Apalachee language

{{Short description|Extinct Muskogean language of Florida, US}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Apalachee

| nativename =

| states = United States

| region = Florida

| ethnicity = Apalachee

| extinct = early 18th century

| familycolor = American

| fam1 = Muskogean

| fam2 = Eastern

| iso3 = xap

| glotto = apal1237

| glottorefname = Apalachee

| linglist = xap

}}

Apalachee was a Muskogean language of Florida. It was closely related to Koasati and Alabama.{{cite book |last1=Broadwell |first1=George A. |title=Reconstructing Proto-Muskogean Language and Prehistory: Preliminary results |date=1992 |citeseerx=10.1.1.72.4700 |at=3, en. 2}} Apalachee was found to belong to the same branch of the Muskogean family as Koasati, Alabama, and Hitchiti.{{cite journal |last1=Haas |first1=Mary R. |author1-link=Mary Haas |title=The Position of Apalachee in the Muskogean Family |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=April 1949 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=121–127 |doi=10.1086/464031 |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}

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{{cite journal |last1=Kimball |first1=Geoffrey |title=A Grammatical Sketch of Apalachee |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=April 1987 |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=136–174 |doi=10.1086/466050 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |jstor=1265142}} and a vocabulary of the language{{cite journal |last1=Kimball |first1=Geoffrey |title=An Apalachee Vocabulary |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=October 1988 |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=387–398 |doi=10.1086/466093 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |jstor=1265100}}

based on the contents of the letter.