Creek language
| Creek | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mvskoke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spoken in | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Region | Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia and Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ethnicity | Muscogee people | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Native speakers | 6,213 (date missing) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language family | Muskogean
PhonologyThe phoneme inventory of Creek consists of thirteen consonants and three vowel qualities, which distinguish length and nasalization. In addition, Creek also makes use of the gemination of plosives, fricatives and sonorants. ConsonantsThe consonant phonemes of Creek are: PlosivesThere are four voiceless plosives in Creek: /p t t͡ʃ k/. /t͡ʃ/ is a voiceless palatal affricate that patterns as a single consonant, and therefore with the other voiceless stops. /t͡ʃ/ has an alveolar allophone [t͡s] before /k/. The obstruent consonants /p t t͡ʃ k/ are voiced to [b d d͡ʒ g] between sonorants and vowels, but remain voiceless at the end of a syllable.. Between instances of [o], or after [o] at the end of a syllable, the velar /k/ is realized as the uvular [q] or [ɢ]. For example:
FricativesThere are four voiceless fricatives in Creek: /f s ɬ h/. /f/ can be realized as either labiodental ([f]) or bilabial ([ɸ] in place of articulation. Predominantly among speakers in Florida, the articulation of /s/ is more laminal, resulting in /s/ being realized as [ʃ], though for most speakers /s/ is a voiceless apico-alveolar fricative [s]. Like /k/, the glottal /h/ is sometimes realized as the uvular [χ] when proceeded by [o] or when syllable-final. For example:
SonorantsThe sonorants in Creek consist of two nasals (/m/ and /n/), two semivowels (/w/ and /j/), and the lateral /l/, all voiced. Nasal assimilation occurs in Creek: /n/ becomes [ŋ] before /k/. Sonorants are devoiced when followed by /h/ in the same syllable. This results in a single voiceless consonant. For example:
GeminatesAll plosives and fricatives in Creek can be geminated (lengthened). Some sonorants may also be geminated, though [hh] and [mm] are less common than other sonorant geminates, especially in roots. For the majority of speakers, except for those influenced by the Alabama or Koasati languages, the geminate [ww] does not occur. VowelsThe vowel phonemes of Creek are as follows: Short VowelsThe three short vowels /i ɑ o/ can be realized as the lax and centralized ([ɪ ǝ ʊ]) when a neighboring consonant is coronal or in closed syllables. However, /ɑ/ will generally not centralize when followed by /h/ or /k/ in the same syllable, and /o/ will generally remain noncentral if word-final. Initial vowels can be deleted in Creek, mostly applying to the vowel /i/. This deletion will affect the pitch of the following syllable, creating a higher-than-expected pitch on the new initial syllable. Furthermore, initial vowel deletion in the case of single-morpheme, short words such as ifa ‘dog’ or icó ‘deer’ is impossible, since the shortest a Creek word can be is either a one-syllable word ending in a long vowel (fóː ‘bee’) or a two-syllable word ending with a short vowel (ací ‘corn’). Long VowelsThere are three long vowels in Creek (/iː ɑː oː/), which are held out slightly longer than short vowels, and which are never centralized. Long vowels are rarely followed by a sonorant in the same syllable. Therefore, when syllables are created (often from suffixation or contractions) in which a long vowel is followed by a sonorant, the vowel is shortened. For example:
DiphthongsIn Creek, there are three diphthongs which are generally realized as [əɪ ʊj əʊ]. Nasal VowelsBoth long and short vowels can be nasalized (cf. the distinction between acces and ącces below), though long nasal vowels are more common. Nasal vowels usually appear as a result of a contraction, as the result of a neighboring nasal consonant, or as a the result of nasalizing grade, a grammatical ablaut which indicates intensification through lengthening and nasalization of a vowel (likoth- ‘warm’ with the nasalizing grade intensifies the word to likŏ:th-os-i: ‘nice and warm’). Nasal vowels may also appear as part of a suffix which indicates a question (o:sk-ihá: ‘I wonder if it’s raining’). TonesThere 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.). OrthographyThe traditional Creek alphabet was adopted by the tribe in the late 1800s. 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: ConsonantsAs mentioned above, certain consonants in Creek, when appearing between two sonorants (a vowel or m, n, l, w, or y), become voiced. These are the consonants represented by p, t, k, c, and s. Thus: Vowel lengthWhile vowel length in Creek is distinctive, it is somewhat inconsistently indicated in the traditional orthography. The following basic correspondences can be noted: Non-standard orthographyCreek 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): Distinctive featuresSentence structureThe 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). VerbsIn Creek, a single verb can translate into an entire English sentence. The root infinitive form of the verb is altered for: Verbs with irregular pluralsSome 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 verbsAnother 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 prefixesPrefixes 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. PossessionIn 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: Transferrable nounsAll other nouns are possessed through separate set of prepositions. Locative nounsA 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. ExamplesLanguage programsThe College of the Muscogee Nation offers a Mvskoke language certificate program. Tulsa public schools, the University of Oklahoma and Glenpool Library in Tulsa and the Holdenville, Okmulgee, and Tulsa Creek Indian Communities of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation offer Muskogee Creek language classes. Seminole dialectsThe forms of Creek used by the Seminole of Oklahoma and Florida constitute separate dialects from that spoken by Muscogee people. Oklahoma Seminole speak a dialect known as Oklahoma Seminole Creek. Florida Seminole Creek is one of two languages spoken among Florida Seminoles; it is less common than the Miccosukee language. See alsoReferences
NotesExternal links
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creek_language&oldid=458666920 
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment