Atakapa

Atakapa is the name of a group of small bands and the language of Native Americans that lived along the Gulf of Mexico. Their territory ranged from the Trinity River and Galveston Bay in Texas to Bayou Teche and Vermillion Bay in Louisiana.

The name Atakapa is derived from the Choctaw name Atakapa meaning 'people eater' (hattak 'person', apa 'to eat'), which is a reference to the practice of cannibalism exercised by Gulf coast peoples on their enemies.

Language

The Atakapa is now extinct. There were three dialects:

• Eastern
• Akokisa
• Western

The Eastern Atakapa dialect is known from a word list of 287 entries recorded in 1802. This dialect appears to be the most divergent of the three. These speakers lived around Attackapas Post (now Franklin, Louisiana).

The Akokisa dialect is known from a list of 45 words recorded in 1721. These speakers were captured around Galveston Bay.

The Western Atakapa dialect is the best known with recorded words, sentences, and texts from 1885, 1907, and 1908. The main language consultant was recorded in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The last speakers were Louison Huntington, Delilah Moss, Teet Verdine, and Armojean Reon.

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

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