Timucua language

The Suwannee Valley culture is the most recently defined and the least known of Florida's late precontact archaeological cultures.  Recent work at the Floyd's Mound (8MD6) and South Mound (8MD354) sites significantly extends the geographical extent of this culture as well as providing information about the westernmost of all of the Timucuan chiefdoms of the early contact and early mission eras (A.D. 1513 - 1640).

This paper offers a reexamination of the Timucua-Spanish relations in colonial Florida, culminating in the Timucua uprising of 1656. Combining our two specialties, linguistic anthropology and history, this paper explores the few Timucua religious materials available, which are the oldest extant Native American texts north of Mexico. Examining the content of these texts (the subject matter, the language, and its arguments) as well as the context in which they were produced, this essay considers the Timucua texts as early expressions of Timucua literacy and authorship. The Timucua texts hint at the complex effects of linguistic collision and exchange. As Timucua authors collaborated and, at times, appropriated these Spanish religious texts, their voices hint at the power of language as a marker of identity and resistance. Lucas Menéndez, one of the most powerful Timucua chiefs, spoke with clarity and force. 1 This was his chance. He had one opportunity to convince We would like to acknowledge Sarah Rivett and Sean Harvey, who organized a forum where this article was originally conceived. They provided some very useful comments and insights. Christina Snyder and Juliana Barr read earlier drafts, and their suggestions and encouragement were invaluable. We thank Jack Martin, Ives Goddard, Tim Johnson, and Lisa Noetzel for their comments on the grammar and analysis of the Timucua texts, and the many students who have worked on the transcription and analyses of these texts for their labors. Roderick A. McDonald

This paper examines the Timucua account of Creation as published in the 1627 Pareja catechism.  The Timucua version expands substantially on the paralled Spanish text, and provides long lists of animals, birds, and sea creatures in the environment of colonial North Florida.  The result is relevant for both ethnobiological understanding of the Timucua as well for understanding of colonial religious literature.

An understanding of the worldview of historic and archaeological cultures can be gained from an understanding of the languages spoken by such cultures and the significance of personal and place names within such languages.  The historic Timucuan chiefdom of Acuera had an identity during the mission period which was recognized as distinct from other Timucuan-speaking cultures by the Spanish, by other Timucuan chiefdoms, and by the Acuera themselves.  A comparison and analysis of known names from the region of Acuera and other Timucuan chiefdoms is presented, and conclusions and avenues for future research drawn therefrom.

This paper explores the verbal agreement morphology of Timucua, an extinct language of Northern Florida.  It posits distinct two sets of agreement markers (A & B) canonically associated with transitive subjects and objects.  However, many transitives shift agreement type with 3rd person objects, and intransitives seem to show a split in agreement type.  This suggests that Timucua has an active agreement type, like many other Southeastern Native American languages (Munro 2015).

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The talk examines the question of who counts as the 'author' of the various Timucua religious texts.  Is it only the two Spanish priests (Pareja and Movilla) whose names appear on the title page, or are there unnamed native coauthors who wrote, translated, and changed the texts?  The linguistic evidence shows dialect diversity within and between texts, suggesting multiple native authors.