Tawasa is an extinct

Native American language The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of non-Indigenous peoples. Over a thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now e ...

. Ostensibly the language of the Tawasa people of what is now

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, it is known exclusively through a word list attributed to a Tawasa named Lamhatty, collected in 1707.

John Swanton John Reed Swanton (February 19, 1873 – May 2, 1958) was an American anthropologist, folklorist, and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethn ...

studied the Lamhatty word list and identified the language as a

Timucuan The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...

dialect, suggesting it was intermediary between Timucua and

Muskogean Muskogean ( ; also Muskhogean) is a language family spoken in the Southeastern United States. Members of the family are Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Typologically, Muskogean languages are highly synthetic and agglutinative. One docume ...

. This opinion has been the subject of significant scholarly debate, with some such as Julian Granberry considering it a dialect of Timucua, others arguing it was a distinct language in the Timucua family, and yet others such as John Hann doubting that Lamhatty was a Tawasa at all. The language shows significant

influence, including the Muskogean same-subject suffix ''-t''.

Evidence

In 1707 an Indian named Lamhatty arrived in the British colony of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, eventually arriving at the estate of Colonel John Walker. Taking an interest in him, Walker introduced him to colonial historian Robert Beverley. Through an interpreter, Lamhatty explained that he was from the village of ''Tawasa'' near the Gulf of Mexico. He had been captured and enslaved by the

Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **'' Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...

, who had transported him eastward and had sold him to the Savannah people. He had escaped and had traveled north to Virginia. Walker recorded the 60-word lexicon he had learned from Lamhatty on the back of a letter, while Beverley wrote an account of Lamhatty's story. According to Beverley, Walker began treating Lamhatty like a slave once he learned other Tawasa were enslaved. Lamhatty escaped and went into the woods, never to be heard from again. There has been scholarly debate about the place of Tawasa among languages. Studying the word list in the early 20th century,

noted the similarity with the

Timucua language Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua peoples. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization in Florida. Differences among the n ...

, and suggested Tawasa was an intermediary with

. Linguist Julian Granberry identifies it as a dialect of Timucua. Others, such as John Hann, are skeptical of the accuracy of Beverley's account. He questions whether Lamhatty was a Tawasa at all.

Vocabulary

Tawasa words are a bit difficult to make out, due to English respellings. For example, ''oo, ou'' corresponds to Timucua ''u'', ''ough'' to ''o'', ''eu'' to ''yu'', and often ''e, ee'' to Timucua ''i''. Tawasa ''w'' corresponds to Timucua ''b'', which was probably pronounced . Timucua ''c, q'' were ; ''qu'' was . Some of the following correspondences have a final ''t'' in Tawasa, which appears to be a Muskogean suffix. Others appear to have the Timucua copula ''-la''. Timucua forms are Mocama dialect. Correspondences with Muskogean and Timucua are, Although ''ássick'' 'moon' appears to be an Alabama form, its compounds are Timucuan:

Notes

References

* * * {{North American languages Timucua language Indigenous languages of the North American Southeast Extinct languages of North America Native American history of Alabama Native American history of Florida Languages extinct in the 18th century Unclassified languages of North America