User:Donald Albury/Native American names

The names used in historical references to Indigenous people of the United States can vary in spelling and meaning. The languages spoken by the Muscogulge peoples (speakers of the various Muscogean languages), as well as other peoples in the southeast, did not have a written form before the 19th century. Almost all records of the names of individuals, groups, and places associated with the Muscogulge and other Indigenous peoples of what is now the southeastern United States prior to the latter part of the 19th century were written down by Europeans and Americans of European descent. The phonology, morphology and syntax of the languages of Indigenous people often were very different from those spoken by Europeans. European observers often differed in how they transcribed names they heard from Indigenous informants. Moreover, a tradition of consistent spelling did not become widespread among English speakers until the 19th century. Another discrepancy arises from differences in the phonologies of European languages. The tribal town that the Spanish recorded as "Achito" or "Ahachito" was known to the English as "Echete", "Echeetes", or "Hitchiti". There could be differences as well based on the source from which a European observer heard a name. "Sawokli", the name by which the English referred to the southernmost town in Apalachicola Province, is compatible with an origin from the Hitchiti language, while the Spanish term for that town, "Sabacola", is not from Hitchiti, but might be from the Apalachee language. An explantion for that difference might be that the Spanish approached Sabacola from the south through Apalachee Province, while the English first heard of Sawolki from the Hitchiti-speaking towns of Apalachicola Province.