Atakapa language
| Atakapa | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | United States |
| Region | Louisiana, Texas |
| Extinct | 20th century |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aqp |
Pre-contact distribution of the Atakapa language
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Atakapa is an extinct language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby coastal eastern Texas. It was spoken by the Atakapa people (also known as "Ishak").
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[edit] Geographic variation
There were two varieties of Atakapa (i.e. dialects):
- Eastern
- Western
The Eastern Atakapa dialect is known from a French-Atakapa glossary with 287 entries written in 1802 by Martin Duralde.[1] This dialect appears to be the most divergent of the three. These speakers lived around Poste des Attackapas (Saint Martinville) which is now Franklin, Louisiana.
The Western Atakapa dialect is the best known with words, sentences, and texts recorded from 1885, 1907, and 1908 by Albert Gatschet. The main language consultant was recorded in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The last speakers were Louison Huntington, Delilah Moss, Teet Verdine, and Armojean Reon. An older vocabulary is in a list of 45 words recorded in 1721 by Jean Béranger. These speakers were captured around Galveston Bay.
Although John Swanton claimed that Béranger vocabulary was an Akokisa dialect spoken by the Akokisa, there is no real evidence to support this connection.
[edit] Genealogical relations
While considered an isolate, there have been attempts to connect Atakapa with other languages of the Southeast. In 1919 John R. Swanton proposed a Tunican language family that would include Atakapa, Tunica, and Chitimacha; Morris Swadesh would later provide later work focusing on connections between Atakapa and Chitimacha. Mary Haas later expanded the proposal by adding Natchez and the Muskogean languages, a hypothesis known as Gulf. These proposed families have not been proven.[2]
[edit] Sounds
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[edit] Grammar
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[edit] References
- ^ Durald, Martin. Vocabulaire de la Language des Atacapas. Gallatin, 1836.
- ^ Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North America (First paperback ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 302, 344. ISBN 0521232287.
[edit] Bibliography
- Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
- Gatschet, Albert S., and Swanton, John R. (1932) A Dictionary of the Atakapa Language. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Athnology, bulletin 108. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
- Goddard, Ives. (2005). The indigenous languages of the Southeast. Anthropological Linguistics, 47 (1), 1-60.
- Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
- Swanton, John R. A sketch of the Atakapa language. International Journal of American Linguistics. 5 (2-4), 121-149.
[edit] External links
Albert S. Gatschet and John R. Swanton, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
