The Mikasuki, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, or Hitchiti language is a language or a pair of dialects or closely related languages that belong to the

Muskogean languages Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a Native American language family spoken in different areas of the Southeastern United States. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally div ...

family. Mikasuki was spoken by around 290 people in southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Along with the Cow Creek Seminole dialect of

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsMiccosukee The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving f ...

tribe and of the

Seminole Tribe of Florida The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a federally recognized Seminole tribe based in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized ...

. The extinct

Hitchiti The Hitchiti ( ) were a historic indigenous tribe in the Southeast United States. They formerly resided chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, four miles below Chiaha, in western present-day Georgia. The n ...

was a mutually intelligible dialect. Hitchiti was one of the many Muskogee languages spoken by tribes of the loose Muscogee Confederacy, and is considered by many scholars to be the ancestor of the Mikasuki language. It was spoken in Georgia and eastern Alabama in the early historic period, with speakers moving into Florida during the 18th and 19th centturies. Hitchiti was the language of

tribal town A tribal town (Muscogee ''talwa'', Hitchiti ''okla'') was a form of political and social organization of people in what is now the southeastern United States from at least the 16th century into the 19th century. It had aspects of both a town and a ...

s such as the

Chiaha Chiaha was a Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. They lived in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages. These overlooked the ...

, Oconee, Okmulgee, Sawokli, and Apalachicola. Based on the number of place names that have been derived from the language, scholars believe it could have spread over a much larger area than Georgia and Florida during colonial times. It was part of the

Muskogean language Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a Native American language family spoken in different areas of the Southeastern United States. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally div ...

family; it is considered a dialect of the

Mikasuki language The Mikasuki, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, or Hitchiti language is a language or a pair of dialects or closely related languages that belong to the Muskogean languages family. Mikasuki was spoken by around 290 people in southern Florida. Along with the C ...

with which it was mutually intelligible. The Hitchiti and the Mikasuki tribes were both part of the Creek confederacy. The Mikasuki language was historically one of the major languages of the

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

people, who developed as a new ethnic group in Florida. It is still spoken by many Seminole and

Miccosukee The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving f ...

in Florida, but it has become extinct among the Oklahoma Seminole. Like the Creek, the Hitchiti had an ancient "female" dialect. The dialect was still remembered and sometimes spoken by the older people, and it used to be the language of the males as well. Their language with the "female" dialect was also known as the 'ancient language'. The Seminole and Miccosukee were made up of mostly Muscogee members of the Muscogee Confederacy, who had migrated to Florida under pressure from European-American encroachment. The Seminole formed by a process of

ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis (; ) is "the formation and development of an ethnic group". This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th century neologism that was later introd ...

in the 18th century. American settlers began to enter Florida and came into conflict with the Seminole. The Seminole Wars of the 19th century greatly depleted the numbers of these tribes, especially the Second Seminole War. The United States forcibly removed many Seminole to

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

(now Oklahoma). The Seminole and Miccosukee had gradually moved into the center of Florida and the Everglades, from where they resisted defeat even in the Third Seminole War. The US gave up efforts against them. In the 20th century, the Florida Seminole and Miccosukee split apart, with the former moving onto reservations. The Miccosukee lived in communities that were affected by the early 20th-century construction of the

Tamiami Trail The Tamiami Trail () is the southernmost of U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) from State Road 60 (SR 60) in Tampa to US 1 in Miami. A portion of the road also has the hidden designation of State Road 90 (SR 90). The north� ...

, which brought tourists into the Everglades. The Miccosukee achieved federal recognition as a tribe in 1962. Both tribes have speakers of Mikasuki today. As of 2002, the language is taught in the local school,

Miccosukee Indian School Miccosukee Indian School is a K-12 tribal school in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, with a Miami postal address. It is affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). It is located along the Tamiami Trail. Clippingfrom Newspapers.c ...

, which has "an area devoted to 'Miccosukee Language Arts'". Circa 2005 the dominance of English language media was seen as a factor inhibiting Miccosukee. As of 2011, the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

Department of Anthropology is home to the Elling Eide Endowed Professorship in Miccosukee Language and Culture, for Native American languages of the southeastern United States. Presentations in the language have been featured at the Florida Folk Festival.

Phonology

There are three tones: high, low and falling. Vowel length is distinctive: ''eche'' tʃi('mouth') vs ''eeche'' ːtʃi'deer'), ''ete'' ti('eye') vs ''eete'' ːti('fire'). These phonemes are based on Sylvia Boynton's Outline of Mikasuki Grammar.

Grammar

Nouns are marked with suffixes for various functions, some examples: Free pronouns exist (''aane'' "I", ''chehne'' "you", ''pohne'' "we") but are rarely used. Verb suffixes are the usual way of marking person.

Alphabet

Mikasuki is written using the Latin alphabet. The vowel characters on the left represent the sounds on the right, transcribed phonetically: The consonants characters are: High tone is indicated with an acute accent (´), low tone with a grave accent (`), and falling tone with an acute accent followed by a grave accent. A long vowel with falling tone is represented by two accented vowel letters (áà). When the vowel is short, the grave accent is placed over the next consonant (áǹ): An

epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epent ...

�vowel appears in kl, kw and kn clusters in careful speech.

Vocabulary

Verbs

Numerals

Kinship terms

Notes

References

* Derrick-Mescua, Mary Tyler. ''A phonology and morphology of Mikasuki. ''Ph.D thesis, University of Florida. 1980. * * West, J. & Smith, N. ''A Guide to the Miccosukee Language'', Miami: Miccosukee Corporation 1978. *

External links

A Global Linguistic Database: Mikasuki

Miccosukee place names

OLAC resources in and about the Mikasuki language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikasuki Language Agglutinative languages Muskogean languages Indigenous languages of the North American Southeast Tonal languages Seminole culture Indigenous languages of Oklahoma