穆斯科格诸语言

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大约有八个北美洲印第安人所使用之语言,或先前在横跨大部分今日美国东南部地区所使用之语言所构成的语族。16世纪,今天的阿拉巴马州北部所使用语言可能是柯沙提(Koasati,又称Coushatta)和阿拉巴马语(Alabama);阿拉巴马和乔治亚则使用克里克语(Creek,又称Muskogee)和希欺提语(Hitchiti);在佛罗里达的狭长地带(Panhandle)则使用阿帕拉契语(Apalachee)。在西边,密西西比的北部与田纳西的北部,则使用奇克索(Chickasaw);密西西比中部则使用乔克托(Choctaw)。在19世纪之前,阿帕拉契语已灭绝许久;1830年的强迫迁移(参阅Trail of Tears)更是迫使大多数仅存的、使用穆斯科格语的人或着进入密西西比的西部,或着进入佛罗里达。在佛罗里达,塞米诺尔人(Seminoles)继续在佛罗里达中部使用克里克的方言,以及在沼泽地(Miccosukee)使用密卡苏奇(Mikasuki)。现存的穆斯科格语仍持续有人在使用,至少是成年人;其中在奥克拉荷马与密西西比,使用乔克托的人数最为庞大。

Muskogean languages

Family of about eight North American Indian languages spoken or formerly spoken across much of what is now the southeastern U.S. In the 16th century, Koasati (Coushatta) and Alabama were probably spoken in what is now northern Alabama, Creek (Muskogee) and Hitchiti in Alabama and Georgia, and Apalachee in the Florida Panhandle. To the west were Chickasaw in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee and Choctaw in central Mississippi. By the mid-19th century, Apalachee was long extinct, and the forced removals of the 1830s (see Trail of Tears) had pushed most of the remaining Muskogean-speakers either west of the Mississippi or into Florida, where the Seminoles continue to speak a dialect of Creek in central Florida and Mikasuki (Miccosukee) in the Everglades. The extant Muskogean languages continue to be spoken, at least by adults, with Choctaw (in Oklahoma and Mississippi) having the most speakers.