| Kato | |
| Nativename: | Cahto |
| Region: | California (Eel River) |
| Ethnicity: | Cahto people |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Familycolor: | Dené-Yeniseian |
| Fam2: | Na-Dené |
| Fam3: | Athabaskan |
| Fam4: | Pacific Coast Athabaskan |
| Fam5: | California Athabaskan |
| Iso3: | ktw |
| Glotto: | kato1244 |
| Glottorefname: | Kato |
| States: | United States |
| Extinct: | 1960s |
Cahto (also spelled Kato) is an extinct Athabaskan language that was formerly spoken by the Kato people of the Laytonville and Branscomb area at the head of the South Fork of the Eel River. It is one of the four languages belonging to the California Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages. Most Kato speakers were bilingual in Northern Pomo and some also spoke Yuki.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||
Cahto has 26 consonant phonemes and 30 phones.
| Front | Central | Back | Diphthong | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | [{{IPAlink|i}}(ː)] ī | pronounced as /link/ i ~ pronounced as /link/ û | [{{IPAlink|u}}(ː)] ū | ||
| High-Mid | [{{IPAlink|e}}(ː)] ē | pronounced as /link/ ɛ ~ pronounced as /link/ ę | [{{IPAlink|o}}(ː)] ō | ||
| Low-Mid | pronounced as /link/ ɛ ~ pronounced as /link/ ę | pronounced as /link/ ą ~ pronounced as /link/ a | |||
| Low | [{{IPAlink|a}}(ː)] ā, pronounced as /link/ ą ~ pronounced as /link/ a | [ai] ai | |||