Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a
Native American language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
spoken in different areas of the
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the south ...
. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally divided into two branches, Eastern Muskogean and Western Muskogean. Typologically, Muskogean languages are
agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative l ...
. One documented language,
Apalachee, is extinct and the remaining languages are critically endangered.
Genetic relationships
Family division
The Muskogean family consists of six languages that are still spoken:
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
,
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...
,
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
,
Creek-Seminole,
Koasati, and
Mikasuki, as well as the now-extinct
Apalachee,
Houma, and
Hitchiti (the last is generally considered a dialect of Mikasuki). "Seminole" is listed as one of the Muskogean languages in Hardy's list, but it is generally considered a dialect of Creek rather than a separate language, as she comments.
The major subdivisions of the family have long been controversial, but the following lower-level groups are universally accepted: Choctaw–Chickasaw, Alabama–Koasati, Hitchiti–Mikasuki, and Creek–Seminole. Because Apalachee is
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
, its precise relationship to the other languages is uncertain;
Mary Haas
Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was electe ...
and
Pamela Munro both classify it with the Alabama–Koasati group.
Haas's classification
For connections among these groupings, the traditional classification is that of Mary Haas and her students, such as Karen Booker, in which "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw) is seen as one major branch, and "Eastern Muskogean" (Alabama-Koasati, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, and Creek-Seminole) as another. Within Eastern Muskogean, Alabama-Koasati and Hitchiti-Mikasuki are generally thought to be more closely related to each other than to Creek-Seminole.
[Hardy 2005, pp. 70-71] That classification is reflected in the list below:
*Western Muskogean
**
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...
**
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
(also called Chahta, Chacato)
*Eastern Muskogean
**
Creek-Seminole (also called Muskogee, Maskoke, Seminole)
**
Hitchiti-Mikasuki (also called Miccosukee)
** Apalachee–Alabama–Koasati
***
Apalachee †
***
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
(also called Alibamu)
***
Koasati (also called Coushatta)
Munro's classification
A more recent and controversial classification has been proposed by
Pamela Munro. In her classification, the languages are divided into a "Southern Muskogean" branch (Choctaw-Chickasaw, Alabama-Koasati, and Hitchiti-Mikasuki) and a "Northern Muskogean" one (Creek-Seminole). Southern Muskogean is the subdivided into Hitchiti-Mikasuki and a "Southwestern Muskogean" branch containing Alabama-Koasati and "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw).
The classification is reflected in the list below:
[Campbell 1997, pg. 148]
Northern Muskogean:
*
Creek-Seminole
Southern Muskogean:
*
Hitchiti-Mikasuki
* Southwestern Muskogean
**
Apalachee (†)
** ''Alabama–Koasati''
***
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
***
Koasati
** ''Western Muskogean''
***
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...
***
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
Kimball's classification
A third proposed classification is that of Geoffrey Kimball, who envisions a threeway split among the languages, with "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw), "Eastern Muskogean" (Creek-Seminole), and "Central Muskogean" (Alabama-Koasati and Hitchiti-Mikasuki). However, Kimball's classification has not received as much support as either Haas's or Munro's.
Broader relationships
Possible Muskogean languages
Several sparsely attested languages have been claimed to be Muskogean languages. George Broadwell suggested that the languages of the
Yamasee and
Guale
Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 1 ...
were Muskogean.
[Campbell 1997, pg. 149] However, William Sturtevant argued that the "Yamasee" and "Guale" data were Creek and that the language(s) spoken by the Yamasee and Guale people remain unknown. It is possible that the Yamasee were an amalgamation of several different ethnic groups and did not speak a single language. Chester B. DePratter describes the Yamasee as consisting mainly of speakers of Hitchiti and Guale. The historian Steven Oatis also describes the Yamasee as an ethnically mixed group that included people from Muskogean-speaking regions, such as the early colonial-era native towns of ''Hitchiti'', ''Coweta'', and ''Cussita''.
The
Pensacola and
Chatot (or Chacato) people are reported to have spoken the same Muskogean language, which may have been closely related to Choctaw.
Sparse evidence indicates that a Muskogean language was spoken by at least some of the people of the paramount chiefdom of
Cofitachequi in northeastern
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. If so, that would be the most eastern outpost of Muskogean. The people of Cofitichequi were probably absorbed by nearby
Siouan
Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east.
Name
Authors who call the ent ...
and
Iroquoian
The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking.
As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoia ...
speakers in the late 17th century.
A vocabulary of the
Houma may be another underdocumented Western Muskogean language or a version of
Mobilian Jargon. Mobilian Jargon is a pidgin based on Western Muskogean.
Gulf
The best-known connection proposed between Muskogean and other languages is
Mary Haas
Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was electe ...
'
Gulf hypothesis, in which she conceived of a macrofamily comprising Muskogean and a number of
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...
s of the southeastern US:
Atakapa
The Atakapa Sturtevant, 659 or Atacapa were an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana. They included several distinct band ...
,
Chitimacha,
Tunica, and
Natchez. While well-known, the Gulf grouping is now generally rejected by historical linguists.
A number of Muskogean scholars continue to believe that Muskogean is related to Natchez.
Features
Phonology
Proto-Muskogean is reconstructed as having the consonants (given in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
transcription):
The phonemes reconstructed by Haas as and show up as and (or ), respectively, in all Muskogean languages; they are therefore reconstructed by some as and .
appears as in all the daughter languages except
Creek for which it is initially and medially. The value of the proto-phoneme conventionally written (or ) is unknown; it appears as in Western Muskogean languages and as in Eastern Muskogean languages. Haas reconstructed it as a voiceless (that is, ), based partly on presumed cognates in
Natchez.
Nouns
Most family languages display lexical accent on nouns and
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
, which distinguishes the nominative from the oblique. Nouns do not obligatorially inflect for gender or number.
Verbs
Muskogean verbs have a complex
ablaut system; the verbal stem almost always changes depending on aspect; less commonly, it is affected by tense or modality. In Muskogean linguistics, the different forms are known as "grades."
Verbs mark for first and second person, as well as agent and patient (Choctaw and Chickasaw also mark for dative). Third-persons (he, she, it) have a null-marker.
Plurality of a noun agent is marked by either affixation on the verb or an innately plural verbal stem:
Pluralization via affixation, Choctaw:
:ishimpa
:ish-impa
:2SG.NOM-eat
:"you
g.eat"
:hashimpa
:hash-impa
:2PL.NOM-eat
:"you
l.eat"
Innately-numbered verbal stems, Mikasuki:
:łiniik
:run. SG
:"to run (singular)"
:palaak
:run. PAUCAL
:"to run (several)"
:mataak
:run. PL
:"to run (many)"
Vocabulary
Below is a list of basic vocabulary in five Muskogean languages from Broadwell (1992):
[Broadwell, George Aaron. (1992). ]
Reconstructing Proto-Muskogean Language and Prehistory: Preliminary Results
'. Paper presented at the Southern Anthropological Society, St. Augustine, FL.
Proto-language
Proto-Muskogean reconstructions by Booker (2005):
Notes
External links
Muskogean Language Familypage at native-languages.org
Chickasaw Language Information & Videos- Chickasaw.TV
Bibliography
* Booker, Karen. (2005). "Muskogean Historical Phonology." In Hardy, Heather Kay and Scancarelli, Janine (eds.), ''Native languages of the Southeastern United States'', 246-298. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
* Broadwell, George Aaron. (1992).
Reconstructing Proto-Muskogean Language and Prehistory: Preliminary Results' (PDF). Paper presented at the Southern Anthropological Society, St. Augustine, FL. Retrieved on 2009-05-03.
* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
*Coker, William S. (1999) "Pensacola, 1686-1821." in Judith Anne Bense. (1999) Editor. ''Archaeology of colonial Pensacola.'' University Press of Florida. Found a
Google Books* Crawford, James M. (Ed.). (1975a). ''Studies in Southeastern Indian Languages''. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
* Crawford, James M. (1975b). "Southeastern Indian Languages". In Crawford (ed.) 1975, pp. 1–120.
* Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. .
* Haas, Mary (1951). "The Proto-Gulf word for water (with notes on Siouan–Yuchi)". ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 17: 71–79.
* Haas, Mary. (1952). "The Proto-Gulf word for 'land' (with notes on Proto-Siouan)". ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 18:238–240.
* Haas, Mary. (1973). "The Southeast". In
T. A. Sebeok
Thomas Albert Sebeok ( hu, Sebők Tamás, ; 1920–2001) was a Hungarian-born American polymath,Cobley, Paul; Deely, John; Kull, Kalevi; Petrilli, Susan (eds.) (2011). Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs'. ...
(Ed.), ''Linguistics in North America'' (part 2, pp. 1210–1249). The Hague: Mouton.
* Hardy, Heather. (2005). "Introduction". In Hardy & Scancarelli 2005, pp. 69–74.
* Hardy, Heather & Janine Scancarelli. (2005). ''Native Languages of the Southeastern United States''. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
*Hopkins, Nicholas A.
The Native Languages of the Southeastern United States' (PDF). Report for the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. Retrieved on 2009-05-03.
* Martin, Jack B. & Pamela Munro. (2005). "Proto-Muskogean Morphology". in Hardy & Scancarelli eds., pp. 299–320
*Milanich, Jerald T. (1995). ''Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe''. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
* Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). ''Linguistics in North America'' (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hague: Mouton. (Reprinted as Sebeok 1976).
* Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1–20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1–3, 16, 18–20 not yet published).
* Sturtevant, William C. (1994). "The Misconnection of Guale and Yamasee with Muskogean". ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 60:139–148.
*Swanton, John Reed. (1952) ''The Indian Tribes of North America.'' Found a
Google Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muskogean Language
Agglutinative languages
Language families
Indigenous languages of the North American Southeast
South Appalachian Mississippian culture
Gulf languages