Alabama language

Alabama
Albaamo innaaɬiilka
Sign on the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation with phrase "On ti chuka" meaning "welcome"
Native to	United States
Region	Currently in Texas, Formerly in Oklahoma and Alabama
Ethnicity	Alabama
Native speakers	approx. 370 (2015 census)
Language family	Muskogean Eastern Alabama–Koasati Alabama
Language codes
ISO 639-3	akz
Glottolog	alab1237
ELP	Alabama
Alabama is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

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

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 (5.2 km²) in Polk County. 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; 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.

	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. 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]. 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.

Vowels

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

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.

Revitalization Efforts

Since January 2024, the Alabama–Coushatta Tribe of Texas has engaged in a revitalization and documentation effort in partnership with the WOLF (Working on Language in the Field) Lab at Harvard University, with a five-year goal "to document the language, study its grammar and lexicon, and produce educational resources for the Alabama-Coushatta community."

Sources

• Brennan, Maeve (2024-03-02). "'I Want People to Know It': Ava E. Silva '27 Works to Preserve the Alabama Language". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2024-11-22.
• Davis, Philip; Hardy, Heather (1988). "Absence of noun marking in Alabama". International Journal of American Linguistics. 54 (3): 279–308. doi:10.1086/466087. S2CID 145397345.
• Hardy, Heather K. (2005). "Alabama". In Hardy, Heather K.; Scancarelli, Janine (eds.). 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. S2CID 144076045.
• Hardy, Heather; Davis, Philip (1993). "Semantics of agreement in Alabama". International Journal of American Linguistics. 59 (4): 453–472. doi:10.1086/466214. S2CID 145425590.
• Hardy, Heather; Montler, Timothy (1988). "Imperfective gemination in Alabama". International Journal of American Linguistics. 54 (4): 399–415. doi:10.1086/466094. S2CID 144053231.
• 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. S2CID 147850761.
• Rand, Earl (1968). "Structural phonology of Alabaman, a Muskogean language". International Journal of American Linguistics. 34 (2): 94–103. doi:10.1086/465002. S2CID 145333066.
• 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.

External links

• Online Alabama-English-Alabama Dictionary
• Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
• Chíkmàa Oolahomma! – How to say "hello" in Alabama
• OLAC resources in and about the Alabama language