Editing Muskogean languages (section)

==Genetic relationships==

===Family division===
The Muskogean family consists of [[Alabama language|Alabama]], [[Chickasaw language|Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw language|Choctaw]], [[Creek language|Muscogee]] (or Creek), [[Koasati language|Koasati]], [[Apalachee language|Apalachee]], and [[Mikasuki language|Hitchiti-Mikasuki]].<ref>Jack B. Martin. "Muskogean" ''The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America'' Vol. 13.2 (2023) p. 1577–1600</ref> [[Hitchiti]] is generally considered a dialect of Mikasuki.<ref>Hardy 2005, p. 69</ref> "Seminole" is sometimes used for a dialect of Muscogee spoken in Oklahoma.<ref>(Hardy 2005: 70; see also Mithun 2005: 462, Martin 2023).</ref>

The major subdivisions of the family have long been controversial, but the following lower-level groups are universally accepted: Choctaw–Chickasaw, Alabama–Koasati, Hitchiti–Mikasuki, and Muscogee.<ref>Broadwell 1992, p. 1</ref><ref>Hardy 2005, p. 70</ref><ref>Martin & Munro 2005, p. 299</ref> Apalachee is [[Language death|no longer spoken]]; its precise relationship to the other languages is uncertain, but [[Mary Haas]] and [[Pamela Munro]] both classify it with the Alabama–Koasati group.<ref>Broadwell 1992, pp. 3; 41–42, footnote 2</ref>

====Haas's classification====
For connections among these groupings, one influential classification is that of Mary Haas and Karen Booker, in which "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw) is seen as one major branch, and "Eastern Muskogean" (Alabama-Koasati, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, and Muscogee) as another. Within Eastern Muskogean, Alabama-Koasati and Hitchiti-Mikasuki are generally thought to be more closely related to each other than to Muscogee.<ref name="H2005classification">Hardy 2005, pp. 70-71</ref> That classification is reflected in the list below:<ref>Mithun 2005, p. 461</ref><ref>Campbell 1997, p. 147</ref><ref>Martin, Jack B. 2004. ''Languages. Handbook of North American Indians''. "The Southeast". Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian.</ref>

{{tree list}}
* '''Muskogean'''
** Western Muskogean
*** '''[[Chickasaw language|Chickasaw]]'''
*** '''[[Choctaw language|Choctaw]]''' (also called Chahta, Chacato)
** Eastern Muskogean
*** '''[[Creek language|Muscogee]]''' (also called Muskogee, Maskoke, Mvskoke, Seminole, and Creek)
*** '''[[Mikasuki language|Hitchiti-Mikasuki]]''' (also called Miccosukee)
*** Apalachee–Alabama–Koasati
**** '''[[Apalachee language|Apalachee]]''' {{extinct}}
**** '''[[Alabama language|Alabama]]''' (also called Alibamu)
**** '''[[Koasati language|Koasati]]''' (also called Coushatta)
{{tree list/end}}

====Munro's classification====
A different classification has been proposed by [[Pamela Munro]]. In her classification, the languages are divided into a "Southern Muskogean" branch (Choctaw-Chickasaw, Alabama-Koasati, and Hitchiti-Mikasuki) and a "Northern Muskogean" one (Muscogee). Southern Muskogean is then subdivided into Hitchiti-Mikasuki and a "Southwestern Muskogean" branch containing Alabama-Koasati and "Western Muskogean" (Choctaw-Chickasaw).<ref name="H2005classification" /> The classification is reflected in the list below:<ref name="C1997pg148">Campbell 1997, p. 148</ref>

{{tree list}}
* '''Muskogean'''
** Northern Muskogean
*** '''[[Creek language|Muscogee]]'''
** Southern Muskogean
*** '''[[Mikasuki language|Hitchiti-Mikasuki]]'''
*** Southwestern Muskogean
**** '''[[Apalachee language|Apalachee]]''' {{extinct}}
**** ''Alabama–Koasati''
***** '''[[Alabama language|Alabama]]'''
***** '''[[Koasati language|Koasati]]'''
**** ''Western Muskogean''
***** '''[[Chickasaw language|Chickasaw]]'''
***** '''[[Choctaw language|Choctaw]]'''
{{tree list/end}}

===Broader relationships===
====Possible Muskogean languages====
Several sparsely attested languages have been claimed to be Muskogean languages. George Broadwell suggested that the languages of the [[Yamasee]] and [[Guale]] were Muskogean.<ref name="Campbell149">Campbell 1997, p. 149</ref><ref>Broadwell 1992, pp. 41–42, fn. 2</ref> However, William Sturtevant argued that the "Yamasee" and "Guale" data were Muscogee and that the language(s) spoken by the Yamasee and Guale people remain unknown.<ref>Sturtevant 1994, referenced in Campbell 1997, p. 149</ref> It is possible that the Yamasee were an amalgamation of several different ethnic groups and did not speak a single language. Chester B. DePratter describes the Yamasee as consisting mainly of speakers of Hitchiti and Guale.<ref>{{NRHP url|id=64500575|title=Dr. Chester B. DePratter, "The Foundation, Occupation, and Abandonment of Yamasee Indian Towns in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1684–1715"}}, National Register Multiple Property Submission</ref> The historian Steven Oatis also describes the Yamasee as an ethnically mixed group that included people from Muskogean-speaking regions, such as the early colonial-era native towns of ''Hitchiti'', ''Coweta'', and ''Cussita''.<ref>{{cite book |last= Oatis |first= Steven J. |title= A Colonial Complex: South Carolina's Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1680–1730 |year= 2004 |publisher= University of Nebraska Press |isbn= 0-8032-3575-5}}</ref>

The [[Amacano people|Amacano]], [[Chacato]], [[Chine people|Chine]], Pacara, and [[Pensacola people|Pensacola]] people, who lived along the Gulf Coast of Florida from the [[Big Bend Coast]] to [[Pensacola Bay]], are reported to have spoken the same Muskogean language, which may have been closely related to Choctaw.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hann |first=John H. |title=The Native American World Beyond Apalachee |publisher=University Press of Florida |year=2006 |isbn=9-780-8130-2982-5 |pages=11, 20–21, 24, 43}}</ref><ref>Milanich:95, 96</ref><ref>Coker:6</ref><ref>Swanton:136</ref>

Sparse evidence indicates that a Muskogean language was spoken by at least some of the people of the paramount chiefdom of [[Cofitachequi]] in northeastern [[South Carolina]]. If so, that would be the most eastern outpost of Muskogean. The people of Cofitichequi were probably absorbed by nearby [[Siouan]] and [[Iroquoian]] speakers in the late 17th century.<ref>Hudson, Charles ''The Juan Pardo Expeditions'' Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990, pp. 68–73, 75</ref>

A vocabulary of the [[Houma Tribe|Houma]] may be another underdocumented Western Muskogean language or a version of [[Mobilian Jargon]], a pidgin based on Western Muskogean.

====Gulf====
{{main|Gulf languages}}
The best-known connection proposed between Muskogean and other languages is [[Mary Haas]]' [[Gulf languages|Gulf hypothesis]], in which she conceived of a macrofamily comprising Muskogean and a number of [[language isolate]]s of the southeastern US: [[Atakapa language|Atakapa]], [[Chitimacha language|Chitimacha]], [[Tunica language|Tunica]], and [[Natchez language|Natchez]]. While well-known, the Gulf grouping is now generally rejected by historical linguists.<ref name="Campbell149" /><ref>Campbell 1997, pp. 305–09</ref> Some Muskogean scholars continue to believe that Muskogean is related to Natchez.<ref>Campbell 1997, p. 305</ref>