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40-511: The Muskogean family consists of six languages that are still spoken: Alabama , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Muscogee (previously referred to as Creek), 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

80-462: A Muskogean language was spoken by at least some of the people of the paramount chiefdom of Cofitachequi in northeastern South Carolina . If so, that would be the most eastern outpost of Muskogean. The people of Cofitichequi were probably absorbed by nearby Siouan and Iroquoian speakers in the late 17th century. A vocabulary of the Houma may be another underdocumented Western Muskogean language or

120-534: A Tunican language family that would include Atakapa, Tunica , and Chitimacha ; Morris Swadesh would later provide work focusing on connections between Atakapa and Chitimacha. Mary Haas later expanded the proposal by adding Natchez and the Muskogean languages , a hypothesis known as Gulf . These proposed families have not been proven. The similarities between Atakapa and Chitimacha, at least, may be attributable to periods of "intense contact [between speakers of

160-507: A consonant cluster and the geminate is realized as [ttʃ] . The only voiced obstruent in Alabama is /b/ , which is realized as [m] when it occurs in coda (syllable final) position. The geminate /bb/ is realized as [mb] . The two nasal phonemes become velar [ŋ] before the velar stop /k/ . In syllable-final position, /h/ is often realized as lengthening of the preceding vowel. There are three vowel qualities, /i o a/ . Vowel length

200-419: A dialect of Muscogee 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 Muscogee. Because Apalachee is extinct , its precise relationship to the other languages is uncertain; Mary Haas and Pamela Munro both classify it with

240-434: A horse [for curing her]"). With occasional exceptions, adjectives follow the nouns they describe. Adverbs follow nouns and adjectives, but precede verbs. Atakapa marks only the locative case . The language has four locative suffixes, in addition to a series of locative postpositions. These suffixes and postpositions may be placed after nouns, adjectives, and demonstratives. Swanton (1919) asserts that noun incorporation

280-506: A later period. Consonant clusters consisting of a stop followed by a sibilant — themselves arising from vowel epenthesis — are generally contracted to /c/. For example, kec-k ("liver") arose from * keks , which arose from epenthesis and final-vowel deletion processes in *kekesi , which itself is the reduplicated form of * kesi . However, there are words in which the suffix - kš appears, suggesting that this contraction rule ran its course in an earlier period. The typical Atakapa syllable

320-426: A phrase that receives stress. The Atakapa language is a mostly agglutinative , somewhat polysynthetic language of the templatic type. This meaning that the language stacks (primarily within the verbal complex) a number of affixes to express locatives , tense , aspect , modality , valency adjustment , and person/number (as both subject and object), which are assembled in a rather specific order. Person marking

360-584: A strong friendship as they roamed and hunted their new land together. In the early 19th century, the Texas Congress granted each tribe two strips of land along the Trinity River . Their land was soon taken over by European-American settlers, leaving them homeless. Sam Houston , the governor of Texas, recommended that the state purchase 1,280 acres (5.2 km ) for the Alabamas. Although money

400-553: A version of Mobilian Jargon , a pidgin based on Western Muskogean. The best-known connection proposed between Muskogean and other languages is Mary Haas ' Gulf hypothesis , in which she conceived of a macrofamily comprising Muskogean and a number of language isolates of the southeastern US: Atakapa , 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

440-883: Is a Native American language , spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas . It was once spoken by the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town of Oklahoma, but there are no more Alabama speakers in Oklahoma. It is a Muskogean language , and is believed to have been related to the Muklasa and Tuskegee languages, which are no longer extant. Alabama is closely related to Koasati and Apalachee , and more distantly to other Muskogean languages like Hitchiti , Chickasaw and Choctaw . The Alabama first encountered Europeans when Hernando de Soto arrived in 1540. (See here for other de Soto contactees) In

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480-455: Is a list of basic vocabulary in five Muskogean languages from Broadwell (1992): Proto-Muskogean is reconstructed as having the consonants (given in IPA transcription): The phonemes reconstructed by 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

520-455: Is a productive process in Atakapa. Atakapa exhibits strict subject-object-verb word order. While verbs are typically found in sentence-final position, it is common for adjuncts , or even subordinate clauses , to follow the verb of the principal clause . The suffixes -ne and -n are used to indicate the subordination of a clause to the main clause, as in tsanuk micat penene ("she gave

560-519: Is an extinct language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby coastal eastern Texas . It was spoken by the Atakapa people (also known as Ishak , after their word for "the people"). The language became extinct in the early 20th century. While considered an isolate, there have been attempts to connect Atakapa with other languages of the Southeast. In 1919 John R. Swanton proposed

600-462: Is distinctive. Vowels can be nasalized in certain morphological contexts. In Alabama, the final syllable generally carries the primary stress, except in the case of certain grammatical operations which move the stress. There is also a pitch accent system with two contrastive tones: high-level and high-falling. The two phonemic tones have several different allophonic realizations depending on vowel length and neighboring consonants. Since January 2024,

640-400: Is of the structure CVC. Swanton (1929) observes that clusters of more than two consonants are rare in the language. From his analysis of Gatschet's data, he concludes that consonant clusters of any size are not permitted in the syllable onset, but that they are permitted in the coda. Stress is "a purely mechanical function of phrase rhythm" in Atakapa; it is generally the final syllable of

680-491: Is one of the only instances of fusion within the language, fusing both person and number. Nouns have only a handful of suffixes and usually take only one suffix at a time. The language is largely head-marking ; however, reduplication of an adjectival stem tends to show dependent-marking , as it often expresses the plurality of the noun it describes. Object pronouns are prefixed to verbs, while subject pronouns are suffixed. There are independent forms of each pronoun as well: in

720-493: Is reflected in the list below: 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 (Muscogee). Southern Muskogean is the subdivided into Hitchiti-Mikasuki and a "Southwestern Muskogean" branch containing Alabama-Koasati and "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw). The classification

760-500: Is reflected in the list below: A third proposed classification is that of Geoffrey Kimball, who envisions a threeway split among the languages, with "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw), "Eastern Muskogean" (Muscogee), 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. Several sparsely attested languages have been claimed to be Muskogean languages. George Broadwell suggested that

800-401: Is related to Natchez. Most family languages display lexical accent on nouns and grammatical case , which distinguishes the nominative from the oblique. Nouns do not obligatorially inflect for gender or number. 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,

840-526: Is the better-attested of the two varieties. In 1885, Albert Gatschet collected words, sentences, and texts from two native Atakapa speakers, Louison Huntington and Delilah Moss at Lake Charles, Louisiana . John R. Swanton worked with another two speakers near Lake Charles: Teet Verdine in 1907, and Armojean Reon in 1908. Additionally, in 1721, Jean Béranger collected a small vocabulary from captive speakers in Galveston Bay . John Swanton argued that

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880-692: The Alabama–Coushatta Tribe of Texas has engaged in a revitalization and documentation effort in partnership with the WOLF (Working on Language in the Field) Lab at Harvard University, with a five-year goal "to document the language, study its grammar and lexicon, and produce educational resources for the Alabama-Coushatta community." Atakapa language Atakapa ( / ə ˈ t æ k ə p ə , - p ɑː / , natively Yukhiti )

920-595: The 18th century, the French arrived on the Gulf Coast and built a fort at what became Mobile, Alabama . The Alibamu and Koasati tribes were part of the Creek Confederacy . They had less contact with British settlers than other Creek tribes did. They were the first to leave when British settlers swarmed into the area by the middle of the 18th century, after the land was ceded by the French following

960-615: The Alabama–Koasati group. 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 Muscogee) as another. Within Eastern Muskogean, Alabama-Koasati and Hitchiti-Mikasuki are generally thought to be more closely related to each other than to Muscogee. That classification

1000-766: The British victory in the French and Indian War . Under pressure as well by Native American enemies, the Alabama and Coushatta tribes wanted to avoid the powerful Choctaw in present-day Mississippi . They moved into territories of future states, first into Louisiana and then into Texas . In 1795, the Coushatta arrived in the Big Thicket area of East Texas. In 1805, nearly 1,000 Alabama came to Tyler County 's Peach Tree Village in East Texas. The two tribes developed

1040-582: The Béranger vocabulary represented the Akokisa language, spoken by a people who lived somewhat inland from Galveston Bay. There is little evidence to support his assertion. Atakapa has five vowels as presented in Swadesh (1946). Vowel length is contrastive in Atakapa. According to Swadesh (1946), Atakapa has the consonants presented in the following chart. Underlying /ŋ/ surfaces as [k] when it appears at

1080-496: The Coushattas. The Coushatta claim was disputed by white settlers in 1859. When the Coushatta lost the land claim, the Alabama invited them to live on their land claim. The federal government approved a large grant in 1928 to purchase additional land near the reservation; it was granted to the "Alabama and Coushatta tribes." Since that time, the reservation has officially been known as “Alabama-Coushatta". Origin myths focus on

1120-650: 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 Amacano , Chacato , Chine , Pacara, and Pensacola people, who lived along the Gulf Coast of Florida from the Big Bend Coast to Pensacola Bay , are reported to have spoken the same Muskogean language, which may have been closely related to Choctaw. Sparse evidence indicates that

1160-403: The connection between the two tribes. There are fourteen consonant phonemes in Alabama. /s/ is apico-alveolar , [s̺] . The voiceless stops /p t k/ are typically fortis and unlike in many other Southeastern languages they are not voiced between vowels. All consonants can occur geminated . The post-alveolar affricate /tʃ/ is realized as [s] when it occurs as the first member of

1200-712: The daughter languages except Muscogee for which it is /k/ initially and /p/ medially. The value of the proto-phoneme conventionally written ⟨θ⟩ (or ⟨N⟩ ) is unknown; it appears as /n/ in Western Muskogean languages and as /ɬ/ in Eastern Muskogean languages. Haas reconstructed it as a voiceless /n/ (that is, */n̥/ ), based partly on presumed cognates in Natchez . Proto-Muskogean lexical reconstructions by Booker (2005) are as follows. Alabama language Alabama , also known as Alibamu, ( Alabama : Albaamo innaaɬiilka )

1240-766: 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: ish-impa 2SG . NOM -eat ish-impa 2SG.NOM-eat "you [sg.] eat" hash-impa 2PL . NOM -eat hash-impa 2PL.NOM-eat "you [pl.] eat" Innately-numbered verbal stems, Mikasuki: łiniik run. SG łiniik run.SG "to run (singular)" palaak run. PAU palaak run.PAU "to run (several)" mataak run. PL mataak run.PL "to run (many)" Below

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1280-399: The end of a syllable. Swadesh further notes that /m/ often surfaces as [n] or [ŋ] word-finally in some adjectives, but "irregular variations in [Gatschet's] writing" preclude him from settling on any further conditions for this. Additionally, it is unclear whether /n/ is indeed a distinct phoneme from /ŋ/; if this is the case, argues Swadesh, then words containing final /n/ must have arrived in

1320-528: The existence of a reflexive prefix hat- and a reciprocal prefix hak-. However, the reflexive form may be a circumfix rather than a prefix: Kaufman cites the example of hat-yul-šo ("paint themselves"), in which both hat- and -šo indicate reflexivity. There are multiple ways to indicate a noun's plurality in Atakapa: According to Swanton (1919), a noun-forming affix -nen or -nan exists in Atakapa. The full order of morphemes within

1360-475: The first person singular and plural, this form appears to be distinct from either affix, but in the second and third persons, the affixes seem to be related to the independent forms. Grammatical gender appears not to occur in Atakapa, though evidence for it in nearby languages (e.g. Chitimacha) has been found. The following table of pronominal forms is presented in Swanton (1919). In addition, Swanton notes

1400-578: The interconnectedness of the tribes. One myth states that the two tribes sprouted from either side of a cypress tree. Another legend was recorded in 1857 from Se-ko-pe-chi , one of the oldest Creeks in Indian Territory . He said that the tribes “sprang out of the ground between the Cohawba and Alabama Rivers .” The symbol of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe comes from pre-contact Mississippian culture : two intertwined woodpeckers, now symbolic of

1440-543: The languages of the Yamasee and Guale were Muskogean. However, William Sturtevant argued that the "Yamasee" and "Guale" data were Muscogee 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

1480-635: The peace and for providing refuge, while the "red" towns were responsible for conducting military campaigns. Though they had "red" and "white" towns, the Alabama-Coushatta thought of themselves as a peace-loving people. By 1820, there were three main Alabama towns and three large Coushatta towns in east Texas , in the region known as the Big Thicket. In 1854, the Alabama were given 1,280 acres (5.2 km ) in Polk County . The following year, 640 acres (2.6 km ), also in Polk County, were given to

1520-501: The two languages] owing to their geographic proximity." According to Swanton (1929) and Goddard (1996), Atakapa could be classified into Eastern and Western varieties. Eastern Atakapa is known from a French-Atakapa glossary with 287 entries, compiled in 1802 by Martin Duralde. The speakers interviewed by Duralde lived in the easternmost part of Atakapa territory, around Poste des Attakapas (now Saint Martinville ). Western Atakapa

1560-401: The verb complex is: It is unclear whether or not a distinct class of auxiliary verbs exists in Atakapa; the difference between a stem-plus-auxiliary construction and a two-verb-serialization construction is not well marked. Additionally, there is no mention of the assertive suffix -š in Swanton's work; Kaufman (2014) derives it by analogizing Atakapa and Chitimacha . Verb serialization

1600-567: Was appropriated to buy 640 acres (2.6 km ) for the Coushatta, the land was never bought. Either through marriage or special permission, many Coushatta went to live on the land given to the Alabama. Other Coushatta had stayed in an area in southern Louisiana near the Red River. Many of their descendants are enrolled members of the federally recognized Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. Alabama and Coushatta towns were divided into "red" and "white" towns. The "white" towns were responsible for keeping

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