The Choctaw language (Choctaw: Chahta anumpa[2]), spoken by the Choctaw, an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, US, is a member of the Muskogean language family. Chickasaw is a separate but closely related language to Choctaw.[3]
Choctaw | |
---|---|
Chahta anumpa | |
Native to | United States |
Region | From Southeastern Oklahoma, to east-central Mississippi and into Louisiana and Tennessee |
Ethnicity | 20,000 Choctaw (2007)[1] |
Native speakers | 9,600 (2015 census)[1] |
| |
Official status | |
Official language in | ![]() ![]() |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | cho |
ISO 639-3 | cho |
Glottolog | choc1276 |
ELP | Choctaw |
![]() Current geographic distribution of the Choctaw language | |
![]() Distribution of Native American languagesinOklahoma | |
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
People | Chahta |
---|---|
Language | Chahta anumpa |
Country | Chahta Yakni |
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma published the New Choctaw dictionary in 2016.
There are three dialects of Choctaw (Mithun 1999):
Other speakers live near Tallahassee, Florida, and with the Koasati in Louisiana, and also a few speakers live in Texas and California.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central | lateral | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||
Stop1 | p b | t | k | ʔ2 | ||
Affricate | ch [tʃ] | |||||
Fricative | f | s3 | ɬ | sh [ʃ]3 | h | |
Approximant | l | y [j] | w |
Short1 | Long | Nasal2 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
tense | lax | |||
Close front | i | ɪ | iː | ĩː~ẽː |
Close-mid back | o | ʊ | oː | õː |
Open central | a | ə | aː | ãː |
Syllable | Type | Example |
---|---|---|
V | Light | a.bih |
CV | Light | no.sih |
VV | Heavy | ii.chih |
CVV | Heavy | pii.ni' |
V | Heavy | a.chi' |
CV | Heavy | ta.chi' |
VC | Heavy | ish.ki' |
CVC | Heavy | ha.bish.ko' |
VVC | Super Heavy | óok.cha-cha |
CVVC | Super Heavy | náaf.ka |
VC | Super Heavy | at |
CVC | Super Heavy | ok.hish |
*(C)VCC | Super Heavy | tablit.tapt |
*CCV | Super Heavy | ski.tii.nnih |
Choctaw verbs display a wide range of inflectional and derivational morphology. In Choctaw, the category of verb may also include words that would be categorized as adjectives or quantifiers in English. Verbs may be preceded by up to three prefixes and followed by as many as five suffixes. In addition, verb roots may contain infixes that convey aspectual information.
The verbal prefixes convey information about the arguments of the verb: how many there are and their person and number features. The prefixes can be divided into three sorts: agreement markers, applicative markers, and anaphors (reflexives and reciprocals). The prefixes occur in the following order: agreement-anaphor-applicative-verb stem.
The agreement affixes are shown in the following chart. The only suffix among the personal agreement markers is the first-person singular class I agreement marker /-li/. Third-person is completely unmarked for class I and class II agreement arguments and never indicates number.[20]
person markers | class I | class II | class III | class N | imperative | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+s | +C | +V | +C/i | +a/o | +C | +V | +C | +V | +C | +V | |||
first-person | singular | initial | -li | sa- | si- | a̱- | am- | ak- | n/a | ||||
medial | -sa̱- | -sam- | |||||||||||
paucal | ii- | il- | pi- | pi̱- | pim- | kii- | kil- | ||||||
plural | hapi- | hapi̱- | hapim- | ||||||||||
second-person | singular | is- | ish- | chi- | chi̱- | chim- | chik- | ∅ | |||||
plural | has- | hash- | hachi- | hachi̱- | hachim- | hachik- | ho- | oh- | |||||
third-person | ∅ | ∅ | i̱- | im- | ik- |
Some authors (Ulrich 1986, Davies, 1986) refer to class I as actor or nominative, class II as patient or accusative and class III as dative. Broadwell prefers the neutral numbered labels because the actual use of the affixes is more complex. This type of morphology is generally referred to as active–stative and polypersonal agreement.
Class I affixes always indicate the subject of the verb. Class II prefixes usually indicate direct object of active verbs and the subject of stative verbs. Class III prefixes indicate the indirect object of active verbs. A small set of stative psychological verbs have class III subjects; an even smaller set of stative verbs dealing primarily with affect, communication and intimacy have class III direct objects.
As the chart above shows, there is no person-number agreement for third person arguments. Consider the following paradigms:
DIRECT OBJECT SUBJECT |
first-person | second-person | third-person | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | paucal | plural | singular | plural | |||
first-person | singular | ili-habli-li-tok1 'I kicked myself' |
pi-habli-li-tok 'I kicked us (few)' |
hapi-habli-li-tok 'I kicked us (all)' |
chi-habli-li-tok 'I kicked you' |
hachi-habli-li-tok 'I kicked you (pl.)' |
habli-li-tok 'I kicked her/him/it/them' |
plural | ii-sa-habli-tok 'we kicked me' |
il-ili-habli-tok1 'we kicked ourselves' |
ii-chi-habli-tok 'we kicked you' |
ii-hachi-habli-tok 'we kicked you (pl.)' |
ii-habli-tok 'we kicked her/him/it/them' | ||
second-person | singular | is-sa-habli-tok 'you kicked me' |
ish-pi-habli-tok 'you kicked us (few)' |
ish-hapi-habli-tok 'you kicked us (all)' |
ish-ili-habli-tok1 'you kicked yourself' |
ish-hachi-habli-tok 'ýou kicked you (pl.)' |
ish-habli-tok 'you kicked her/him/it/them' |
plural | has-sa-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked me' |
hash-pi-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked us (few)' |
hash-hapi-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked us (all)' |
hash-chi-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked you' |
hash-ili-habli-tok1 'you (pl.) kicked yourselves' |
hash-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked her/him/it/them' | |
third-person | sa-habli-tok 'she/he/it/they kicked me' |
pi-habli-tok 'she/etc. kicked us (few)' |
hapi-habli-tok 'she/etc. kicked us (all)' |
chi-habli-tok 'she/etc. kicked you' |
hachi-habli-tok 'she/etc. kicked you (pl.)' |
habli-tok "she/etc. kicked her/him/it/them" ili-habli-tok1 'she/etc. kicked herself/etc.' |
Transitive active verbs seemingly with class III direct objects:
When a transitive verb occurs with more than one agreement prefix, I prefixes precede II and III prefixes:
Iichipi̱satok.
Ii-
1P.I-
chi-
2S.II-
pi̱sa
see⟨NGR⟩
-tok
-PT
Ii- chi- pi̱sa -tok
1P.I- 2S.II- see⟨NGR⟩ -PT
'We saw you.'
Ishpimanoolitok.
Ish-
2S.I-
pim-
1P.III-
anooli
tell
-tok.
-PT
Ish- pim- anooli -tok.
2S.I- 1P.III- tell -PT
'You told us.'
For intransitive verbs, the subjects of active verbs typically have class I agreement. Because third-person objects are unmarked, intransitive active verbs are indistinguishable in form from transitive active verbs with a third-person direct object.
The subjects of stative verbs typically have II agreement. A small set of psychological verbs have subjects with class III agreement.[21]
Baliililitok.
Baliili
run
-li
-1S.I
-tok
-PT
Baliili -li -tok
run -1S.I -PT
'I ran.'
Saniyah.
Sa-
1S.II-
niya
fat
-h.
-TNS
Sa- niya -h.
1S.II- fat -TNS
'I am fat.'
A̱ponnah.
A̱-
1S.III-
ponna
skilled
-h.
-TNS
A̱- ponna -h.
1S.III- skilled -TNS
'I am skilled.'
The set of agreement markers labelled N above is used with negatives.[22] Negation is multiply marked, requiring that an agreement marker from the N set replace the ordinary I agreement, the verb appear in the lengthened grade (see discussion below), and that the suffix /-o(k)-/ follow the verb, with deletion of the preceding final vowel. The optional suffix /-kii/ may be added after /-o(k)-/. Consider the following example:
Akiiyokiittook.
Ak-
1S.N-
iiya
go⟨LGR⟩
-o
-NEG
-kii
-NEG
-ttook
-DPAST
Ak- iiya -o -kii -ttook
1S.N- go⟨LGR⟩ -NEG -NEG -DPAST
'I did not go.'
Compare this with the affirmative counterpart:
Iyalittook.
Iya
go
-li
-1S.I
-ttook.
-DPAST
Iya -li -ttook.
go -1S.I -DPAST
'I went'.
To make this example negative, the 1sI suffix /-li/ is replaced by the 1sN prefix /ak-/; the verb root iya is lengthened and accented to yield íiya; the suffix /-o/ is added, the final vowel of iiya is deleted, and the suffix /-kii/ is added.
Reflexives are indicated with the /ili-/ prefix, and reciprocals with /itti-/:[23]
Ilipi̱salitok.
Ili-
REFL-
pi̱sa
see⟨NGR⟩
-li
-1S.I
-tok.
-PT
Ili- pi̱sa -li -tok.
REFL- see⟨NGR⟩ -1S.I -PT
'I saw myself'.
The following examples show modal and tense suffixes like /-aachii̱/ 'irrealis'(approximately equal to future), /-tok/ 'past tense', /-h/ 'default tenses':[24]
Baliilih.
Baliili
run
-h.
-TNS
Baliili -h.
run -TNS
'She runs.'
Baliilaachi̱h.
Baliili
run
-aachi̱
-IRR
-h.
-TNS
Baliili -aachi̱ -h.
run -IRR -TNS
'She will run.'
There are also suffixes that show evidentiality, or the source of evidence for a statement, as in the following pair:[25]
Nipi awashlihli.
Nipi
meat
awashli
fry
-hli
-FIRST:HAND
Nipi awashli -hli
meat fry -FIRST:HAND
'She fried the meat.' (I saw/heard/smelled her do it.)
Nipi awashlitoka̱sha.
Nipi
meat
awashli
fry
-tok
-PT
-a̱sha
-GUESS
Nipi awashli -tok -a̱sha
meat fry -PT -GUESS
'She fried the meat.' (I guess)
There are also suffixes of illocutionary force which may indicate that the sentence is a question, an exclamation, or a command:[26]
Awashlitoko̱?
Awashli
fry
-tok
-PT
-o̱
-Q
Awashli -tok -o̱
fry -PT -Q
'Did she fry it?'
Chahta siahokii!
Chahta
Choctaw
si-
1S.II-
a
be
-h
-TNS
-okii
-EXCL
Chahta si- a -h -okii
Choctaw 1S.II- be -TNS -EXCL
'I'm Choctaw!' or 'I certainly am a Choctaw!'
Choctaw verb stems have various infixes that indicate their aspect.[27] These stem variants are traditionally referred to as 'grades'. The table below shows the grades of Choctaw, along with their main usage.
Name of Grade | How it is formed | When it is used |
---|---|---|
n-grade | infix n in the next to last (penultimate) syllable; put accent on this syllable | to show that the action is durative (lasts some definite length of time) |
l-grade | put accent on next to last (penultimate) syllable; lengthen the vowel if the syllable is open | before a few common suffixes, such as the negative /-o(k)/ and the switch-reference markers /-cha/ and /-na/ |
hn-grade | insert a new syllable /-hV̱/ after the (original) next to last (penultimate) syllable. V̱ is a nasalized copy of the vowel that precedes it. | to show that the action of the verb repeats |
y-grade | insert -Vyy- before the next to last (penultimate) syllable | to show delayed inception |
g-grade | formed by lengthening the penultimate vowel of the stem, accenting the antepenultimate vowel, and geminating the consonant that follows the antepenult. | to show delayed inception |
h-grade | insert -h- after the penultimate vowel of the stem. | to show sudden action |
Some examples that show the grades follow:
In this example the l-grade appears because of the suffixes /-na/ 'different subject' and /-o(k)/ 'negative':
... lowat taahana falaamat akiiyokiittook.
lowa
burn
-t
-SS
taaha
complete⟨LGR⟩
-na
-DS
falaama
return
-t
-SS
ak-
1S.N-
iiya-
go⟨LGR⟩
o
-NEG
-kii
-NEG
-ttook
-DPAST
lowa -t taaha -na falaama -t ak- iiya- o -kii -ttook
burn -SS complete⟨LGR⟩ -DS return -SS 1S.N- go⟨LGR⟩ -NEG -NEG -DPAST
'... (the school) burned down and I didn't go back.'
The g-grade and y-grade typically get translated into English as "finally VERB-ed":
Taloowah.
Taloowa
sing
-h
-TNS
Taloowa -h
sing -TNS
'He sang.'
Tálloowah.
Tálloowa
sing⟨GGR⟩
-h
-TNS
Tálloowa -h
sing⟨GGR⟩ -TNS
'He finally sang.'
The hn-grade is usually translated as 'kept on VERBing':
Ohó̱bana nittak pókkooli oshtattook.
Ohó̱ba
rain⟨HNGR⟩
-na
-DS
nittak
day
pókkooli
ten
oshta
four
-ttook
-DPAST
Ohó̱ba -na nittak pókkooli oshta -ttook
rain⟨HNGR⟩ -DS day ten four -DPAST
'It kept on raining for forty days.'
The h-grade is usually translated "just VERB-ed" or "VERB-ed for a short time":
Nóhsih.
Nóhsi
sleep⟨HGR⟩
-h
-TNS
Nóhsi -h
sleep⟨HGR⟩ -TNS
'He took a quick nap.
Nouns have prefixes that show agreement with a possessor.[28] Agreement markers from class II are used on a lexically specified closed class of nouns, which includes many (but not all) of the kinship terms and body parts. This is the class that is generally labeled inalienable.
sanoshkobo
sa-
1S.II-
noshkobo
head
sa- noshkobo
1S.II- head
'my head'
chinoshkobo
chi-
2S.II-
noshkobo
head
chi- noshkobo
2S.II- head
'your head'
noshkobo
noshkobo
head
noshkobo
head
'his/her/its/their head'
sashki
sa-
1S.II-
ishki
mother
sa- ishki
1S.II- mother
'my mother'
chishki
chi-
2S.II-
ishki
mother
chi- ishki
2S.II- mother
'your mother'
Nouns that are not lexically specified for II agreement use the III agreement markers:
a̱ki
a̱-
1S.III-
ki'
father
a̱- ki'
1S.III- father
'my father'
amofi
am-
1S.III-
ofi
dog
am- ofi
1S.III- dog
'my dog'
Although systems of this type are generally described with the terms alienable and inalienable, this terminology is not particularly appropriate for Choctaw, since alienability implies a semantic distinction between types of nouns. The morphological distinction between nouns taking II agreement and III agreement in Choctaw only partly coincides with the semantic notion of alienability.
Choctaw nouns can be followed by various determiner and case-marking suffixes, as in the following examples, where we see determiners such as /-ma/ 'that', /-pa/ 'this', and /-akoo/ 'contrast' and case-markers /-(y)at/ 'nominative' and /-(y)a̱/ 'accusative':[29]
alla naknimat
alla
child
nakni
male
-m
-that
-at
-NOM
alla nakni -m -at
child male -that -NOM
'that boy (nominative)'
Hoshiit itti chaahamako̱ o̱biniilih.
Hoshi
bird
-at
-NOM
itti
tree
chaaha
tall
-m
-that
-ako̱
-CNTR:ACC
o̱-
SUPE-
biniili
sit
-h
-TNS
Hoshi -at itti chaaha -m -ako̱ o̱- biniili -h
bird -NOM tree tall -that -CNTR:ACC SUPE- sit -TNS
'The bird is sitting on that tall tree.' (Not on the short one.)
The last example shows that nasalizing the last vowel of the preceding N is a common way to show the accusative case.
O̱batok.
O̱ba
rain
-tok
-PT
O̱ba -tok
rain -PT
'It rained.'
Niyah.
niya
fat
-h
-TNS
niya -h
fat -TNS
'She/he/it is fat, they are fat.'
Pi̱satok.
Pi̱sa-
see⟨NGR⟩
tok
-PT
Pi̱sa- tok
see⟨NGR⟩ -PT
'She/he/it/they saw her/him/it/them.'
When there is an overt subject, it is obligatorily marked with the nominative case /-at/. Subjects precede the verb
Hoshiyat apatok.
hoshi
bird
-at
-NOM
apa
eat
-tok
-PT
hoshi -at apa -tok
bird -NOM eat -PT
'The birds ate them.'
When there is an overt object, it is optionally marked with the accusative case /-a̱/
Hoshiyat sho̱shi(-ya̱) apatok.
hoshi
bird
-at
-NOM
sho̱shi
bug
(-a̱)
-(ACC)
apa
eat
-tok.
-PT
hoshi -at sho̱shi (-a̱) apa -tok.
bird -NOM bug -(ACC) eat -PT
'The birds ate the bugs.'
The Choctaw sentence is normally verb-final, and so the head of the sentence is last.
Some other phrases in Choctaw also have their head at the end. Possessors precede the possessed noun in the Noun Phrase:
ofi
dog
hohchifo
name
ofi hohchifo
dog name
'the dog's name'
Choctaw has postpositional phrases with the postposition after its object:
tamaaha
town
bili̱ka
near
tamaaha bili̱ka
town near
'near a town'
IPA | Linguistic | CBTC[1] | Mississippi | Traditional | Byington/Swanton |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vowels | |||||
a | a | ||||
i | i | ||||
o | o | ||||
Long | |||||
aː | aa | á | á | a | |
ā | |||||
iː | ii | í | í | e, i | |
ī | |||||
oː | oo | ó | ó | o | |
ō | |||||
Nasal | |||||
ãː | a̱ | ą | a̱ | aⁿ | |
+C | am, an | ||||
ĩː | i̱ | į | i̱ | iⁿ | |
+C | im, in | ||||
õː | o̱ | ǫ | o̱ | oⁿ | |
+C | om, on, um, un | ||||
Lax | |||||
ə | a | ʋ[2] | ạ | ||
ɪ | i | ||||
ʊ | o | u | |||
Consonants | |||||
b | b | ||||
tʃ | ch | č | ch | ||
f | f | ||||
h | h | ||||
k | k | ||||
l | l | ||||
ɬ | lh | ł | hl, lh [3] | ł, lh [4] | |
m | m | ||||
n | n | ||||
p | p | ||||
s | s | ||||
ʃ | sh | š | sh | ||
t | t | ||||
w | w | ||||
j | y | ||||
ʔ | ꞌ | ∅ |
The written Choctaw language is based upon the English version of the Roman alphabet and was developed in conjunction with the "civilization program" of the United States, a program to westernize and forcefully assimilate Indigenous Americans, particularly those adhering to what were to become the Five Civilized Tribes (of which the Choctaw are a part) into Anglo-American Culture and Sympathies during the early 19th century. Although there are other variations of the Choctaw alphabet, the three most commonly seen are the Byington (Traditional), Byington/Swanton (Linguistic), and Modern (Mississippi Choctaw).
Many publications by linguists about the Choctaw language use a slight variant of the "modern (Mississippi Choctaw)" orthography listed here, where long vowels are written as doubled. In the "linguistic" version, the acute accent shows the position of the pitch accent, rather than the length of the vowel.
The discussion of Choctaw grammar below uses the linguistic variant of the orthography.
Some common Choctaw phrases (written in the "Modern" orthography):
Other Choctaw words:
Counting to twenty:
At "Native Nashville" web [5], there is an Online Choctaw Language Tutor, with Pronunciation Guide and four lessons: Small Talk, Animals, Food and Numbers.
I:class I DPAST:distant past