Modern Chitimacha (Sitimaxa)

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As a result of inroads from French and English speakers, Sitimaxa, the language of the Chitimacha people of southern Louisiana over the past 7,000 years, lost its last fluent speaker in 1940. Since that time the tribal Cultural Department has gathered all the extant language material, both audio-recordings and document-ary, and has begun to revive language use through its school system and language training programs. A new generation of Sitimaxa speakers is now emerging, and the present grammar reflects the usage both of these speakers and of the last generation of fluent users of the language. The present text covers the following Sounds and Spelling; Words, Sound Changes & Parts of Speech; Sitimaxa Verbs; Sitimaxa Nouns; Sitimaxa Particles; Making New Words in Sitimaxa; Sentences in Sitimaxa; and a general summary of the grammar patterns of the language. Sample sentences are included.