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.[4][5][6] Apalachee isno longer spoken; its precise relationship to the other languages is uncertain, butMary Haas andPamela Munro both classify it with the Alabama–Koasati group.[7]
For connections among these groupings, one influential classification is that of Mary Haas and 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.[8] That classification is reflected in the list below:[9][10][11]
A different classification has been proposed byPamela 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 then subdivided into Hitchiti-Mikasuki and a "Southwestern Muskogean" branch containing Alabama-Koasati and "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw).[8] The classification is reflected in the list below:[12]
Several sparsely attested languages have been claimed to be Muskogean languages. George Broadwell suggested that the languages of theYamasee andGuale were Muskogean.[13][14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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 ofHitchiti,Coweta, andCussita.[17]
Sparse evidence indicates that a Muskogean language was spoken by at least some of the people of the paramount chiefdom ofCofitachequi in northeasternSouth Carolina. If so, that would be the most eastern outpost of Muskogean. The people of Cofitichequi were probably absorbed by nearbySiouan andIroquoian speakers in the late 17th century.[22]
A vocabulary of theHouma may be another underdocumented Western Muskogean language or a version ofMobilian Jargon, a pidgin based on Western Muskogean.
The best-known connection proposed between Muskogean and other languages isMary Haas'Gulf hypothesis, in which she conceived of a macrofamily comprising Muskogean and a number oflanguage isolates of the southeastern US:Atakapa,Chitimacha,Tunica, andNatchez. While well-known, the Gulf grouping is now generally rejected by historical linguists.[13][23] Some Muskogean scholars continue to assert that Muskogean is related to Natchez.[24]
Nouns in Muskogean languages may take prefixes indicating the person and number of a possessor. Noun phrases may be marked forgrammatical case, with a distinction between subjects (nominative case) and nonsubjects (oblique case). Some Muskogean languages have affixes indicating plural nouns (generally human nouns) or groups.
Muskogean verbs are highly synthetic, with affixes for tense, aspect, person, number, direction, and mood. While case marking isnominative–accusative, person marking isactive–stative, with separate series of agent, patient, and indirect object person markers.
Verbs have a complex system ofablaut indicating aspect. In Muskogean linguistics, the different forms are known as "grades" or "themes".[25]
All the languages make use of suppletive verbs indicating the number of the subject in an intransitive verb or the number of the direct object in a transitive verb.
The phonemes reconstructed by Haas as*/x/ and*/xʷ/ show up as/h/ and/f/ (or/ɸ/[29]), respectively, in all Muskogean languages;[30] they are therefore reconstructed by some as*/h/ and*/ɸ/.[12][31]*/kʷ/ appears as/b/ in all the daughter languages exceptMuscogee for which it is/k/ initially and/p/ medially. The value of the proto-phoneme conventionally written⟨θ⟩ (or⟨N⟩) is unknown;[32] 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 inNatchez.[12][33]
^Oatis, Steven J. (2004).A Colonial Complex: South Carolina's Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1680–1730. University of Nebraska Press.ISBN0-8032-3575-5.
^Hann, John H. (2006).The Native American World Beyond Apalachee. University Press of Florida. pp. 11,20–21, 24, 43.ISBN9-780-8130-2982-5.
^Haas, Mary R. (1940). "Ablaut and Its Function in Muskogee".Language.16 (2):141–50.
^West, David (1974)."Number in the Mikasuki verb stem".Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session.18 (15): 135.
Booker, Karen. (2005). "Muskogean Historical Phonology." In Hardy, Heather Kay and Scancarelli, Janine (eds.),Native languages of the Southeastern United States, 246–298. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Campbell, Lyle. (1997).American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-509427-1.
Coker, William S. (1999) "Pensacola, 1686–1821." in Judith Anne Bense. (1999) Editor.Archaeology of colonial Pensacola. University Press of Florida.ISBN0-8130-1661-4 Found atGoogle Books
Crawford, James M. (Ed.). (1975a).Studies in Southeastern Indian Languages. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Crawford, James M. (1975b). "Southeastern Indian Languages". In Crawford (ed.) 1975, pp. 1–120.
Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996).Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.ISBN0-16-048774-9.
Haas, Mary (1951). "The Proto-Gulf word for water (with notes on Siouan–Yuchi)".International Journal of American Linguistics17: 71–79.
Haas, Mary. (1952). "The Proto-Gulf word for 'land' (with notes on Proto-Siouan)".International Journal of American Linguistics18:238–240.
Haas, Mary. (1973). "The Southeast". InT. A. Sebeok (Ed.),Linguistics in North America (part 2, pp. 1210–1249). The Hague: Mouton.
Hardy, Heather. (2005). "Introduction". In Hardy & Scancarelli 2005, pp. 69–74.
Hardy, Heather & Janine Scancarelli. (2005).Native Languages of the Southeastern United States. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Martin, Jack B. (2004). "Languages." In Raymond D. Fogelson ed., Handbook of North American Indians. The Southeast, 68–86.
Martin, Jack B. (2023) "Muskogean."The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America Vol. 13.2, pp. 1577–1600 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jackb-martin/11/
Martin, Jack B. & Pamela Munro. (2005). "Proto-Muskogean Morphology". in Hardy & Scancarelli eds., pp. 299–320
Milanich, Jerald T. (1995).Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.ISBN0-8130-1360-7
Mithun, Marianne. (1999).The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-23228-7 (hbk);ISBN0-521-29875-X.
Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973).Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hague: 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).
Sturtevant, William C. (1994). "The Misconnection of Guale and Yamasee with Muskogean".International Journal of American Linguistics60:139–148.
Swanton, John Reed. (1952)The Indian Tribes of North America. Found atGoogle Books
West, David (1974). "Number in the Mikasuki verb stem".Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session.18 (15).
