The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-02-14
Communicated.
The Atalxapa Language.

paucity Of their people, there are still
several families around Lake Charles
who speak the language with tolera.
bic degree of fueney. The tribe once
inhabited Lake Prien or Indian Lake,
on all sides, and their last chief, Lo,
Ilived on the west side. The young
and old men have died, and only the
women have preserved the language,
and also remember something Of the
ancient customs and history of the
tribe. One hundred years ago some
Atakapa tribes extended as far east
as the upper Bayou Teche.
The name Of the tribe is taken from
the Choctaw (or Mobiliaa trade-jargon)
and means man-eaters hatak, person;
hapa, TO eat The Atakapas call them
selves Men Of our naiion," or i'our
Own people" Yukiti ishak ishak
meaning men, and yukiti, ,Oe, our. In
the same way the Illinois Indians replied
| to the French explorers, in 1879, who
first descended the Mississippi river
and asked them for their tribal name: !:
t'IlIiniwek !'--"ve are men" meaning
men Of our people. The Atakapa
language is "A very sonorous and vocalic
| form Of speech, differing in itsradicals
| from sny other Indian language, and
possesses but two consonants, which
are difficult to articulate for English
speaking people the kh and the
palatalized !. The syllables generally
end in yowels, but the words in one on
several consonants, since the final
vowels have been dropped through
attrition and contact with the sounds
following,
The noun infects by cases, which
are not formed by real casc-suffixes,
but by postpositions, which are what
we call propositions placed after the
noun. The adjective forms a plural
by reduplication of the root or theme,
but in the noun only few instances
exist Of plural being formed. When
plurality has to be indicated, it is done
in the Vefb of the sentence, which then
assumes the prefix shak, or shok,
OF reduplicates its root like the ad-
jectiye. The verb to be is expressed
in different ways, often simply by the
position of the wsrds. The pronoun
personal is identical with the pronoun
possessiye, and its forms are extremely
simple. The verb does not ineorpo-
rate the objective pronoun but in
very loose manner, and the noun-ob-
ject is not incorporated at all by IT,
But a curious combination Of verbs
is observed throughout; when reading
or speaking is mentioned, it has to be
added, whether these acts were per-
formed while going, or while standing |
or sitting to BE- SICK always requires |
the additional complement Of lying
down, laid up; with sewiag the term
to sitis always connected. The Atakapa |
Indian will not say: the cat caught the
mouse, bnt: the cal ruRaing-caaght |
the mouse.
Like English, this Indian language !
possesses a large number of monosyl- |
iablc words expressing objects Of ma
tare, and also adjectiycs expressing
the quality Of concrete objects. They
seem to represent radical sylIabIes, but
are more probably the result Of the
of longer words by apocope.
No dnal forms exist in Atakapa, nei-
ther do the articles the or exist, but
have to be supplied by the run Of the
sentence. The numeral has three
forms: cardinal, distributiye and ad-
verbal, but no ordinal form, Since
but few conjuuctious exist in the
language, the syntar is necessarily |
very simple and primitive. The rcla-
live prononn who, which is wanting,
and its place is supplied by yerbals 81
The names Of the two largest rivers
il The parish Of Caleasieii contain
the proper names Of two Atakapa
chiefs. Mermentau river is spelled in
many different ways, but the Atakapa
is Inmanta-u. Calcasicu
river embodies the name Katkash yok
Or ".Sereeching Eaglen yok meaning