Choctaw language explained

Choctaw
Nativename:Choctaw: Chahta anumpa|label=none
States:United States
Region:From Southeastern Oklahoma, to east-central Mississippi and into Louisiana and Tennessee
Ethnicity:20,000 Choctaw (2007)
Date:2015 census
Ref:e21
Familycolor:American
Fam1:Muskogean
Fam2:Western
Nation: United States (Choctaw Nation only)
Iso2:cho
Iso3:cho
Glotto:choc1276
Glottorefname:Choctaw
Map:Choctaw USC2000 PHS.svg
Mapcaption:Current geographic distribution of the Choctaw language
Map2:Oklahoma Indian Languages.png
Mapcaption2:Distribution of Native American languages in Oklahoma
Notice:IPA
Language:Chahta anumpa
Country:Chahta Yakni

The Choctaw language (Choctaw: Choctaw: Chahta anumpa[1]), 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.[2]

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma published the New Choctaw dictionary in 2016.

Dialects

There are three dialects of Choctaw (Mithun 1999):

  1. "Native" Choctaw on the Choctaw Nation in southeastern Oklahoma
  2. Mississippi Choctaw of Oklahoma on Chickasaw Nation of south-central Oklahoma (near Durwood)
  3. Choctaw of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians near Philadelphia, Mississippi

Other speakers live near Tallahassee, Florida, and with the Koasati in Louisiana, and also a few speakers live in Texas and California.

Phonology

Consonants

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
centrallateral
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Stoppronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Affricatech [{{IPA link|tʃ}}]
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/sh [{{IPA link|ʃ}}]pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/y [{{IPA link|j}}]pronounced as /link/
  1. The only voiced stop is pronounced as //b//. The voiceless stops pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //t//, and pronounced as //k// may become partially voiced between vowels, especially pronounced as //k// and for male speakers. Also, the voiceless stops are slightly aspirated at the onset of words[3] and before stressed syllables, behaving like English voiceless plosives.
  2. Controversially, some analyses suggest that all nouns end in an underlying consonant phoneme.[4] Nouns apparently ending in a vowel actually have a glottal stop pronounced as //ʔ// or a glottal fricative pronounced as //h// as the final consonant. Such consonants become realized when suffixes are attached.
  3. The distinction between phonemes pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //ʃ// is neutralized at the end of words.

Free variation

  1. /ɬ/, the voiceless lateral fricative, is pronounced as a voiceless dental fricative [θ]: pronounced as //ɬ//→pronounced as /[θ]/.
  2. The voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ is pronounced as a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ]: pronounced as //f//→pronounced as /[ɸ]/.

Phonological processes of consonants

pronounced as //k//→pronounced as /[ɣ]//V_V

imofi-aki-lih→imofiy-əɣə̃꞉-lih

pronounced as //h//→pronounced as /[ç]//_pronounced as /tʃ/

katihchish→katiçtʃiʃ

Vowels

ShortLongNasal
tenselax
Close frontpronounced as /i/pronounced as /ɪ/pronounced as /iː/pronounced as /ĩː~ẽː/
Close-mid backpronounced as /o/pronounced as /ʊ/pronounced as /oː/pronounced as /õː/
Open centralpronounced as /a/pronounced as /ə/pronounced as /aː/pronounced as /ãː/
  1. Lax vowels occur more often in closed syllables. In traditional orthography, ʋ usually indicates pronounced as /[ə]/ and u usually indicates pronounced as /[ʊ]/. Exceptions include pokoli (traditional) for pronounced as //pʊk.koli//, imalakusi for pronounced as //imaːlakosi//. The traditional orthography does not distinguish lax and tense front vowels; instead it indicates pronounced as //iː// with e.
  2. Nasal vowels are intrinsically long.

Pitch

  1. In Choctaw, very few words are distinguished only by pitch accent.[6] Nouns in Choctaw have pitch realization at the penultimate syllable or the ultimate syllable. Verbs in Choctaw will have pitch realization at morphemes indicating tense, but sometimes, pitch directly precedes the tense morpheme.

Syllable structure

Syllables of Choctaw[7] ! Syllable !! Type !! Example
VLighta.bih
CVLightno.sih
VVHeavyii.chih
CVVHeavypii.ni'
VHeavya.chi'
CVHeavyta.chi'
VCHeavyish.ki'
CVCHeavyha.bish.ko'
VVCSuper Heavyóok.cha-cha
CVVCSuper Heavynáaf.ka
VCSuper Heavyat
CVCSuper Heavyok.hish
  • (C)VCC
Super Heavytablit.tapt
  • CCV
Super Heavyski.tii.nnih
  1. As is in the chart above, there are three syllable structure types in Choctaw: light, heavy, and super heavy. Possible syllables in Choctaw must contain at least one vowel of any quality.[8]
  2. Syllables cannot end with a consonant clusters CC. However, there is an exception with the structure *(C)VCC if a word in Choctaw ends with the suffix /-t/.
  3. Syllables do not begin with consonant clusters CC, but there is an exception in an initial /i-/ deletion, which results in a syllable *CCV .

Rhythmic lengthening

CV-CV-CVC→CV-CV-CVC

salahatok→sala꞉hatok

Smallest possible word

a꞉t

*bih → a-bih

Phonological processes

Glide insertion

  1. Where V꞉ is oo
  2. boo-a-h→bóowah
  1. Where V꞉ can be either ii or aa
  2. talaa-a-h→talaayah

/i-/ deletion

/i/→∅ / #____

Part 1: /i + C/→∅ + /C/ / #____

Part 2: /∅ + C/→∅ / #____

ippókni'→ppókni'→pókni'

/-l-/ infix assimilation

l → /_C[-voice]

ho-l-tinah → ho-ɬ-tinah

Phonological processes of the suffix /-li/

/l/→/f, ɫ, h, m, n, w/ / /f, ɫ, h, m, n, w/____

/kobaf-li-h/→ kobaaffih

/l/→/b/ / /b/____

/atob-li-h/→ atobbih

/p/→/b/ / /b/____

/tap-li-h/→ tablih

/t/→/l/ / ____/l/

/palhat-li-h/→ pallalih

/li/→∅ / ____/tʃi/

balii-li-chi-h→balii-chi-h

/li/→∅ / ____/t/

balii-li--h→balii-t

Schwa insertion

∅→pronounced as //ə// / pronounced as //h//____[+voiced] consonant

∅→pronounced as //ə// / pronounced as //k//____[+voiced] consonant

'ahnih'→/ahənih/

Vowel deletion

  1. For most vowel deletion cases, the preceding short vowel is deleted at the morpheme boundary.

V→∅ / ____V

/baliili-aatʃĩ-h/→baliilaatʃĩh

  1. If a class II suffix attaches to a word that results with two short vowels occurring together, the short vowel that follows the class II suffix is deleted.

V→∅ / V____

/sa-ibaa-waʃoohah/→sabaa-waʃoohah

Morphology and grammar

Verbal morphology

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.

Verb prefixes

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.

Agreement affixes

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.[19]

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-
ii- il- pi- pi̱- pim- kii- kil-
plural hapi- hapi̱- hapim-
second-person singular is- ish- chi- chi̱- chim- chik-
plural has- hash- hachi- 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.

=Active verbs

=As the chart above shows, there is no person-number agreement for third person arguments. Consider the following paradigms:

  1. When the subject and object refer to the same thing or person (coreference), the reflexive ili- prefix is mandatory and used in place of the coreferent object.

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:

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.

=Stative verbs

=The subjects of stative verbs typically have II agreement. A small set of psychological verbs have subjects with class III agreement.[20]

Negatives

The set of agreement markers labelled N above is used with negatives.[21] 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:

Compare this with the affirmative counterpart:

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.

Anaphoric prefixes

Reflexives are indicated with the /ili-/ prefix, and reciprocals with /itti-/:[22]

Verb suffixes

While the verbal prefixes indicate relations between the verb and its arguments, the suffixes cover a wider semantic range, including information about valence, modality, tense and evidentiality.

The following examples show modal and tense suffixes like /-aachii̱/ 'irrealis'(approximately equal to future), /-tok/ 'past tense', /-h/ 'default tenses':[23]

There are also suffixes that show evidentiality, or the source of evidence for a statement, as in the following pair:[24]

There are also suffixes of illocutionary force which may indicate that the sentence is a question, an exclamation, or a command:[25]

Verbal infixes

Choctaw verb stems have various infixes that indicate their aspect.[26] These stem variants are traditionally referred to as 'grades'. The table below shows the grades of Choctaw, along with their main usage.

Name of GradeHow it is formedWhen it is used
n-gradeinfix n in the next to last (penultimate) syllable; put accent on this syllableto show that the action is durative (lasts some definite length of time)
l-gradeput accent on next to last (penultimate) syllable; lengthen the vowel if the syllable is openbefore a few common suffixes, such as the negative /-o(k)/ and the switch-reference markers /-cha/ and /-na/
hn-gradeinsert 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-gradeinsert -Vyy- before the next to last (penultimate) syllableto show delayed inception
g-gradeformed 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-gradeinsert -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':

The g-grade and y-grade typically get translated into English as "finally VERB-ed":

The hn-grade is usually translated as 'kept on VERBing':

The h-grade is usually translated "just VERB-ed" or "VERB-ed for a short time":

Nominal morphology

Noun prefixes

Nouns have prefixes that show agreement with a possessor.[27] 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.

Nouns that are not lexically specified for II agreement use the III agreement markers:

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.

Noun suffixes

Choctaw nouns can be followed by various determiner and case-marking suffixes, as in the following examples, where we seedeterminers such as /-ma/ 'that', /-pa/ 'this', and /-akoo/ 'contrast' and case-markers /-(y)at/ 'nominative' and /-(y)a̱/ 'accusative':[28]

The last example shows that nasalizing the last vowel of the preceding N is a common way to show the accusative case.

Word order and case marking

The simplest sentences in Choctaw consist of a verb and a tense marker, as in the following examples:[29]

As these examples show, there are no obligatory noun phrases in a Choctaw sentence, nor is there any verbal agreement that indicates a third person subject or object. There is no indication of grammatical gender, and for third person arguments there is no indication of number. (There are, however, some verbs with suppletive forms that indicate the number of a subject or object, e.g. iyah 'to go (sg.)', ittiyaachih 'to go (du.)', and ilhkolih 'to go (pl)'.)

When there is an overt subject, it is obligatorily marked with the nominative case /-at/. Subjects precede the verb

When there is an overt object, it is optionally marked with the accusative case /-a̱/

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:

Choctaw has postpositional phrases with the postposition after its object:

Orthography

IPALinguisticCBTCMississippiTraditionalByington/Swanton
Vowels
aa
ii
oo
Long
aaááa
ā
iiííe, i
ī
ooóóo
ō
Nasal
ãːąaⁿ
+Cam, an
ĩːįiⁿ
+Cim, in
õːǫoⁿ
+Com, on, um, un
Lax
əaʋ
ɪi
ʊ ou
Consonants
bb
chčch
ff
hh
kk
ll
ɬlhłhl, lh ł, lh
mm
nn
pp
ss
ʃshšsh
tt
ww
jy
ʔ
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.

  1. Choctaw Bible Translation Committee
  2. Substituted with 'v' according to typesetting or encoding constraints.
  3. The former is used before a vowel; the latter, before a consonant. The intervocalic use of (hl) conflated the common consonant cluster /hl/ with /ɬ/.
  4. Dictionary editors John Swanton and Henry Halbert systematically replaced all instances of (hl) with (ł), regardless whether (hl) stood for /ɬ/ or /hl/. Despite the editors' systematic replacement of all (hl) with (ł), the digraph (lh) was allowed to stand.

Examples

Some common Choctaw phrases (written in the "Modern" orthography):

Other Choctaw words:

Counting to twenty:

At "Native Nashville" web https://web.archive.org/web/20120211172945/http://www.nativenashville.com/language/tutor_chata.php, there is an Online Choctaw Language Tutor, with Pronunciation Guide and four lessons: Small Talk, Animals, Food and Numbers.

See also

Sources

Further reading

External links

I:class IDPAST:distant past

Notes and References

  1. Book: Martin, Jack . New Choctaw Dictionary . The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma . 2016 . 978-0-9840968-7-9 . Durant, Oklahoma . 40.
  2. Munro 1984
  3. Broadwell (2006:15)
  4. Broadwell (2006:19-20)
  5. Broadwell (2006:15-20)
  6. Broadwell (2006:16-18)
  7. Broadwell (2006:18-20)
  8. Broadwell (2006:18-19)
  9. Broadwell (2006:21-26)
  10. Broadwell (2006:18-21)
  11. Broadwell (2006:125)
  12. Broadwell (2006:60-62)
  13. Broadwell (2006:124-125)
  14. Broadwell (2006:26-27)
  15. Broadwell (2006:130)
  16. Broadwell (2006:219)
  17. Broadwell (2006:16)
  18. Broadwell (2006:26)
  19. Broadwell (2006:137-140)
  20. Broadwell (2006:140-142)
  21. Broadwell (2006:148-152)
  22. Broadwell (2006:98-99)
  23. Broadwell (2006:169-183)
  24. Broadwell (2006:184-190)
  25. Broadwell (2006:191-193)
  26. Broadwell (2006:161-168)
  27. Broadwell (2006:52-63)
  28. Broadwell (2006:64-92)
  29. Broadwell (2006:32)