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 divided into two branches, Eastern Muskogean and Western Muskogean. Typologically, Muskogean languages are agglutinative. One documented language, Apalachee, is extinct and the remaining languages are critically endangered.

Family division
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 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 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 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 is reflected in the list below:


 * Muskogean
 * Western Muskogean
 * Chickasaw
 * Choctaw (also called Chahta, Chacato)
 * Eastern Muskogean
 * Muscogee (also called Muskogee, Maskoke, Mvskoke, Seminole, and previously referred to as Creek)
 * Hitchiti-Mikasuki (also called Miccosukee)
 * Apalachee–Alabama–Koasati
 * Apalachee
 * Alabama (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 (Muscogee). 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:


 * Muskogean
 * Northern Muskogean
 * Muscogee
 * Southern Muskogean
 * Hitchiti-Mikasuki
 * Southwestern Muskogean
 * Apalachee
 * Alabama–Koasati
 * Alabama
 * Koasati
 * Western Muskogean
 * Chickasaw
 * Choctaw

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" (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.

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 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 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 Chacato (or Chatot) 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. 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 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' 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 is related to Natchez.

Nouns
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.

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:

ish-impa

2SG.NOM-eat

"you [sg.] eat"

hash-impa

2PL.NOM-eat

"you [pl.] eat"

Innately-numbered verbal stems, Mikasuki:

łiniik

run.SG

"to run (singular)"

palaak

run.PAU

"to run (several)"

mataak

run.PL

"to run (many)"

Vocabulary
Below is a list of basic vocabulary in five Muskogean languages from Broadwell (1992):

Phonology
Proto-Muskogean is reconstructed as having the consonants (given in IPA 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 Muscogee for which it is  initially and  medially. The value of the proto-phoneme conventionally written $\langleθ\rangle$ (or $\langleN\rangle$) 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.

Lexicon
Proto-Muskogean lexical reconstructions by Booker (2005) are as follows.