The Muscogee language ( Muskogee , Mvskoke IPA: [maskókî] in Muscogee), previously referred to by its exonym , Creek , is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida . Along with Mikasuki , when it is spoken by the Seminole, it is known as Seminole .
35-614: Tukabatchee or Tuckabutche ( Creek : Tokepahce ) is one of the four mother towns of the Muscogee Creek confederacy . The pre-removal tribal town was located on the Tallapoosa River in the present-day state of Alabama . The town is believed to be the first site of the ancient 'busk' fire which began the Green Corn Ceremony . Tukabatchee was the home of Big Warrior , one of the two principal chiefs of
70-475: A grammatical ablaut , which indicates intensification through lengthening and nasalization of a vowel ( likoth- 'warm' with the nasalizing grade intensifies the word to likŏ: th-os-i: 'nice and warm'). Nasal vowels may also appear as part of a suffix that indicates a question ( o:sk-ihá: 'I wonder if it's raining'). There are three phonemic tones in Muscogee; they are generally unmarked except in
105-407: A long vowel ( fóː 'bee') or a two-syllable word ending with a short vowel ( ací 'corn'). There are three long vowels in Muscogee ( /iː ɑː oː/ ), which are slightly longer than short vowels and are never centralized. Long vowels are rarely followed by a sonorant in the same syllable. Therefore, when syllables are created (often from suffixation or contractions) in which a long vowel is followed by
140-399: A single sentence at once, such as the direct object, indirect object, and adverbial nouns. Despite the distinction in verbal affixes between the agent and patient of the verb, the clitic -t marks subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs. In some situations, case marking is omitted. This is especially true of sentences with only one noun where the role of the noun is obvious from
175-406: A sonorant, the vowel is shortened: In Muscogee, there are three diphthongs, generally realized as [əɪ ʊj əʊ] . Both long and short vowels can be nasalized (the distinction between acces and ącces below ), but long nasal vowels are more common. Nasal vowels usually appear as a result of a contraction, as the result of a neighboring nasal consonant, or as the result of nasalizing grade,
210-453: A verb in a clause marks that the verb's subject is the same as that of the next clause. The clitic -n marks that verb's subject is different from the next clause. In some languages, a special form of the noun, the genitive case , is used to show possession . In Muscogee this relationship is expressed in two quite different ways, depending on the nature of the noun. A body part or family member cannot be named in Muscogee without mentioning
245-740: Is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages . The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are ⟨ c͡ç ⟩ and ⟨ c͜ç ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is c_C . The tie bar may be omitted, yielding ⟨ cç ⟩ in the IPA and cC in X-SAMPA. This sound is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate . The voiceless palatal affricate occurs in such languages as Hungarian and Skolt Sami , among others. The consonant
280-535: Is less common than the Mikasuki language. The most distinct dialect of the language is said to be that of the Florida Seminole, which is described as "rapid", "staccato" and "dental", with more loan words from Spanish and Mikasuki as opposed to English. Florida Seminole Creek is the most endangered register of the Muscogee language. Voiceless palatal affricate The voiceless palatal affricate
315-468: Is quite rare; it is mostly absent from Europe (with the Uralic languages and Albanian being exceptions). It usually occurs with its voiced counterpart, the voiced palatal affricate . There is also the voiceless post-palatal affricate in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiceless palatal affricate, though not as back as
350-600: Is the stative verbs , which express no action, imply no duration, and provide only description of a static condition. In some languages, such as English, they are expressed as adjectives. In Muscogee, the verbs behave like adjectives but are classed and treated as verbs. However, they are not altered for the person of the subject by an affix , as above; instead, the prefix changes: Prefixes are also used in Muscogee for shades of meaning of verbs that are expressed, in English, by adverbs in phrasal verbs . For example, in English,
385-429: Is the second person singular ending for verbs. Wiketv means "to stop:" the verb for "you are stopping" may be written in Muscogee as wikeckes or wiketskes . Both are pronounced the same. The -eck- transliteration is preferred by Innes (2004), and the -etsk- transliteration has been used by Martin (2000) and Loughridge (1964). While vowel length in Muscogee is distinctive, it is somewhat inconsistently indicated in
SECTION 10
#1732775853802420-736: Is widely spoken among the Muscogee people. The Muscogee Nation offers free language classes and immersion camps to Muscogee children. The College of the Muscogee Nation offers a language certificate program. Tulsa public schools, the University of Oklahoma and Glenpool Library in Tulsa and the Holdenville, Okmulgee, and Tulsa Muscogee Communities of the Muscogee Nation offer Muscogee Creek language classes. In 2013,
455-428: Is word-final. Initial vowels can be deleted in Muscogee, mostly applying to the vowel /i/ . The deletion will affect the pitch of the following syllable by creating a higher-than-expected pitch on the new initial syllable. Furthermore, initial vowel deletion in the case of single-morpheme, short words such as ifa 'dog' or icó 'deer' is impossible, as the shortest a Muscogee word can be is a one-syllable word ending in
490-635: The Sapulpa Creek Community Center graduated a class of 14 from its Muscogee language class. In 2018, 8 teachers graduated from a class put on by the Seminole nation at Seminole State College to try and reintroduce the Muscogee language to students in elementary and high school in several schools around the state. The phoneme inventory of Muscogee consists of thirteen consonants and three vowel qualities , which distinguish length , tone and nasalization . It also makes use of
525-490: The gemination of stops , fricatives and sonorants . There are four voiceless stops in Muscogee: /p t t͡ʃ k/ . /t͡ʃ/ is a voiceless palatal affricate and patterns as a single consonant and so with the other voiceless stops. /t͡ʃ/ has an alveolar allophone [ t͡s ] before /k/ . The obstruent consonants /p t t͡ʃ k/ are voiced to [b d d͡ʒ ɡ] between sonorants and vowels but remain voiceless at
560-585: The (approximately) equivalent sounds using familiar English words and the IPA : There are also three vowel sequences whose spellings match their phonetic makeup: As mentioned above, certain consonants in Muscogee, when they appear between two sonorants (a vowel or m , n , l , w , or y ), become voiced . They are the consonants represented by p , t , k , c , and s : In addition, certain combinations of consonants sound differently from English, giving multiple possible transcriptions . The most prominent case
595-776: The Creeks until his death in 1826. Chief Opothleyahola was born here in 1780. In 1811 Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (better known as the Prophet) addressed Creek leaders in the Tukabatchee town square. Tecumseh was so disappointed in Big Warrior's response at the end of his speech against American expansion that he said upon reaching Chalagawtha the Prophet would "...stamp his foot and all of Tuckabatchee's cabins would fall." An ahistorical legend subsequently developed stating that
630-417: The articulation of /s/ is more laminal , resulting in /s/ being realized as [ ʃ ] , but for most speakers, /s/ is a voiceless apico-alveolar fricative [ s ] . Like /k/ , the glottal /h/ is sometimes realized as the uvular [ χ ] when it is preceded by [o] or when syllable-final: The sonorants in Muscogee are two nasals ( /m/ and /n/ ), two semivowels ( /w/ and /j/ ), and
665-731: The early 18th century. Combining with other ethnicities there, they emerged as the Seminole . During the 1830s, however, the US government forced most Muscogee and Seminole to relocate west of the Mississippi River , with most forced into Indian Territory . The language is today spoken by fewer than 400 people, most of whom live in Oklahoma and are members of the Muscogee Nation and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma . Muscogee
700-474: The end of a syllable . Between instances of [ o ] , or after [o] at the end of a syllable, the velar /k/ is realized as the uvular [ q ] or [ ɢ ] . For example: There are four voiceless fricatives in Muscogee: /f s ɬ h/ . /f/ can be realized as either labiodental [ f ] or bilabial [ ɸ ] in place of articulation . Predominantly among speakers in Florida,
735-566: The first (1860) grammar of the Muscogee language, persisted in the Hichiti , Muscogee proper, and Koasati languages at least into the first half of the 20th century. The forms of Muscogee used by the Seminoles of Oklahoma and Florida are separate dialects from the ones spoken by Muscogee people. Oklahoma Seminole speak a dialect known as Oklahoma Seminole Creek. Florida Seminole Creek is one of two languages spoken among Florida Seminoles; it
SECTION 20
#1732775853802770-421: The language was spoken by various constituent groups of the Muscogee or Maskoki in what are now Alabama and Georgia . It is related to but not mutually intelligible with the other primary language of the Muscogee confederacy, Hitchiti - Mikasuki , which is spoken by the kindred Mikasuki, as well as with other Muskogean languages. The Muscogee first brought the Muscogee and Miccosukee languages to Florida in
805-439: The lateral /l/ , all voiced . Nasal assimilation occurs in Muscogee: /n/ becomes [ ŋ ] before /k/ . Sonorants are devoiced when followed by /h/ in the same syllable and results in a single voiceless consonant: All plosives and fricatives in Muscogee can be geminated (lengthened). Some sonorants may also be geminated, but [hh] and [mm] are less common than other sonorant geminates, especially in roots. For
840-565: The linguistic orthography: high (marked in the linguistic orthography with an acute accent : á , etc.), low (unmarked: a , etc.), and falling (marked with a circumflex : â , etc.). The traditional Muscogee alphabet was adopted by the tribe in the late 1800s and has 20 letters . Although it is based on the Latin alphabet , some sounds are vastly different from those in English like those represented by c , e , i , r , and v . Here are
875-425: The locations are actually nouns. These are possessed just like parts of the body and family members were above. Claudio Saunt , writing about the language of the later 18th century, said that there were different feminine and masculine versions, which he also calls dialects, of the Muscogee language. Males "attach[ed] distinct endings to verbs", while Females "accent[ed] different syllables". These forms, mentioned in
910-518: The majority of speakers, except for those influenced by the Alabama or Koasati languages, the geminate [ww] does not occur. The vowel phonemes of Muscogee are as follows: There are three short vowels /i ɑ o/ and three long vowels /iː ɑː oː/ . There are also the nasal vowels /ĩ ɑ̃ õ ĩː ɑ̃ː õː/ (in the linguistic orthography, they are often written with an ogonek under them or a following superscript "n"). Most occurrences of nasal vowels are
945-408: The pattern subject–object–verb . The subject or object may be a noun or a noun followed by one or more adjectives . Adverbs tend to occur either at the beginning of the sentence (for time adverbs) or immediately before the verb (for manner adverbs). Case is marked on noun phrases using the clitics -t for subjects, and -n for non-subjects. The clitic -n can appear on multiple noun phrases in
980-527: The personal marking on the verb. Case marking is also omitted on fixed phrases that use a noun, e.g. "go to town " or "build a fire ". In Muscogee, a single verb can translate into an entire English sentence. The root infinitive form of the verb is altered for: Some Muscogee verbs, especially those involving motion, have highly irregular plurals: letketv = to run, with a singular subject, but tokorketv = to run of two subjects and pefatketv = to run of three or more. Another entire class of Muscogee verbs
1015-420: The possessor, which is an integrated part of the word. A set of changeable prefixes serves this function: Even if the possessor is mentioned specifically, the prefix still must be part of the word: Toskē enke = Toske's hand. It is not redundant in Muscogee ("Toske his_hand"). All other nouns are possessed through a separate set of pronouns . Again, even though the construction in English would be redundant,
1050-438: The proper way to form the possessive in Muscogee must include the correct preposition: Toskē em efv = Toske's dog. That is grammatically correct in Muscogee, unlike the literal English translation "Toske his dog". A final distinctive feature, related to the above, is the existence of locational nouns . In English, speakers have prepositions to indicate location, for example, behind , around , beside , and so on. In Muscogee,
1085-489: The prototypical voiceless velar affricate . The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ c̠͡ç̠ ⟩, ⟨ c͡ç˗ ⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ c͡ç ⟩) or ⟨ k̟͡x̟ ⟩ ( advanced ⟨ k͡x ⟩) - this article uses only the first symbol. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are c_-_C_- and k_+_x_+ , respectively. Especially in broad transcription ,
Tukabatchee - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-443: The result of nasal assimilation or the nasalizing grade, but there are some forms that show contrast between oral and nasal vowels: The three short vowels /i ɑ o/ can be realized as the lax and centralized ( [ɪ ə ʊ] ) when a neighboring consonant is coronal or in closed syllables. However, /ɑ/ will generally not centralize when it is followed by /h/ or /k/ in the same syllable, and /o/ will generally remain noncentral if it
1155-640: The town was leveled by the New Madrid earthquake a month later but there is neither documentary nor archeological evidence that the town was destroyed. During the Creek War in 1813, Red Stick rebels surrounded the town. The siege was lifted by Creeks from the nearby town of Cusseta . This article relating to the Indigenous peoples of North America is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Muscogee language Historically,
1190-552: The traditional orthography. The following basic correspondences can be noted: However, the correspondences do not always apply, and in some words, short /a/ is spelled a , long /iː/ is spelled e , and short /o/ is spelled o . Muscogee words carry distinctive tones and nasalization of their vowels. These features are not marked in the traditional orthography, only in dictionaries and linguistic publications. The following additional markers have been used by Martin (2000) and Innes (2004): The general sentence structure fits
1225-461: The verb to go can be changed to to go up , to go in , to go around , and other variations. In Muscogee, the same principle of shading a verb's meaning is handled by locative prefixes: Example: However, for verbs of motion, Muscogee has a large selection of verbs with a specific meaning: ossetv = to go out; ropottetv = to go through. Clauses in a sentence use switch-reference clitics to co-ordinate their subjects. The clitic -t on
#801198