Muskogean Language spoken in Texas, US
Alabama
, also known as
Alibamu,
[2]
(
Alabama
:
Albaamo innaa?iilka
)
[3]
is a
Native American language
, spoken by the
Alabama-Coushatta
tribe of
Texas
.
It was once spoken by the
Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town
of Oklahoma, but there are no more Alabama speakers in Oklahoma. It is a
Muskogean language
, and is believed to have been related to the Muklasa and Tuskegee languages, which are no longer extant. Alabama is closely related to
Koasati
and
Apalachee
, and more distantly to other
Muskogean languages
like
Hitchiti
,
Chickasaw
and
Choctaw
.
History
[
edit
]
The Alabama first encountered Europeans when
Hernando de Soto
arrived in 1540. (See
here
for other de Soto contactees) In the 18th century, the French arrived on the
Gulf Coast
and built a fort at what became
Mobile, Alabama
.
The
Alibamu
and
Koasati
tribes were part of the
Creek Confederacy
. They had less contact with
British
settlers than other
Creek tribes
did. They were the first to leave when British settlers swarmed into the area by the middle of the 18th century, after the land was ceded by the French following the British victory in the
French and Indian War
. Under pressure as well by Native American enemies, the Alabama and Coushatta tribes wanted to avoid the powerful
Choctaw
in present-day
Mississippi
. They moved into territories of future states, first into
Louisiana
and then into
Texas
.
In 1795, the Coushatta arrived in the Big Thicket area of East Texas. In 1805, nearly 1,000 Alabama came to
Tyler County
's Peach Tree Village in East Texas. The two tribes developed a strong friendship as they roamed and hunted their new land together. In the early 19th century, the Texas Congress granted each tribe two strips of land along the
Trinity River
. Their land was soon taken over by European-American settlers, leaving them homeless.
Sam Houston
, the governor of Texas, recommended that the state purchase 1,280 acres (5.2 km
2
) for the Alabamas. Although money was appropriated to buy 640 acres (2.6 km
2
) for the Coushatta, the land was never bought. Either through marriage or special permission, many Coushatta went to live on the land given to the Alabama. Other Coushatta had stayed in an area in southern Louisiana near the Red River. Many of their descendants are enrolled members of the federally recognized Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.
Alabama and Coushatta towns were divided into "red" and "white" towns. The "white" towns were responsible for keeping the peace and for providing refuge, while the "red" towns were responsible for conducting military campaigns. Though they had "red" and "white" towns, the Alabama-Coushatta thought of themselves as a peace-loving people.
[5]
By 1820, there were three main Alabama towns and three large Coushatta towns in east
Texas
, in the region known as the Big Thicket. In 1854, the Alabama were given 1,280 acres (5.2 km
2
) in
Polk County
.
[6]
The following year, 640 acres (2.6 km
2
), also in Polk County, were given to the Coushattas. The Coushatta claim was disputed by white settlers in 1859. When the Coushatta lost the land claim, the Alabama invited them to live on their land claim.
The federal government approved a large grant in 1928 to purchase additional land near the reservation;
[7]
it was granted to the "Alabama and Coushatta tribes." Since that time, the reservation has officially been known as “Alabama-Coushatta".
Origin myths focus on the interconnectedness of the tribes. One myth states that the two tribes sprouted from either side of a
cypress
tree. Another legend was recorded in 1857 from
Se-ko-pe-chi
, one of the oldest Creeks in
Indian Territory
. He said that the tribes “sprang out of the ground between the
Cohawba
and
Alabama Rivers
.” The symbol of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe comes from pre-contact
Mississippian culture
: two intertwined woodpeckers, now symbolic of the connection between the two tribes.
Phonology
[
edit
]
Consonants
[
edit
]
There are fourteen consonant
phonemes
in Alabama.
/s/
is
apico-alveolar
,
[s?]
. The voiceless stops
/p
t
k/
are typically
fortis
[
clarification needed
]
and unlike in many other Southeastern languages they are not
voiced
between vowels. All consonants can occur
geminated
.
[9]
The post-alveolar affricate
/t?/
is realized as
[s]
when it occurs as the first member of a consonant cluster and the geminate is realized as
[tt?]
. The only voiced
obstruent
in Alabama is
/b/
, which is realized as
[m]
when it occurs in coda (syllable final) position. The geminate
/bb/
is realized as
[mb]
.
[9]
The two nasal phonemes become velar
[ŋ]
before the velar stop
/k/
. In syllable-final position,
/h/
is often realized as lengthening of the preceding vowel.
[9]
Vowels
[
edit
]
There are three vowel qualities,
/i
o
a/
. Vowel length is distinctive. Vowels can be nasalized in certain morphological contexts.
[9]
Prosody
[
edit
]
In Alabama, the final syllable generally carries the primary stress, except in the case of certain grammatical operations which move the stress. There is also a pitch accent system with two contrastive tones: high-level and high-falling. The two phonemic tones have several different allophonic realizations depending on vowel length and neighboring consonants.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Alabama
at
Ethnologue
(21st ed., 2018)
- ^
"Ethnologue report for language code: akz"
. Ethnologue.com
. Retrieved
2011-10-27
.
- ^
"Alabama Dictionary"
.
www.lingtechcomm.unt.edu
. Retrieved
2023-03-08
.
- ^
Hook, Jonathan (1997).
The Alabama-Coushatta Indians
. Texas A&M University Press.
- ^
Mattox, Jim
(March 22, 1983).
"Opinion No. JM-17 Re: Enforcement of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code within the confines of the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation"
.
The Office of the Attorney General of Texas
. State of Texas. Paragraph 2. Archived from
the original
on 19 January 2016
. Retrieved
26 January
2015
.
The 'reservation' consists principally of two tracts located in Polk County. One of them, consisting of 1,280 acres, was purchased in several parcels for the Alabama Indians by the state government in 1854 and 1855. The purchase was authorized to honor a claim held by the Alabama tribe against the Republic of Texas. Acts 1854, 5th Leg., ch. 44, at 68; Acts 1840, 4th Congress of the Republic, at 197
- ^
Mattox, Jim
(March 22, 1983).
"Opinion No. JM-17 Re: Enforcement of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code within the confines of the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation"
.
The Office of the Attorney General of Texas
. Paragraph 11: State of Texas. p. 1. Archived from
the original
on 19 January 2016
. Retrieved
26 January
2015
.
It was not until 1928 that the federal government purchased the larger tract 'in trust for the Alabama and Coushatta Indians of Texas.' See Act of May 29, 1928, ch. 853, 45 Stat. 883, 900; 88 Deed Records of Polk County Texas 209 (1928)
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: location (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
d
Hardy 2005:83
Sources
[
edit
]
- Davis, Philip; Hardy, Heather (1988). "Absence of noun marking in Alabama".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
54
(3): 279?308.
doi
:
10.1086/466087
.
S2CID
145397345
.
- Hardy, Heather K. (2005). "Alabama". In Hardy, Heather K.; Scancarelli, Janine (eds.).
Native Languages of the Southeastern United States
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 75?113.
ISBN
0-8032-4235-2
.
- Hardy, Heather; Davis, Philip (1988). "Comparatives in Alabama".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
54
(2): 209?231.
doi
:
10.1086/466082
.
S2CID
144076045
.
- Hardy, Heather; Davis, Philip (1993). "Semantics of agreement in Alabama".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
59
(4): 453?472.
doi
:
10.1086/466214
.
S2CID
145425590
.
- Hardy, Heather;
Montler, Timothy
(1988). "Imperfective gemination in Alabama".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
54
(4): 399?415.
doi
:
10.1086/466094
.
S2CID
144053231
.
- Montler, Timothy; Hardy, Heather (1991). "Phonology of negation in Alabama".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
57
(1): 1?23.
doi
:
10.1086/ijal.57.1.3519711
.
S2CID
147850761
.
- Rand, Earl (1968). "Structural phonology of Alabaman, a Muskogean language".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
34
(2): 94?103.
doi
:
10.1086/465002
.
S2CID
145333066
.
- Sylestine, Cora; Hardy, Heather; Montler, Timothy (1993).
Dictionary of the Alabama Language
. Austin: University of Texas Press.
ISBN
0-292-73077-2
. Archived from
the original
on 2005-02-06.
External links
[
edit
]
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Italics
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