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 nine or ten Timucua dialects were slight, and appeared to serve mostly to delineate band or tribal boundaries. Some linguists suggest that the Tawasa of what is now northern Alabama may have spoken Timucua, but this is disputed.
Most of what is known of the language comes from the works of Francisco Pareja, a Franciscan missionary who came to St. Augustine in 1595. During his 31 years living with the Timucua, he developed a writing system for the language. From 1612 to 1628, he published several Spanish–Timucua catechisms, as well as a grammar of the Timucua language. Including his seven surviving works, only ten primary sources of information about the Timucua language survive, including two catechisms written in Timucua and Spanish by Gregorio de Movilla in 1635, and a Spanish-translated Timucuan letter to the Spanish Crown dated 1688.
In 1763 the British took over Florida from Spain following the Seven Years' War, in exchange for ceding Cuba to them. Most Spanish colonists and mission Indians, including the few remaining Timucua speakers, left for Cuba, near Havana. The language group is now extinct.
Linguistic relations
Timucua is an isolate, not demonstrably related genetically to any of the languages spoken in North America, nor does it show evidence of large amounts of lexical borrowings from them. The primary published hypotheses for relationships are with the Muskogean languages (Swanton (1929), Crawford (1988), and Broadwell (2015), and with various South American families (including Cariban, Arawakan, Chibchan languages, and Warao) Granberry (1993). These hypotheses have not been widely accepted.
Dialects
Father Pareja named nine or ten dialects, each spoken by one or more tribes in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia:
Timucua proper – Northern Utina tribe, between the lower (northern) St. Johns River and the Suwannee River, north of the Santa Fe River in Florida and into southern Georgia. Potano – Potano and possibly the Yustaga and Ocale tribes, between the Aucilla River and the Suwannee River in Florida and extending into southern Georgia, but not along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (with the possible exception of the mouth of the Suwannee River), between the Suwannee River and the Oklawaha River south of the Santa Fe River, extending south into the area between the Oklawaha and the Withlacoochee rivers. Itafi (or Icafui) – Icafui/Cascange and Ibi tribes, in southeast Georgia, along the coast north of Cumberland Island north to the Altamaha River and inland west of the Yufera tribe. Yufera – Yufera tribe, in southeast Georgia, on the mainland west of Cumberland Island. Mocama (Timucua for 'ocean') (called Agua Salada in Hann 1996 and elsewhere) – Mocama, including the Tacatacuru (on Cumberland Island in Georgia) and the Saturiwa (in what is now Jacksonville) tribes, along the Atlantic coast of Florida from the St. Marys River to below the mouth of the St. Johns River, including the lowest part of the St. Johns River. Agua Salada (Spanish for 'salt water' (Maritime in Hann 1996) – tribal affiliation unclear, the Atlantic coast in the vicinity of St. Augustine and inland to the adjacent stretch of the St. Johns River. Tucururu – uncertain, possibly in south-central Florida (a village called Tucuru was "forty leagues from St. Augustine"). Agua Fresca (or Agua Dulce; Spanish for "fresh water") – Agua Dulce people (Agua Fresca, or "Freshwater"), including the Utina chiefdom, along the lower St. Johns River, north of Lake George. Acuera – Acuera tribe, on the upper reaches of the Oklawaha River and around Lake Weir. Oconi – Oconi tribe (not to be confused with the Muskogean speaking Oconee tribe), "three days travel" from Cumberland Island, possibly around the Okefenokee Swamp.
All of the linguistic documentation is from the Mocama and Potano dialects.
Scholars do not agree as to the number of dialects. Some scholars, including Jerald T. Milanich and Edgar H. Sturtevant, have taken Pareja's Agua Salada (saltwater) as an alternate name for the well-attested Mocama dialect (mocama is Timucua for "ocean"). As such, Mocama is often referred to as Agua Salada in the literature. This suggestion would put the number of dialects attested by Pareja at nine. Others, including Julian Granberry, argue that the two names referred to separate dialects, with Agua Salada being spoken in an unknown area of coastal Florida.
