MultiTree:

Name: Shawnee Type: Language Spoken in: USA Number of speakers: 200 (2002 B. Pearson), decreasing. Ethnic population: 490 (2000 census) (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 100 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 200 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: sjw Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Algic (Algonquian-Wiyot-Yurok, Algonquian-Ritwan) Parent Subgroup: Shawnee (swne) Brief Description: "Shawnee is an Algonquian language that was spoken in the early historical period in the Ohio Valley, mainly in the present State of Ohio. Today most of the descendants of the Shawnee live in Oklahoma, organised in three distinct groups. The Absentee Shawnee Tribe, located in and around the town of Shawnee, near the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, has about 2,000 members. At least 100 Absentee Shawnees are fluent speakers of the languages, constituting the largest Shawnee-speaking community. The language remains in use on ceremonial occasions, and informal language classes for adults are offered on an irregular schedule. The Eastern Shawnee Tribe, whose 1,500 members live in Ottawa County near the Oklahoma Seneca community, has only a few elderly Shawnee speakers. The Loyal Shawnee (or 'Cherokee Shawnee'), a group of about 8,000, reside in the Cherokee region of northeastern Oklahoma, mainly around Whiteoak." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 22

Endangerment Status

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UNESCO Status: Severely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Endangered