什麼是穆斯科格諸語言

大約有八個北美洲印第安人所使用之語言，或先前在橫跨大部分今日美國東南部地區所使用之語言所構成的語族。16世紀，今天的阿拉巴馬州北部所使用語言可能是柯沙提（Koasati，又稱Coushatta）和阿拉巴馬語（Alabama）；阿拉巴馬和喬治亞則使用克里克語（Creek，又稱Muskogee）和希欺提語（Hitchiti）；在佛羅里達的狹長地帶（Panhandle）則使用阿帕拉契語（Apalachee）。在西邊，密西西比的北部與田納西的北部，則使用奇克索（Chickasaw）；密西西比中部則使用喬克託（Choctaw）。在19世紀之前，阿帕拉契語已滅絕許久；1830年的強迫遷移（參閱Trail of Tears）更是迫使大多數僅存的、使用穆斯科格語的人或着進入密西西比的西部，或着進入佛羅里達。在佛羅里達，塞米諾爾人（Seminoles）繼續在佛羅里達中部使用克里克的方言，以及在沼澤地（Miccosukee）使用密卡蘇奇（Mikasuki）。現存的穆斯科格語仍持續有人在使用，至少是成年人；其中在奧克拉荷馬與密西西比，使用喬克託的人數最爲龐大。

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.