Although the dialects of Maskoki do not now diverge from each other
more than did the Semitic dialects two thousand years ago, the time
when they all had a common language, or, in other words, the time
preceding the separation into four divisions must lie further back
than eight or ten thousand years. We cannot expect to reconstruct the
parent Maskoki language spoken at that time but very imperfectly,
since the oldest text known to exist in any of the dialects dates from
A. D. 1688 only. An approach to its reconstruction could be attempted
by carefully comparing the lexicon and grammatic forms of the dialects
presently spoken, and an individual acquainted with them all, or at
least with their four representatives, might also compose _a
comparative grammar_ of these dialects as spoken at the present epoch
of their development, which would reveal many points concerning the
ancient or historic shape of the language once common to all these
tribes.
What the Maskoki dialects presently spoken, _as far as published_,
have in common, may be stated in a general way in the following
outlines:
_Phonetics._--The dialects possess the sound f and the palatalized l
(`l), but lack th, v and r, while nasalization of the vocalic element
is more peculiar to the western than to the eastern divisions. There
is a tendency to pronounce the _mutes_ or checks by applying the
tongue to the alveolar part of the palate. The phonetic system is as
follows: