Muskogean languages
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Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is an indigenous language family of the Southeastern United States. The Muskogean languages are generally divided into two rough branches, Eastern and Western, though these distinctions are the subject of some debate. They are agglutinative languages.
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[edit] Family division
The Muskogean family has been subdivided into two competing genetic trees. The traditional classification is from Mary Haas and her students. A more recent and controversial classification has been proposed by Pamela Munro.
A vocabulary of the Houma may be another under-documented Western Muskogean language or a version of Mobilian Jargon. Mobilian Jargon is a pidgin based on Western Muskogean.
[edit] Haas
I. Western Muskogean
II. Eastern Muskogean
- A. Central Muskogean
- i. Apalachee-Alabama-Koasati group
- ii. Hitchiti-Mikasuki
- B. Creek
- 7. Creek
[edit] Munro
I. Northern Muskogean
II. Southern Muskogean
- A. Southwestern Muskogean group
- B. Hitchiti-Mikasuki group
[edit] Relationships with other languages
Haas (1951, 1952) suggested that Muskogean languages were part of a larger group she labeled Gulf, composed of Muskogean, Atakapa, Chitimacha, Tunica, and Natchez. These relationships are controversial, however. Sources such as Campbell (1997) reject the Gulf group. Some people have suggested a relationship with the language of the Yamasee. Little is known about the Yamasee language. 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.[1] The historian Oatis also describes the Yamasee as an ethnically mixed group that included people from Muskogean-speaking regions such as the early colonial-era towns of Hitchiti, Coweta, and Cussita.[2]
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[edit] Family features
[edit] Phonology
Muskogean languages have relatively simple phonologies compared to many other Native American languages. Proto-Muskogean is reconstructed as having the phonemes[3]:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Lateral | Plain | Labialized | |||
| Stops | *p | *t | *k | *kʷ | ||
| Affricates | *ts | *tʃ | ||||
| Fricatives | *s | *ɬ | *ʃ | *x | *xʷ | |
| Nasals | *m | *n | ||||
| Approximants | *l | *j | *w | |||
| Other | *θ | |||||
The phonemes reconstructed by Mary Haas as */x/ and */xʷ/ show up as /h/ and /f/ (or /ɸ/), respectively, in all Muskogean languages; they are therefore reconstructed by some as */h/ and */ɸ/. */kʷ/ appears as /b/ in all the daughter languages except Creek, where it is /k/ initially and /p/ medially. The value of the proto-phoneme written <θ> is unknown; it appears as /n/ in Western Muskogean languages and as /ɬ/ in Eastern Muskogean languages. Mary Haas reconstructed it as a voiceless /n/, that is, */n̥/.
[edit] Nouns
Most family languages display lexical accent on nouns, as well as grammatical case which distinguishes the nominative from the oblique. Nouns do not obligatorially inflect for gender or number.
[edit] Verbs
Muskogean verbs have a complex ablaut system wherein the verbal stem changes depending on aspect (almost always), and less commonly depending on 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 also marks for dative). Third-persons (he, she, it) have a null-marker.
Plurality of a noun agent is marked by either 1) affixation on the verb or 2) an innately plural verbal stem.
Example (pluralization via affixation, Choctaw)
ishimpa
ish-impa
2SG.NOM-eat
"you [sg.] eat"
hashimpa
hash-impa
2PL.NOM-eat
"you [pl.] eat"
Example (innately-numbered verbal stems, Mikasuki)
łiniik
run. SG
"to run (singular)"
palaak
run. PAUCAL
"to run (several)"
mataak
run. PL
"to run (many)"
[edit] References
- ^ The Foundation, Occupation, and Abandonment of Yamasee Indian Towns in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1684-1715, National Register Multiple Property Submission by Dr. Chester B. DePratter
- ^ Oatis, Steven J. (2004). A Colonial Complex: South Carolina's Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1680-1730. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-3575-5.
- ^ Booker 2005
[edit] External links
- Paper on Roots of Muskogean languages (discusses classifications)
- Ethnologue: Muskogean
[edit] Bibliography
- Booker, Karen. (2005). "Muskogean Historical Phonology." In Hardy and Scancarelli 2005, pp. 246-298.
- Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
- Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
- Haas, M. (1951). The Proto-Gulf word for water (with notes on Siouan-Yuchi). International Journal of American Linguistics 17: 71-9.
- 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 (Ed.), Linguistics in North America (part 2, pp. 1210-1249). The Hauge: Mouton.
- Hardy, Heather, and Janine Scancarelli. (2005). Native Languages of the Southeastern United States. University of Nebraska Press.
- Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
- Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: 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).
