[1][2] The Indigenous Houma language is thought to have fallen out of use by the late 19th century due to European-American encroachment.
In light of their distinct society and isolated geography, as many as 3,000 mostly elderly people living on Houma tribal lands in the Lafourche Basin are believed to be monolingual speakers of French.
[3] More recently, efforts have been made to collect vocabulary and grammar from elders to revitalize the language.
[4] Based on a list gathered by Swanton of seventy-five words and three sentences, linguists have concluded that the Houma spoke a Western Muskogean language (akin to Choctaw or Chickasaw).
[5] The Houma Language Project reconstructs the following phoneme inventory:[citation needed]