Labials p b f w m_A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1 With a Linguistic, Historic and Ethnographic Introduction

_Vowels_:--i, e, ā, a, o, u; with their long and nasalized sounds.

The syllable is quite simple in its structure; it consists either of a

vowel only, or begins with one consonant (in the eastern division with

one or two), and ends in a vowel. Deviations from this rule must be

explained by phonetic alteration, elision, etc. The frequent

occurrence of homonymous terms forms a peculiar difficulty in the

study of the dialects.

_Morphology._--No thorough distinction exists between the different

parts of speech, none especially between the nominal and the verbal

element. The fact that all adjectives can be verbified, could be

better expressed as follows: The adjectives used attributively are

participles of attributive verbs and inflected for number like these,

their so-called plural being the plural form of a verb. This we

observe in Iroquois, Taensa and many other American languages; it also

explains the position of the adjective _after_ the noun qualified.

Some forms of the finite verb represent true verbs, while others, like

the Creek forms, with tcha-, tchi-, pu-, etc., prefixed, which is the

possessive pronoun, are nominal forms, and represent _nomina agentis_

and _nomina actionis_. The three cases of the noun are not accurately

distinguished from each other in their functions; substantives form

diminutives in -odshi, -osi, -usi, etc. The distinction between

animate and inanimate gender is not made in this language family; much

less that between the male and the female sex. The possessive pronoun

of the third person singular and plural (im-, in-, i-) is prefixed in

the same manner to substantives to indicate possession, as it is to

verbs to show that an act is performed in the interest or to the

detriment of the verbal subject or object. The Cha'hta alone

distinguishes between the inclusive and the exclusive pronouns _we,

our, ours_. A dual exists neither in the noun nor in the pronoun,

but in most of the intransitive verbs. The numerals are built upon the

quinary system, the numeral system most frequent in North America. The

verb forms a considerable number of tenses and incorporates the

prefixed object-pronoun, the interrogative and the negative particle;

it has a form for the passive and one for the reflective voice. By a

sort of reduplication a distributive form is produced in the verb,

adjective and some numerals, which often has a frequentative and

iterative function. The lack of a true relative pronoun and of a true

substantive verb is supplied in different ways by the various

dialects; the former, for instance, by the frequent use of the verbal

in -t. Derivatives are formed by prefixation and suffixation, many of

the derivational being identical with inflectional affixes in these

dialects.

Although Maskoki speech, taken as a whole, belongs to the

agglutinative type of languages, some forms of it, especially the

predicative inflection of the verb and the vocalic changes in the

radicals, strongly remind us of the inflective languages. Words,

phrases and sentences are sometimes composed by syncope, a process

which is more characteristic of the agglutinative than of the

inflective type, and is by no means confined to the languages of

America.

In the following _comparative table_ I have gathered some terms of

Maskoki which coincide in two or more of the dialects. The table may

be helpful for giving a general idea of the lexical differences

existing between the dialects explored:

------------+----------+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------

------------+----------+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------

Foot |íyi |iyi |i-pát'ha |i-pát'ha |íli

Water |óka, uk'ha|óka |óki |óki |o-íwa, u-íwa

Wood |íti |iti |itu |ítu |itu

------------+----------+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------

------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-------------

| Seminole. | Hitchiti. | Apalachi. | Mikasuki.

------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-------------

Warrior |taskáya |hú′li-tipi |taskaia |tasikiá'hli

Woman |hókti |täígi | |taiki

Foot |ili |i-paláshi |ia, ya |ili-palasi

Village,town|tálofa |ókli |tófun(obj. case)|ókli

Chief |miko |miki | |miki

House |tchûku |tchíki |tchíka |tchíki

Knife |islátka |iskalafki | |iskalafki

Canoe |pi`lódshi(dim)|pi`lótsi, pi`li| |pi`lódshi(dim)

Fire |tútka |íti | |íti

Water |o-íwa |óki | |óki

Earth, land |íkana |yákni | |yákni

Stone, rock |tcháto |táli | |tale

Wood |ítu |ahí | |a`li

Sun |hási |hási | |hasi

Moon | |has-ótali |hitok (_month_) | has-otali

Thunder |tinítki |tonuká'htchi | |tonokatchi

Pine |tchóli | | |tchoyi

Maize |ádshi |áspi | |áspi

Grass |páhi | | |páhi

Bear |nokose |noχū'si | |nókosi

Deer |ítcho |itchi | |itchi

Bird |fosua, fúswa |fosi | |fusi

Fish |'la`lu |'lá`li | |'lá`li

Good |hi`li |hí`li | |hí`li

White |hátki |hátgi | |hatki

Red |tcháti |kitistchi | |kitiski

Black |lásti |lódshi | |lútchi

All |omálga |lápki |ámali, ilúngta |lápki

One |hámgin |`lámin | |'lámin

Two |hokólin |túklan | |tóklan

Three |tut'tchinin |tutchínan |tusa |tot'tchínan

Four |óshtin |sitákin | |tchitákin

Five |tcha'hki′pin |tchákgipan | |tcha′hkípin

Six |ipákin |ipagin | |ipákin

Seven |kolapákin |kolapákin | |kolapákin

Eight |tchinapákin |tusnapákin | |tosnapákin

Nine |ostapákin |ustapakin | |ostapákin

Ten |pálin |pokólin | |pokólin

To see |hidshita |hitchígi |pitcha |hidshíki

------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-------------

The Chicasa of this comparative table is from a vocabulary taken by G.

Gibbs (1866); the Seminole and the Mikasuki from Buckingham Smith's

vocabularies printed in the Historical Magazine (Morrisania, N. Y.)

for August, 1866, and in W. W. Beach's: Indian Miscellany, Albany

1877, p. 120-126. The latter differs but little from the Mikasuki of

G. Gibbs, in the linguistic collection of the Bureau of Ethnology in

Washington. The few words of Apalachi were drawn from the missive

sent, A. D. 1688, to the king of Spain, to be mentioned under

"Apalachi"; the Koassáti terms I obtained in part at the Indian

training school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, partly from Gen. Alb.

Pike's vocabularies, which also furnished the Alibamu terms.

Readers will perceive at the first glance that Cha'hta is practically

the same language as Chicasa, Creek as Seminole and Hitchiti as

Mikasuki. Alibamu forms a dialect for itself, leaning more toward

Cha'hta than Creek. The southeastern group holds a middle position

between Cha'hta and Creek. As far as the queer and inaccurate Spanish

orthography of Apalachi enables us to judge, this dialect again

differs somewhat from Hitchiti and Mikasuki. It will be well to

remember that in Indian and all illiterate languages the sounds of the

same organ-class are _interchangeable_; thus, a word may be

_correctly_ pronounced and written in six, ten, or twelve different

ways. Tcháto _rock, stone_ can be pronounced tchátu, tchádo, tchádu,

tsáto, tsátu, tsádo, tsádu, etc. This explains many of the apparent

discrepancies observed in the comparative table, and in our texts

printed below.

A comparative study of the existing Maskoki vocabularies would be very

fruitful for the ethnographic history of the tribes, and likely to

disclose the relative epochs of their settlement, if those that we

have now could be thoroughly relied on. In the comparative table

subjoined I have received only such terms that answer to this

requisite.

There are terms which occur in all dialects in the same or nearly the

same form, as hási _sun_, ítchu, íssi _deer_, ófi, ífa _dog_, the

terms for _chief, black, yellow, bird, snake, buffalo, turtle, fox_

(also in Cheroki: tsu'hlá), the numerals and the personal pronouns;

they must, therefore, have been once the common property of the still

undivided, primordial tribe. The fact that the words for _chief_

(míki, míngo, míko), for holá'hta, and for _warrior_ (táska, taskáya),

agree in all dialects, points to the fact that when the tribes

separated they lived under similar social conditions which they have

kept up ever since. The terms for _maize_ disagree but apparently, and

seem to be reducible to one radix, atch or ash; the terms for _dog_

agree in all dialects--hence, the Maskoki tribes planted maize and

kept dogs before, probably many centuries before they separated; and

the term ífa went over from them to the Timucua. The word for

_buffalo_, yánase, is the same in all dialects, and was probably

obtained from the North, since the term occurs in Cheroki also (yá'hsa

in Eastern Cheroki). The name for _salt_, hápi, a mineral which had a

sacrificial importance, is found also in Yuchi in the form tápi, but

Creek has ók-tchanua, Hitchiti: ok-tcháhane. The term for _tobacco_

agrees in all divisions of the stock (haktchúmma), except in the Creek

branch, where it is called hítchi, hídshi. This weed is said to have

received its Maskoki names from a similarity of the top of the green

plant with the phallus, which is called in Alibamu and Hitchiti:

óktchi or áktchi.

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