions of the Neches River are undeveloped and flow through protected natural lands. In contrast, the lower 40 miles of the river are a major shipping channel, highly industrialized, with a number of cities and towns concentrated in the area including Beaumont , Vidor , Port Neches , Nederland , Groves , and Port Arthur .
27-601: It is believed that the name of the river was derived from the Caddo word "Nachawi", meaning "wood of the bow", after Spanish settlers called it Río Neches . With the exception of dams and manmade lakes, much of the river is in a natural state. Approximately 11 miles of the upper Neches flows through the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge , established to protect the biologically diverse bottomland hardwood forest and habitat for migratory birds , and opened to
54-553: A family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States , from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma . All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of speakers has declined markedly due to colonial legacy, lack of support, and other factors. Five languages belong to the Caddoan language family: Kitsai and Wichita have no speakers left. Kitsai stopped being spoken in
81-577: A syllable nucleus . See the section below for an explanation of other phonological changes which may occur in the following examples. There are two vowel syncope processes in Caddo, which both involve the loss of a low-tone vowel in certain environments. The first syncope process was described above as low tone-deletion. The second syncope process is described below: As a result of the syncope processes described above, several consonant clusters emerge that are then simplified by way of phonological process. At
108-579: A Caddo app is available for Android phones. As of 2012, the Caddo Nation teaches weekly language classes; language CDs, a coloring book, and an online learning website are also available. There is a Caddo grammar, published August 2018, and an in-depth examination of the Caddo verb, published in 2004. In August 2022 the Caddo Nation Language Preservation Program was launched. The program's goals are to archive resources in
135-504: A Caddoan language, however documentation is too scanty to determine with certainty. Adjacent to the Caddo lived the Eyeish or Ais—not to be confused with the Ais of Florida—who also spoke a language that may have been related to Caddoan. Some linguists believe that the Caddoan, Iroquoian , and Siouan languages may be connected in a Macro-Siouan language family, but their work is suggestive and
162-440: A double letter: /nɑ́ttih/ "woman." Caddo has three contrastive vowel qualities: /i/ , /a/ and /u/ , and two contrastive vowel lengths, long and short. However, there is a great deal of phonetic variation in the short vowels. The high front vowel /i/ is generally realized as its lower counterpart /ɪ/ , and the high back vowel /u/ is similarly often realized as its lower counterpart /ʊ/ . The low central vowel /ä/ has
189-418: A wider range of variation, pronounced (most commonly) as /ɐ/ when it is followed by any consonant except a semivowel or a laryngeal consonant, as a low central /ä/ at the end of an open syllable or when followed by a laryngeal consonant, and as /ə/ before a semivowel. In general, the long vowels do not feature this kind of variation but are simply lengthened versions of the phonemes that are represented in
216-622: Is a controversial method of reconstructing, in broad detail, the history of a language and its relationships, though it may still provide useful insights and generalizations regarding a family's history. In the case of Proto-Caddoan, it appeared to have divided into two branches, Northern and Southern, more than 3000 years ago (The division of the language implies also a geographic and/or political separation). South Caddoan, or Caddo proper, evolved in north-eastern Texas and adjacent Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Other than Caddo, no daughter languages are known, but some unrecorded ones likely existed in
243-490: 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. Caddo is a member of the Caddoan language family ; this family includes
270-513: Is generally considered a language isolate. The Caddo Nation is making a concentrated effort to save the Caddo language. The Kiwat Hasí꞉nay ('Caddo Home') foundation, located at the tribal home of Binger, Oklahoma, offers regular Caddo language classes, in addition to creating dictionaries, phrase books, and other Caddo language resources. They have also made a long-term project of trying to record and digitally archive Caddoan oral traditions, which are an important part of Caddo culture. As of 2010,
297-678: Is situated at the confluence of the Neches and Angelina Rivers protecting 12,636 acres of the river's floodplain and bottomland, administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department along with the adjacent Martin Dies Jr. State Park on the eastern side of Lake B. A. Steinhagen. South of the Lake, beginning at Town Bluff Dam and running 56 miles south to Beaumont, is the Neches River Corridor Unit of
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#1732845099903324-581: Is spoken on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota . Prior to colonization and US expansion , speakers of Caddoan languages were more widespread. The Caddo , for example, lived in northeastern Texas , southwestern Arkansas , and northwestern Louisiana , as well as southeastern Oklahoma. The Pawnee formerly lived along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska . Glottochronology
351-602: The Big Thicket National Preserve , administered by the National Park Service . The Big Thicket National Preserve is recognized as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO , preserving an area where several ecosystems converge. The Big Thicket Visitor Center is off U.S. Highway 69 several miles north of Kountze , Texas. Beginning in 2006, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service purchased land along
378-596: The Sabine-Neches Waterway project is $ 1.1 billion. Several petro-chemical plants are located in the river's southern section. The Sabine-Neches Navigation District , formed in 1909, has management responsibilities of the portion of the river which is part of the Sabine-Neches Waterway. Caddo language Caddo is a Native American language, the traditional language of the Caddo Nation . It
405-470: The /j/. (Melnar includes a third palatization process, /tj/ → [ts]. However, /ts/ is not a palatal affricate so it has not been included here. Nevertheless, the third process probably occurs.) Caddo has three processes by which a syllable nucleus (vowel) may be lengthened: The Caddo word táy:sha’ [tə́jːʃaʔ] , meaning "ally" or "friend," is the ultimate origin of the place name Texas . Caddoan languages The Caddoan languages are
432-492: The 16th and the 17th centuries. Northern Caddoan evolved into several different languages. The language that became Wichita, with several different dialects, branched off about 2000 years ago. Kitsai separated from the Northern Caddoan stem about 1200 years ago, and Pawnee and Arikara separated 300 to 500 years ago. Adai , a language isolate from Louisiana is known only from a 275-word list collected in 1804, and may be
459-667: The 19th century when its members were absorbed into the Wichita tribe . Wichita stopped being spoken in 2016, when the last native speaker of Wichita , Doris McLemore (who left recordings and language materials), died. All of the remaining Caddoan languages spoken today are severely endangered. As of 2007, both the Pawnee and Arikara languages only had 10 speakers, with the Caddo language only spoken by 2 (as of 2023). Caddo and Pawnee are spoken in Oklahoma by small numbers of tribal elders. Arikara
486-545: The Neches River for the creation of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge . The refuge includes land on which the city of Dallas had proposed to build a reservoir to meet the water needs of the city and its surrounding suburbs . Tentatively named Lake Fastrill, this reservoir was not scheduled to be built until 2050. The city of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board filed a lawsuit in 2007 against
513-589: The Neches River in Tyler , Hardin , Liberty , Chambers , and Jefferson counties of Texas. The lower forty miles of the river is industrialized, from the Beaumont Interstate 10 bridge to Sabine Lake. The river is maintained as a deep water ship channel running between the Port of Beaumont to Sabine Lake . Currently 40 feet deep and 400 ft wide, the river is being deepened to 48 feet. The total estimated cost of
540-474: The Pawnee-Kitsai (Keechi) languages ( Arikara , Kitsai , and Pawnee ) and the Wichita language. Kitsai and Wichita are now extinct, and Pawnee and Arikara each have fewer surviving speakers than Caddo does. Another language, Adai , is postulated to have been a Caddoan language while it was extant, but because of scarce resources and the language's extinct status, this connection is not conclusive, and Adai
567-520: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, claiming the wildlife refuge was established without considering the economic and environmental impacts. However, in February 2010 the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, paving the way for the acquisition of lands for the wildlife refuge. The Lower Neches Valley Authority is the river authority which oversees
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#1732845099903594-513: The case of proclitics (morphemes that behave like an affix and are phonologically dependent on the morpheme to which they are attached). An example is the English articles. Caddo has a glottalization process by which any voiceless stop or affricate (except p) becomes an ejective when it is followed by a glottal stop . Caddo has a palatalization process that affects certain consonants when they are followed by /j/, with simultaneous loss of
621-446: The chart. Caddo also has four diphthongs , which can be written a number of different ways; the transcription below shows the typical Caddo Nation orthography (a vowel paired with a glide) and the IPA version, represented with vowels and offglides. Caddo has three lexical tones : a low tone (e.g. /ù/), unmarked in the orthography ⟨u⟩; a high tone (e.g. /ú/), marked by an acute accent over
648-434: The language, share their resources through community events and programs, and develop a curriculum to teach the language. Caddo has 19 contrastive consonants , a normal-sized consonant inventory. It is somewhat unusual in that it lacks liquid consonants . The IPA symbols for the consonants of Caddo are given below: Caddo also features contrastive gemination of consonants, which is generally indicated in orthography by
675-466: The present stage of research, the processes seem to be unrelated, but they represent a phonetic reduction in consonant clusters; therefore, they are listed below without much further explanation. Similar to the consonant cluster simplification process, there are four processes by which a syllable-final consonant is altered: There are three word-boundary processes in Caddo, all of which occur word-initially: Such processes are generally not applicable in
702-652: The public as recently as 2019. Downstream, the river delineates the eastern border of Davy Crockett National Forest including more than nine miles of the Big Slough Wilderness Area of the National Forest. Further downstream the Neches defines much of the southern border of Angelina National Forest including roughly four miles of the Upland Island and Longleaf Pine Wilderness Area of Angelina National Forest. The Angelina Neches/Dam B Wildlife Management Area
729-442: The vowel ⟨ú⟩; and falling tone, which always occurs on long vowels (e.g. /ûː/) and is marked by a grave accent over the vowel ⟨ù꞉⟩. Tone occurs both lexically (as a property of the word), non-lexically (as a result of tonological processes), and also as a marker of certain morphological features. For instance, the past tense marker is associated with high tone. There are three processes that can create non-lexical high tone within
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