Information about the Muskogean languages

Where are the Muskogean languages spoken?

Before colonization, these languages were spoken over a vast territory located in what is today the southeastern United States. They are currently spoken in the states of Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and Florida.

Who speaks these languages?

The speakers are members of “First Nations” in North America: the Choctaw Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Alabama-Coushatta Nation, the Mikusaki Nation, the Seminole Nation of Florida and Oklahoma, and the Muscogee Nation, all of whom inhabited the region well before the arrival of Europeans and before the creation of the United States.

Total number of speakers (estimated):

17 250 according to UNESCO

16 700 according to the site ethnologue.com (SIL)

Classification

The Muskogean language family currently has 5 languages.

Western Branch

Choctaw-Chickasaw: 11,000 speakers according to UNESCO and SIL

Central Branch

Alabama (alternate name: Alibamu): 275 speakers according to UNESCO and 100 according to SIL

Apalachee: extinct

Hitchiti Mikisaki: 500 speakers according to UNESCO and 400 according to SIL

Koasati (alternate name: Coushatta): 475 speakers according to UNESCO and 200 according to SIL

Eastern Branch

Creek (alternate names: Muskogee, Maskoke, Seminole): 5000 speakers according to UNESCO and SIL

Comments on the classification of Muskogean languages:

Muskogean Languages are extremely difficult to classify and there are numerous internal classifications proposed by linguists. Here we follow that classification of Mithun (1999) which is the most widely recognized. One difficulty in the classification of these languages is their geographical proximity and the many mutual loans between languages. In addition, some speakers are bilingual, for example, some speakers of Alabama also speak Koasati (although the two languages are not mutually intelligible) and many Seminoles of Florida speak Mikasuki.

There have been proposals to include different isolates in the Muskogean family which are geographically close by such as Atakapas, Chitimacha, Tunica and Natchez, but this type of grouping has been rejected by a majority of linguists.

Are Muskogean languages in danger?

Yes, the Apalachee language is now extinct, and three other languages of the central branch, spoken by several hundred older speakers, are considered to be “seriously endangered” by UNESCO. The Chowtaw-Chickasaw dialects and Creek (Seminole) are in somewhat less difficultly, but their future is still uncertain.

Sources:

Mithun, Marianne The languages of Native North America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (1999).

Campbell, Lyle. American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (1997)

Site devoted to American Indian languages:

http://www.native-languages.org/

An online article by N. Hopkins, devoted to indigenous languages of the Southeastern United States:

http://www.famsi.org/research/hopkins/SouthEastUSLanguages.pdf