Apalachee language

Apalachee was a Muskogean language of Florida. It was closely related to Koasati and Alabama.^[1] Apalachee was found to belong to the same branch of the Muskogean family as Koasati, Alabama, and Hitchiti.^[2]

Apalachee
Native to	United States
Region	Florida
Ethnicity	Apalachee
Extinct	early 18th century
Language family	Muskogean Eastern Apalachee
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xap
Linguist List	xap
Glottolog	apal1237

The language is known primarily from one document, a letter written in 1688 to Charles II of Spain. Geoffrey Kimball has produced a grammatical sketch^[3] and a vocabulary of the language^[4] based on the contents of the letter.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	plain	p	t	tʃ	k ⟨c, g⟩
	voiced	b
Fricative	plain	f	s			h
	lateral		ɬ ⟨lz⟩
Approximant		w ⟨gu, w⟩	l	j ⟨y⟩

Orthography is only shown where it differs from the IPA.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i
Close-mid			o
Open		a

Vowels may also be elongated.

References

1. Broadwell, George A. (1992). Reconstructing Proto-Muskogean Language and Prehistory: Preliminary results. 3, en. 2. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.72.4700.
2. Haas, Mary R. (April 1949). "The Position of Apalachee in the Muskogean Family". International Journal of American Linguistics. 15 (2). University of Chicago Press: 121–127. doi:10.1086/464031.
3. Kimball, Geoffrey (April 1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Apalachee". International Journal of American Linguistics. 53 (2). University of Chicago Press: 136–174. doi:10.1086/466050. JSTOR 1265142.
4. Kimball, Geoffrey (October 1988). "An Apalachee Vocabulary". International Journal of American Linguistics. 54 (4). University of Chicago Press: 387–398. doi:10.1086/466093. JSTOR 1265100.

External links

• Apalachee Language Guide
• Facsimile of the 1688 Apalachee letter at the Internet Archive