A STRUCTURAL AND LEXICAL COMPARISON OF THE TUNICA, 
CHITIMACHA, AND ATAKAPA LANGUAGES 
By Joun R. Swanton 
INTRODUCTION 
HE languages to be discussed in this paper were spoken 
within historic times in territory now incorporated into 
the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The prin- 
cipal facts preserved to us regarding their history and ethnology have 
been made the subject of a special paper by the writer,! to which the 
reader is referred for detailed information on those matters, the 
main poimts of which will here be dismissed in a few words. 
Tunica seems to have been spoken by five historic tribes—the 
Tunica, Yazoo, Koroa, Tiou, and Grigra. All of our linguistic 
material comes from the first of these, and it is known in some degree 
at the present day by perhaps half a dozen individuals living on a 
small reservation just south of Marksville, La. Yazoo and Koroa 
are classed with these on the grounds of historical association and 
a few statements of early writers, especially Du Pratz’s affirmation 
that Yazoo and Koroa shared with Tunica the peculiarity of employ- 
ing a true r which the surrounding peoples could not even pronounce.? 
The same writer includes Tiou and Grigra in this statement, and it is 
practically the only evidence upon which Grigra is placed in the 
Tunica group. In the case of Tiou, however, we have, besides, a 
direct declaration of the French officer, d’Artaguette, who affirms 
that in both customs and language the Tiou were identical with the 
Tunica.$ 
When we first hear of them the Grigra had taken refuge with the 
powerful Natchez nation, where they formed one town, and in 
Du Pratz’s time the Tiou had done the same thing. Nevertheless we 
have good evidence, partly from Du Pratz himself, that the migra- 
tion of the Tiou had happened at a very late period, and indeed one 
or two cartographers place them in their ancient territory upon the 
Yazoo River. The remaining tribes also lived upon, or at least 
spent most of their time upon, the Yazoo within historic times, 
1 Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 26-27, Washington, 1911. 
2 Du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. ii, pp. 222-226, 1758. 
3Mereness, Newton D., ed. Travelsin the American Colonies, p. 46, New York, 1916. 
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