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Creek language
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The Creek language, also known as 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 Muscogeean peoples.
e 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.
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Encyclopedia
The Creek language, also known as 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 Muscogeean peoples.
Orthography
The traditional Creek alphabet was adopted by the tribe in the late 1800s (Innes 2004).
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 IPA.
- a, , as in father.
- c, , like the "ch" such.
- e, , like the "i" in hit.
- e, , like the "ee" in seed.
- f, , as in father.
- h, , as in hatch.
- i, , like the "ay" in day, but really more of a pure vowel like Spanish language "e".
- k, , like the "k" in risk.
- l, , as in look.
- m, , as in moon.
- n, , as in moon.
- o, or , which can be short like "oo" in book, or long like "o" in bone.
- p, , as in spot.
- r, , a sound which does not occur in English. This is often represented as "hl" or "tlh" in non-Creek texts. The sound is made by blowing air around the sides of the tongue while pronouncing English "l"; identical to Welsh ll.
- s, , as in spot.
- t, , like the "t" in spot.
- u, or , essentially the same sound as that given for short o, above.
- v, , like the English schwa sound: "a" in about or the second "o" in common.
- w, , as in wet.
- y, , as in yet.
There are only three major diphthongs in written Mvskoke:
- ue, like the "oy" in boy.
- vo, like the "aw" in hawk.
- eu, which is simply the Creek short e sound blended smoothly into the Creek u sound.
There are no silent letters in Creek; everything is pronounced.
Consonants
Four consonants in Mvskoke are slightly different from what English speakers would expect, being unaspirated and unvoiced. When placed between two voiced sounds or at the beginning of a word, they can sound slightly different (Innes 2004).
- c can sound like , the "j" in just.
- k can sound like , the "g" in goat. If this is true Koke may mean Kooge ("lake" in Frisian).
- p can sound like , the "b" in boat.
- t can sound like , 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
A key point in Mvskoke is the length of vowels. Generally speaking,
vowels come in long and short pairs; alteration of this vowel sound is
the basis for many changes in meaning, for example, alteration of
verb tense,
mood, and
aspect. The vowel pairs are:
- The short vowel v with the long vowel a.
- The short vowel e with the long vowel e.
- The short vowel u with the long vowel o.
Unfortunately, in written Mvskoke, sometimes the traditional
spelling for a word is written using a when the actual
vowel is v; similarly, o is used in some spellings
where a u sound is pronounced. For instance, Martin (2000)
points out that kono (skunk) might also be found as kunu;
in either case, the correct pronunciation is close to the English
words cook nook without the k's.
Non-Standard Orthography
Creek words may have specific tone and nasalization of their vowels.
These additional qualities are not given in the standard orthography, only in dictionaries.
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 only really found in phrases such as uh oh. 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 given by an ogonek under the vowel. Changing the verb acces to acces 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).
- Person (of direct or indirect object). This is accomplished with prefixes. Hecetv = to see.
- Cvhecis = I see you.
- Cehececkes. = You see me.
- 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).
- Pohicates. = 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.
- Kerris. = I am learning (progressive, ongoing or in progress).
- Kêrris. = I know (resulting state).
- Kerris. = 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.
- Wikares. = I will stop (positive, future tense).
- Wikakares. = 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: Enokke = to be sick;
enokkes = he / she is sick;
cvnokkes = I'm sick;
cenokkes = you are sick.
Locative Prefixes
Prefixes are also used in Creek for shades of meaning of verbs
which are expressed in English using preposition stranding.
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.
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.
Phonology
The phonology of Creek seems to be: , ,
is spelled , is spelled , and /j/ is spelled .
Creek has three diphthongs: /ej ow aw/. Vowels can be nasalized (cf the distinction in acces vs acces above); nevertheless Johnson and Martin (2001) do not list nasalized vowels as distinctive. Nasalized vowels are indicated using an ogonek underneath: , , , etc. There are three tones: high (marked with an acute: á), low (unmarked: a), and falling (marked with a circumflex: â). Short vowels /i o a/ are subject to centralization, to around . The orthographical conventions discussed here are those used primarily by linguists, and not necessarily the traditional orthographies.
See also
External links
- The . This site includes a draft of a Creek textbook, which may be in .pdf format (Pum Opunvkv, Pun Yvhiketv, Pun Fulletv: Our Language, Our Songs, Our Ways by Margaret Mauldin, Jack Martin, and Gloria McCarty).
- Comprehensive materials online.
- The official website for the
-
- (pdf)
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