Historically, it was spoken across a wide region of the Eastern United States, primarily north of the Ohio River.

This territory included areas within present-day Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

[3] Shawnee is closely related to other Algonquian languages, such as Mesquakie-Sauk (Sac and Fox) and Kickapoo.

[2] Some of the decline in usage of Shawnee resulted from the United States' assimilation program carried out by Indian boarding schools, which abused, starved, and beat children who spoke their Native languages.

Of the 3,652 citizens of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe in Ottawa County, only a few elders are speakers.

[2] Absentee-Shawnee Elder George Blanchard Sr., former governor of his tribe, teaches classes to Head Start and elementary school children, as well as evening classes for adults, at the Cultural Preservation Center in Seneca, Missouri.

[6] The Shawnee Tribe launched a language immersion program in 2020 with virtual and in-person classes.

(1) ho-wiisi'-ta 'he was in charge' (2) wi 'si 'dog' (3) caaki yaama 'all this' (4) caki 'small' [4] However, no quantitative contrasts have been found in the vowels /e/ and /o/.

This pronunciation is especially common among Loyal Band Shawnee speakers near Vinita, Oklahoma.

ho-3-staabuild-ekw-INV-a-DIR-li-3S.OBV( > ho-staa-koo-li) ho- staa -ekw -a -li3- build -INV -DIR -3S.OBVhe built (him) (a house)kaa-REDUP-ki-PERF-noot-enhear-by.hand-aa-TI-maa-TA-ekw-INV-a-DIR( > kaakinootenaamaakwa) kaa- ki- noot-en -aa -maa -ekw -aREDUP- PERF- hear-by.hand -TI -TA -INV -DIR(he) signed by hand (to me) (repeatedly)Shawnee shares many grammatical features with other Algonquian languages.

It is primarily agglutinating typologically, and is polysynthetic, resulting in a great deal of information being encoded on the verb.

Instrumental affixes are as follows -tθani (w)- 'bed' Shawnee has a fairly free word order, with VSO being the most common: tekiNEGkoosrun.from-i-IMPER-ma-AOteki koos -i -maNEG run.from -IMPER -AO'run you from him' (in the negative) 'you mustn't run away from him'SOV, SVO, VOS, and OVS are also plausible.

To align grammatical relations properly in (2), the inverse marker /-ekw-/ is used in the verb stem to signal that the governor is affecting grandfather.

[2] he-SUB-meci-COMPLETED-naat-aw'kymuch-land-aa-TA-ci−3SUBhinathatni-me'soom'1-grandfather-θa-PERSONhe- meci- naat-aw'ky -aa -ci hina ni-me'soom' -θaSUB- COMPLETED- much-land -TA −3SUB that 1-grandfather -PERSON'afterwards my grandfather received land'wiikiwahouseho-3-staabuild-ekw-INV-a-DIR-li-3S.OBVkapenaleegovernor-li-3S.OBVwiikiwa ho- staa -ekw -a -li kapenalee -lihouse 3- build -INV -DIR -3S.OBV governor -3S.OBV'the governor built (him) a house' (/-li/ is the obviative marker)Since the person building the house (the governor) is disjoint from the person who the house is being built for (the grandfather), this disjunction is marked by placing one participant in the obviative.

This locative affix criticizes onto the preceding noun, and thus it appears to be a case ending.

The repetition of yaama in example 1 emphasizes the location of the referent in the immediate presence of the speaker.

yaama-this-kookwe-strange-neeappearing-θa-PERSON-yaama-thisyaama- kookwe- nee -θa -yaamathis- strange- appearing -PERSON -this'this stranger (the one right in front of me)'mata-notyaama-thisha'-TIME-pa-skooliigo-school-wi-AIni-oosθe'1-grandchild−0a-PERSONmata- yaama- ha'- pa-skoolii -wi ni-oosθe' −0anot this TIME- go-school -AI 1-grandchild -PERSON'this grandchild of mine does not go to school'Refer to the examples below.

na'θaapievenni-[t]aay-a1-REDUP-gohinithatna'θaapi ni-[t]aay-a hinieven 1-REDUP-go that'I would even go there'hini-thath-i-si-ci-howe[h]-say-thus-3-nowhini- h-i-si-ci-howethat [h]-say-thus-3-now'(when) he said that (to me)'The choice of person affix may depend on the relative position of agent and object on the animacy hierarchy.

For example, in the TI paradigm (animate›inanimate) when there is a second or third person plural subject, object markers are present in the verb stem, but they are number-indifferent.

[12] The basic distinction for gender in Shawnee is between animate actors and inanimate objects.

leg (but not thigh), stomach, spittle, feather, bird's tail, horn, kettle, pipe for smoking, snowshoe.

animate obviative singular wiskilo'θa-libird inanimate plural niipit-alimy teeth During the 19th century a short-lived Roman-based alphabet was designed for Shawnee by the missionary Jotham Meeker.