Chitimacha language

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Chitimacha
Sitimaxa
Native to USA
Region Southern Louisiana
Extinct 1940
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ctm

The Chitimacha language is a language isolate historically spoken by the Chitimacha people of Louisiana, United States. It went extinct in 1940 with the death of the last fluent speaker, Delphine Ducloux.

Although no longer spoken, it is fairly extensively documented in the early 20th-century work (mostly unpublished) of linguists Morris Swadesh[1][2] and John R. Swanton. Swadesh in particular wrote a full grammar and dictionary, and collected numerous texts from the last two speakers, although none of this is published.

Language revitalization efforts are underway to teach the language to a new generation of speakers.[3][4][5]

References

  1. Swadesh, Morris (1948). "Sociologic Notes on Obsolescent Languages". International Journal of American Linguistics 14 (4): 226–235. JSTOR 1262876. 
  2. Swadesh, M. (1934). "The phonetics of Chitimacha". Language 10 (4): 345–362. 
  3. "YouTube – Chitimacha Language Episode – Finding Our Talk 3". youtube.com. Retrieved January 26, 2010. 
  4. "Press Release, Media Room, Rosetta Stone". Retrieved 2012-08-26. 
  5. Larry Abramson (Director) (2010-02-02). "Software Company Helps Revive 'Sleeping' Language". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123220585. Retrieved 2012-08-26.

External links

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