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Language commonalities of the Creeks
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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The Tamafi, so far as our knowledge of them extends, lived in southern Georgia near towns known to have belonged to the Hitchiti group, and they were among the first to move to Florida and lay the foundations of the Seminole Nation. In Spanish documents a tribe called Tama is mentioned which is almost certainly identical with this,5 and it may be inferred that the last syllable represents the Hitchiti plural -ali. These facts all point to a Hitchiti connection for the tribe. (Swanton) By some of the best-informed Creeks in Oklahoma I was told [Chiaha] was a dialect of Hitchiti, and that on account of the common language the Chiaha would not play against the Hitchiti in the tribal ball games, although they belonged to different fire clans, which ordinarily opposed each other at such times. (Swanton) The Tawasa Indians ultimately united with the Alabama, and the living Alabama Indians recall no differences between the languages of the two peoples. Moreover, Stiggins, writing early in the 18th century, gives certain episodes in the history of the Tawasa as if he were speaking of the whole of the Alabama.1 (Swanton) Still more ancient evidence is furnished by Lamhatty, a Tawasa, who was taken captive by the Creeks and made his way into the Virginia settlements in 1707. There the historian Robert Beverly met him and obtained from him an account of his travels and a rude map of the region which he had crossed in order to reach Virginia.2 While the ending of most river names, -oubdb, is identical with that which appears in Apalachee, the name of the Gulf of Mexico, Ouquodhj, is plainly the Oki hatki, "white water," of the Hitchiti, and is the name still applied by them to the ocean. (Swanton) The Pensacola disappear from history shortly after their appearance in it, and nothing of their language has been preserved. Their name, however, is plainly Choctaw and signifies "hair people." It may have been given to them because they wore their hair in a manner different from that of most of their neighbors, and Cabeza de Vaca mentions as a curious fact that several chiefs in a party of Indians he and his companions encountered near Pensacola Bay wore their hair long.8 When we recall Adair's statement to the effect that the Choctaw were called Pansfalaya, "long hair,"7 because of this very peculiarity a connection is at once suggested between the two peoples. (Swanton) The Muskhogean affinities of Yamasee have long been assumed by ethnologists, largely on the authority of Dr. Gatschet, but it can not be said that the evidence which he gives is satisfying.4 One of the words cited by him as proving this, Olataraca, is Timucua; another, yatiqui, is both Creek and Timucua; and most of the others are not certainly from Yamasee. The traditions of the Creeks are divided, some holding that the Yamasee language was related to theirs, others that it was entirely distinct. This last contention need not have much weight with us, however, because to a Creek Hitchiti is an "altogether different" language. From the statements of Spanish writers it is certain that the language spoken in their territories and those of the adjoining coast tribes, northward of Cumberland Island, was distinct from the Timucua of Cumberland Island and more southern regions. One province is called the "lengua de Guale," the other the "lengua de Timucua."5 (Swanton) Some supplementary evidence is furnished also by the place and personal names recorded from the Indians in this area, which will be found in the section on the Guale Indians and the Yamasee. The difference between these and Timucua names is apparent... The phonetic r does not appear, except in one case where it is plainly not an original sound, while/ and I, which are foreign to the eastern Siouan dialects, are much in evidence. Besides, m appears to occur in the Guale language at least—Tumaque, Altamahaw, Tolomato, Tamufa, Ymunapa—while it is wanting in Yuchi. (Swanton) Talaxe (pronounced Talashe) (Swanton)
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