Alabama
Albaamo innaaɬiilka
Sign on the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation with phrase "On ti chuka" meaning "welcome"
Native toUnited States
RegionCurrently in Texas, Formerly in Oklahoma and Alabama
EthnicityAlabama
Native speakers
approx. 370 (2015 census)[1]
Muskogean
Language codes
ISO 639-3akz
Glottologalab1237
ELPAlabama
Alabama is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Alabama, also known as Alibamu,[2] (Alabama: Albaamo innaaɬiilka)[3] is a Native American language, spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas.[4] 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

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 km2) for the Alabamas. Although money was appropriated to buy 640 acres (2.6 km2) 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 km2) in Polk County.[6] The following year, 640 acres (2.6 km2), 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

Consonants

There are fourteen consonant phonemes in Alabama:[8]

Labial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Stop p b t tʃ k
Fricative f s ɬ h
Approximant w l j

/s/ is apico-alveolar, [s̺]. The voiceless stops /p t k/ are typically fortis and unlike in many other Southeastern languages they are not voiced between vowels. All consonants can occur geminated.[9] The post-alveolar affricate /tʃ/ is realized as [s] when it occurs as the first member of a consonant cluster and the geminate is realized as [ttʃ]. 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

There are three vowel qualities, /i o a/. Vowel length is distinctive. Vowels can be nasalized in certain morphological contexts.[9]

Prosody

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.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Alabama at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018) Closed access icon
  2. ↑ "Ethnologue report for language code: akz". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
  3. ↑ "Alabama Dictionary". www.lingtechcomm.unt.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  4. ↑ Hardy 2005:75
  5. ↑ Hook, Jonathan. The Alabama-Coushatta Indians. Texas A&M University Press, 1997.
  6. ↑ 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 2: State of Texas. p. 1. 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  7. ↑ 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)
  8. ↑ Hardy 2005:82
  9. 1 2 3 4 Hardy 2005:83
  10. ↑ Hardy 2005:83-84

Sources

  • Davis, Philip; & Hardy, Heather. (1988). Absence of noun marking in Alabama. International Journal of American Linguistics, 54 (3), 279–308. doi:10.1086/466087.
  • Hardy, Heather K. (2005). Hardy, Heather K.; Janine Scancarelli, eds. "Alabama". 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.
  • Hardy, Heather (2005). Native Languages of the Southeastern United States. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 82–84. ISBN 0-8032-4235-2.
  • Hardy, Heather; & Davis, Philip. (1993). Semantics of agreement in Alabama. International Journal of American Linguistics, 59 (4), 453–472. doi:10.1086/466214.
  • Hardy, Heather; & Montler, Timothy. (1988). Imperfective gemination in Alabama. International Journal of American Linguistics, 54 (4), 399–415. doi:10.1086/466094
  • 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.
  • Rand, Earl. (1968). Structural phonology of Alabaman, a Muskogean language. International Journal of American Linguistics, 34 (2), 94–103. doi:10.1086/465002.
  • 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.
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