The Mikasuki language is a Muskogean language spoken by around 290 people in southern Florida. Along with Creek, it is also known as Seminole. It is spoken by the Miccosukee tribe and many Florida Seminole. The extinct Hitchiti was a mutually-intelligible dialect. The Seminole and Miccosukee were made up of mostly Creek members of the Creek Confederacy, who had migrated to Florida under pressure from European-American encroachment. The Seminole formed by a process of ethnogenesis in the 18th century. American settlers began to enter Florida and came into conflict with the Seminole. The Seminole Wars of the 19th century greatly depleted the numbers of these tribes, specifically the Second Seminole War. The United States forcibly removed many Seminole to Indian Territory. The Seminole and Miccosukee had gradually moved into the center of Florida and the Everglades, from where they resisted defeat even in the Third Seminole War. The US gave up efforts against them. In the 20th century, the Seminole and Miccosukee split apart, with the former moving onto reservations. The Miccosukee lived in communities that were affected by the early 20th-century construction of the Tamiami Trail, which brought tourists into the Everglades. The Miccosukee achieved federal recognition as a tribe in 1962. Both tribes have speakers of Mikasuki today. As of 2002, the language was taught in the local school, which had "an area devoted to 'Miccosukee Language Arts'". As of 2011, the University of Florida Department of Anthropology is home to the Elling Eide Endowed Professorship in Miccosukee Language and Culture, for Native American languages of the southeastern United States. Presentations in the language have been featured at the Florida Folk Festival.
Phonology
There are three tones: high, low and falling. Vowel length is distinctive: eche vs eeche , ete vs eete . These phonemes are based on Sylvia Boynton's Outline of Mikasuki Grammar.
Grammar
Nouns are marked with suffixes for various functions, some examples:
Free pronouns exist but are rarely used. Verb suffixes are the usual way of marking person.
Alphabet
Mikasuki is written using the Latin alphabet. The vowels are pronounced as follows:
Letter
Sound
a, aa
,
a, aa
,
e, ee
,
e, ee
,
o, oo
,
o, oo
;
ay
ao
The consonants are:
Letter
Sound
b
ch
f
h
k
l
ł
m
n
ng
p
sh
t
w
y
High tone is indicated with an acute accent, low tone with a grave accent, and falling tone with an acute accent followed by a grave accent. A long vowel with falling tone is represented by two accented vowel letters. When the vowel is short, the grave accent is placed over the next consonant : An epenthetic vowel appears in kl, kw and kn clusters in careful speech.
