Documentation:RelLex/A Dictionary of Creek/Muskogee: With Notes on the Florida and Oklahoma Seminole Dialects of Creek
A Dictionary of Creek/Muskogee: With Notes on the Florida and Oklahoma Seminole Dialects of Creek
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Language Name
Creek-Seminole.
Alternate Language Names
Creek, Mvskoke, Muscogee, Muskogee.
Region
Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, United States.
Who
Jack B. Martin (linguist, author); Margaret Mauldin (speaker, author).
Others Involved
Linda Alexander, Edna Bear, Rosie Billie, Abraham Bunny, George Bunny, Helen Bunny, Joanna Freeman, Felix Gouge, Juanita Harris, Toney Hill, Shula Jones, Willie Lena, Juanita McGirt, Walter McGirt, Lucy McKane, John Pigeon, Sarah Sampson, Alice Snow, Tim Thompson, Mary Lee Walker, Nettie Walker, Robert Washington (speakers/contributors); Joyce Bear, Hal Brightcloud, Aaron Broadwell, Alan Cook, Virginia Crowell, Jenniver Davis, Louise Gopher, Heather Hardy, Allen Harjo, Mekko Lewis, Mary Linn, Gloria and Michael McCarty, Jesse Mercer, Tim Montler, Pam Munro, Jessie Shore, David Skeeter, Tim Thompson, Madeline Tongkeamha, Akira Yamoto (unspecified assistance); Mary R. Haas, David Cline, Willem de Reuse, Bill Sturtevant (field notes); Don Hardy (assistance with older texts); Deanna Mauldin (illustrations); Oklahoma Native American Language Development Institute (orthographic assistance); Norman Tribbett, Louise Gopher, Jennie Shore, Sarah Sampson, Susan Stans (connections); Mary Frances Johns (vocabulary); Stuart Hannah (pilot survey); Doug Parks, Jeanette Nakada (editorial advice).
UCLA Linguistics Department, University of North Texas, the Whatcom Museum, Phillips Fund of the American Philosophical Society, College of William and Mary, National Endowment for the Humanities (funding).
Publishing Information
This dictionary was published in 2000 by the University of Nebraska Press.
The dictionary was published as a website in 2023 using SIL’s Webonary. The online version and is still in progress as of 2024.
How People are Cited
Speakers are cited with along with their dialect under Contributors. Editors and assistants are cited under Acknowledgements. Speaker initials are used in entries to indicate each speaker’s contributions.
How Information is Cited
Previous works and documentation referenced and used in the creation of this dictionary are cited under Sources in the Introduction. Speakers are cited under Contributors.
Where is Information Coming from
Many of the entries in this dictionary were compiled using existing and previously published Creek lexical materials, primarily materials compiled by Reverend Robert M. Loughridge and David M. Hodge which were originally published in the 1890 English and Muskokee Dictionary. The authors drew from previous documentation in Creek, translated with the help of speakers who also shared their own stories and words.
Tools and Framework used
This dictionary is available as a physical book and as a website with a simple search function.
Access
The physical book is available through libraries and the website is open access online.
Included Languages and Directionality
Creek-Seminole to English, English to Creek-Seminole.
Dialects Included
This dictionary includes Muskogee, Oklahoma Seminole, and Florida Seminole Creek. Dialects are marked with speakers under Contributors.
Type of Dictionary
This is a bilingual, bidirectional dictionary.
How are Entries Organised
The physical dictionary is organised into four main sections. Entries in all sections include both the common orthography (referred to as “canonical spelling”) and a transcription which uses a system developed specifically for Creek developed by Mary Haas (rather than IPA or another more widely used transcription system).
The first section is the Creek-English section, which is organised alphabetically by Creek headword. Grammatical information is noted in verb, adjective, and noun entries. Whether or not entries only appear in older sources is also notes in entries. English definitions are included in each entry. At the bottom of each page is a pronunciation guide for the letters used in Creek, with the Creek letter in bold, the IPA in forward slash brackets, and an English word with the described sound underlined.
Part two, Topical Information is a list of words organised by theme. Months, Days of the Week, Seasons, Common Clans, Traditional Dances, Books of the New Testament, Numbers, Age, and Principal Chiefs are organised in two columns with English on the left and Creek on the right. The organization of the Common Expressions section is reversed, with Creek on the left and English on the right.
Part three, Place Names, is organised alphabetically by Creek name, followed by the English description of the place and the source of the name from the bibliography.
Part four, English-Creek-Seminole, is organised alphabetically by English headword. Following each headword is a short definition and the Creek equivalent(s) in the common orthography, and the transcription system developed by Mary Haas.
There is also a section for common affixes in the Appendix, organised alphabetically by Creek. Each entry includes the English definition and a description of how it combines with root words. Following the Appendix are illustrations and photographs of important cultural objects and places.
The digital dictionary (Webonary) is searchable and can be filtered by first letter. Each entry contains the phonemic transcription, part of speech, English definition, as well as example sentences in some entries.
Other Features
| Feature | Included | More Information |
|---|---|---|
| Guide to use and understand | ✅ | In the Introduction |
| Audio | ❌ | |
| Images | ✅ | A map, photographs, and line drawings depict aspects of Creek culture |
| Example phrases | ❌ | Not includes in the physical dictionary, but are included in some entries in the digital dictionary |
| Speakers marked | ✅ | Speaker initials are used in entries to indicate each speaker’s contributions |
| Dialects marked | ❌ | No, but each speaker’s dialects is identified under Contributors |
Other Notes
This dictionary was digitized in 2023. As of 2024 the website is still listed as a rough draft, and does not seem to include as much information as the print dictionary.
External Links
Reference on WorldCat: https://www.worldcat.org/title/43561668
A review of this dictionary in 2002 by Edward Vajda in Language, vol. 78 no. 3 is open access on Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249903454_A_Dictionary_of_CreekMuskogee_with_Notes_on_the_Florida_and_Oklahoma_Seminole_Dialects_of_Creek_review
This review is also accessible on Project Muse with login credentials: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/19444/
A version of this dictionary open access online through Webonary: https://www.webonary.org/muscogee/