Creek language

Creek
Mvskoke
Spoken in	United States
Region	Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia and Florida
Total speakers	6,213 [1]
Language family	Muskogean Eastern Muskogean Creek
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	mus
ISO 639-3	mus
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Creek language, also known as Muskogee^[2] or Muscogee (Mvskoke in Creek), is a Muskogean language spoken by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Kialegee Tribal Town, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and other Muskogean peoples.

Phonology

The phonology of Creek consists of thirteen consonants and four vowel qualities, which distinguish length and nasalization:^[3]

Consonant phonemes

The affricate here written /tʃ/ varies in its place of articulation between alveolar [ts] and palatal [tʃ]. The obstruent consonants /p t k tʃ s/ are voiced between sonorants, to [b d ɡ dʒ z].

Vowels

In addition, there are three diphthongs: /eɪ/, /oɪ/, and /aʊ/ (generally realized as [əɪ oɪ əʊ]).^[4][5] Vowels can be nasalized (cf. the distinction between acces and ącces below); nevertheless Johnson & Martin (2001) do not list nasalized vowels as distinctive. The short vowels /i o a/ are subject to centralization in closed syllables, to approximately [ɪ ɔ ə].^[6]

Tones

There are three phonemic tones in Creek, which are generally unmarked, except in the linguistic orthography: high (marked in the linguistic orthography with an acute accent: á, etc.), low (unmarked: a, etc.), and falling (marked with a circumflex: â, etc.).

Orthography

The traditional Creek alphabet was adopted by the tribe in the late 1800s.^[7] There are 20 letters. Although it is based on the Latin alphabet, some of the sounds are vastly different from those in English — in particular those represented by c, e, i, r, and v. Here are the (approximately) equivalent sounds using familiar English words and the IPA:

There are also three vowel sequences with distinct spellings:^[8]

Consonants

As mentioned above, certain consonants in Creek, when appearing between two sonorants (a vowel or m, n, l, w, or y), become voiced.^[7] These are the consonants represented by p, t, k, c, and s. Thus:

• c can sound like [dʒ], the "j" in just
• k can sound like [ɡ], the "g" in goat
• p can sound like [b], the "b" in boat
• s can sound like [z], the "z" in zoo
• t can sound like [d], the "d" in dust

In addition, certain combinations of consonants sound differently to English speakers, giving multiple possible transcriptions. The most prominent case is the 2nd person singular ending for verbs. Wiketv means "to stop"; the verb for "you are stopping" may be written in Creek as wikeckes or wiketskes. Both are pronounced the same. The -eck- transliteration is preferred by Innes (2004), while the -etsk- transliteration has been used by Martin (2000) and Loughridge (1964).

Vowel Length

While vowel length in Creek is distinctive, it is somewhat inconsistently indicated in the traditional orthography. The following basic correspondences can be noted:

• The short vowel v with the long vowel a (/a/ vs. /aː/)
• The short vowel e with the long vowel ē (/i/ vs. /iː/)
• The short vowel u with the long vowel o (/o/ vs. /oː/)

However, these correspondences do not always apply,^[9] and in some words, short /a/ is spelled a, long /iː/ is spelled e, and short /o/ is spelled o.

Non-Standard Orthography

Creek words carry distinctive tones, and nasalization of their vowels. These features are not marked in the traditional orthography, only in dictionaries and linguistic publications. The following additional markers have been used by Martin (2000) and Innes (2004):

• Falling tone in a syllable is shown using a circumflex. In English, falling tone is found in phrases such as "uh oh" or commands such as "stop!". In Creek, however, changing a verb such as acces ("she is putting on (a dress)") to âcces alters the meaning from one of process to one of state ("she is wearing (a dress).")
• Nasalization of a vowel is shown with an ogonek under the vowel. Changing the verb acces to ącces adds the imperfective aspect, that is, a sense of repeated or habitual action ("she kept putting on (that same dress)").
• The key syllable of a word is often shown with an accent mark. This is the last syllable of the word with normal tone; the following syllables are all lower in pitch.

Distinctive Features of the Language

Sentence Structure

The general sentence structure fits the pattern "subject, object, verb". The subject or object may be a noun or a noun followed by one or more adjectives. Adverbs tend to occur either at the beginning of the sentence (for time adverbs) or immediately before the verb (for manner adverbs).

Verbs

In Creek, a single verb can translate into an entire English sentence. The root infinitive form of the verb is altered for:

• Person (of subject). Letketv = to run.
  • Letkis. = I am running.
  • Letkeckes. (or Letketskes.)= You are running.
  • Letkes. = He / She is running.
  • Plural forms can be a bit more complicated (see below).

• Family.
  • Erke. = Father. (Ith-Key)
  • Ecke. = Mother. (Itch-Key)
  • Pauwv. = Uncle. (Bow-wah)
  • Eckuce. = Aunt. (Itch-go-jee)
  • Puca. = Grandpa. (Boo-jah)
  • Puse. = Grandma. (Bo-see)
  • Cepane. = Boy. (Gee-bonnie)
  • Hoktuce. = Girl. (Hook-to-jee)

• Creek Alphabet.

A-ahh, C-g, E-ih (short), E-ee (long), F-fe (same as english), H-he (same as english), I-a, K-ke (same as english), L-le (same as english), M-me (same as english), N-ne (same as english), O-oh, P-b, R-th, S-see (same as english), T-d, U-ooe (ooh-ee), V-uh, W-we (same as english), Y-yay

• Person (of direct or indirect object). This is accomplished with prefixes. Hecetv = to see.
  • Cvhēcis = I see you.
  • Cehēceckes. = You see me.
  • Hvtvm Cehēcares. = I will see you again. (Huh-Dum-Jee-He-Jaw-thes)

• Tense. Pohetv = to hear.
  • Pohis. = I am hearing (present).
  • Pohhis. = I just heard (1st or immediate past; within a day ago).
  • Pohvhanis. = I am going to hear.
  • Pohares. = I will hear.
  • Pohiyunks. = I heard recently (2nd or middle past, within a week ago).
  • Pohimvts. = I heard (3rd or distant past, within a year ago).
  • Pohicatēs. = Long ago I heard. (4th or remote past, beyond a year ago).
  • There are at least ten more tenses, including perfect versions of the above, as well as future, indefinite, and pluperfect tenses.

• Mood. Wiketv = to stop.
  • Wikes. = He / She is stopping (indicative).
  • Wikvs. = Stop! (imperative)
  • Wikv-wites. = He / She may stop (potential).
  • Wike-nomat. = If he / she stops (subjunctive).
  • Wikepueces. = He / She made someone stop (causative).

• Aspect. Kerretv = to learn.
  • Kērris. = I am learning (progressive, ongoing or in progress).
  • Kêrris. = I know (resulting state).
  • Kęrris. = I keep learning (imperfect, habitual or repeated action).
  • Kerîyis. = I just learned (action completed in the past).

• Voice.
  • Wihkis. = I just stopped (active voice, 1st past).
  • Cvwihokes. = I was just stopped (passive voice, 1st past).

• Negatives.
  • Wikarēs. = I will stop (positive, future tense).
  • Wikakarēs. = I will not stop (negative, future tense).

• Questions. Hompetv = to eat; nake = what.
  • Hompeckes. = You are eating.
  • Hompeckv? = Are you eating? (expecting a yes or no answer)
  • Nake hompecka? = What are you eating? (expecting a long answer)

Verbs with Irregular Plurals

Some Creek verbs, especially those involving motion, have highly irregular plurals. For example, letketv = to run, with a singular subject. However, tokorketv = to run of two subjects, and pefatketv = to run of three or more.

Stative Verbs

Another entire class of Creek verbs are the stative verbs. These verbs express no action, imply no duration, and provide only description of a static condition. In some languages, such as English, these are expressed as adjectives. In Creek, the verbs behave similar to adjectives, yet are classed and treated as verbs. However, these verbs are not altered for the person of the subject by an affix, as above; instead, the prefix changes.

Example: Enokkē = to be sick; enokkēs = he / she is sick; cvnokkēs = I'm sick; cenokkēs = you are sick.

Locative Prefixes

Prefixes are also used in Creek for shades of meaning of verbs which are expressed in English through adverbs in phrasal verbs. For example, in English, the verb to go can be changed to to go up, to go in, to go around, and other variations. In Mvskoke, the same principle of shading a verb's meaning is handled by locative prefixes:

Example: vyetv = to go (singular subjects only, see above); ayes = I am going; ak-ayes = I am going (in water / in a low place / under something); tak-ayes = I am going (on the ground); oh-ayes = I am going (on top of something).

However, for verbs of motion, Creek also has a large selection of verbs with specific meaning: ossetv = to go out; ropottetv = to go though.

Possession

In some other languages, a special form of the noun, the genitive case, is used to show possession. This process is handled in two fundamentally different ways in Creek, depending on the nature of the noun.

Nouns in Fixed Relationships (Inalienable possession)

A body part or family member cannot be discussed in Creek without mentioning the possessor; it is an integrated part of the word. A set of changeable prefixes serves this function:

• enke = his / her hand;
• cvnke = my hand;
• cenke = your hand;
• punke = our hand.

Even if the possessor is mentioned specifically, the prefix still must be part of the word, for example, Toske enke = Toske's hand. This is not redundant in Creek (e.g. "Toske's his hand").

Transferrable Nouns

All other nouns are possessed through separate set of prepositions.

• efv = dog;
• vm efv = my dog;
• cem efv = your dog;
• em efv = his / her dog;
• pum efv = our dog.

Again, even though the construction in English would be redundant, the proper way to form the possessive in Creek must include the correct preposition. For example, Toske em efv = Toske's dog. This is grammatically correct in Creek, unlike the literal English translation "Toske's his dog".

Locative Nouns

A final distinctive feature of Creek, tied to the above, is the existence of locational nouns. In English, we have prepositions to indicate location, for example, behind, around, beside, and so on. In Creek, these locations are actually nouns. These are possessed just like parts of the body and family members were above.

• cuko = house; yopv = noun for "behind"; cuko yopv = behind the house; cvyopv = behind me; ceyopv = behind you.
• lecv = under; eto = tree; eto lecv = under the tree.
• tempe = near; cvtempe = near me; cetempe = near you; putempe = near us.

See also

Creek language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Creek people
• Creek mythology

References

• Hardy, Donald E. (2005). "Creek". in Hardy, Heather K.; Scancarelli, Janine. Native Languages of the Southeastern United States. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 200-245. 
• Johnson, Keith; Martin, Jack (2001). "Acoustic Vowel Reduction in Creek: Effects of Distinctive Length and Position in the Word" (PDF). Phonetica 58: 81-102. http://corpus.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~kjohnson/papers/vow_reduct.pdf. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
• Innes, Pamela; Linda Alexander, Bertha Tilkens (2004). Beginning Creek: Mvskoke Emponvkv. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3583-2. 
• Loughridge, R.M.; David M. Hodge (1964). Dictionary Muskogee and English. Okmulgee, OK: Baptist Home Mission Board. 
• Martin, Jack B.; Margaret McKane Maudlin (2000). A Dictionary of Creek/Muskogee. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8302-4. 

Notes

External links

• The Creek Language Archive. This site includes a draft of a Creek textbook, which may be downloaded in .pdf format (Pum Opunvkv, Pun Yvhiketv, Pun Fulletv: Our Language, Our Songs, Our Ways by Margaret Mauldin, Jack Martin, and Gloria McCarty).
• Comprehensive Creek Language materials online.
• The official website for the Muskogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma
• Ethnologue report for Creek
• Acoustic vowel reduction in Creek: Effects of distinctive length and position in the word (pdf)

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