Black American languages and codes

SUMMARYBlack American languages and codes (agent report, Nov 7, 2026; Tito: "the 'African American languages' like tut and others made through 'slavery'"). Full report and 15-row CSV: agent-reports/black-american-languages.md and black_american_languages.csv. (1) TUT: in use, Record; its first print is 1903, "Tutnee" in E. T. Seton's Two Little Savages, a book about boys playing "Indian"; later prints are Bender 1944, Angelou 1969, Milberg 1976, and Gloria McIlwain 1994–95, the main written source for the 1700s origin among held people. That origin rests on family oral tradition, Open. Lead: where Seton got "Tutnee," and the "Indian" frame of the earliest print. (2) GULLAH/GEECHEE: "Gullah" first in print 1739 ("Golla Harry"); Turner (1949) found nearly 4,000 African-origin items, mostly personal names. No Native word in Gullah was found in the sources opened; the Guale used Sapelo Island as a refuge. Native share Open: check Turner's list against Guale, Yamasee and Muskogee word lists. (3) AFRO-SEMINOLE CREOLE, Record: Muskogee/Seminole words coonteh (flour root), sufki (corn porridge), tustanagga (warrior); Ian Hancock 1975; speakers began revealing it in 1976. (4) LOUISIANA CREOLE (Kouri-Vini): Native plant, animal and land words; choupique from Choctaw shupik (Record); bayou from Choctaw bayok (Disputed). Mobilian Jargon, the Choctaw-Chickasaw trade language, attested 1699–1700; held Africans are said to have used it, but no named Black speaker found (Open). (5) AAVE ORIGINS: creole vs British dialect vs African substrate, all Disputed and resting on indirect evidence; Native influence on its grammar never studied (Open: a gap the field hasn't tested). (6) CAB CALLOWAY'S HEPSTER'S DICTIONARY (1938, editions to 1944), Record: the first dictionary by an African American, then Dan Burley's Handbook of Harlem Jive (1944). A Black-made language record, tied to a family line on a private witness card. (7) "Follow the Drinking Gourd": Disputed (Bresler: the familiar lyrics are Lee Hays's, published 1947; no pre-war map version found, though an earlier song may have existed). (8) Quilt codes: Disputed (first in print 1999). (9) Pig Latin, Gibberish/izzle, Ubbi Dubbi: no Black or Native origin claim found; no dated source (Open). (10) BLACK SPEAKERS OF THE NATIONS' LANGUAGES, Record: Abraham, interpreter for Micanopy (1837–38, P833); John Horse (English, Spanish, Hitchiti); Cow Tom and Harry Island, Creek freedmen and official interpreters in English and Muskogee. Dawes-era freedmen speakers unnamed so far (Open)

PATTERNwhere Black and Native peoples lived together, the language record shows it (Afro-Seminole, Louisiana Creole, the interpreters); where the record says "African only" (Gullah), nobody has run the Native word check yet.