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 táahana falaamat akíiyokiittook.
lowa-t táaha-na falaama-t ak-íiya-o-kii-ttook
burn-ss complete-ds return-ss 1sN-go-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-h
sing-tns
`He sang.'

Tálloowah.
Tálloowa-h
sing-tns
`He finally sang.'

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

Ohóbana nittak pókkooli’ oshtattook.
Ohóba-na nittak pókkooli’ oshta-ttook
rain-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-h
sleep-tns
`He took a quick nap.

Nominal morphology

Noun prefixes

Nouns have prefixes that show agreement with a possessor. 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’ `my head'
sa-noshkobo’
1sII-head

chinoshkobo’ `your head'
chi-noshkobo’
2sII-head

noshkobo’ `his/her/its/their head'
noshkobo’
head

sashki’ `my mother'
sa-ishki’
1sII-mother

chishki’ `your mother'
chi-ishki’
2sII-mother

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

aki’ `my father'
a-ki’
1sIII-father

amofi’ `my dog'
am-ofi’
1sIII-dog

Although systems of this type are generally described with the terms alienable and inalienable, these term 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

alla’ naknimat
alla’ nakni-m-at
child male-that-nom
`that boy (nominative)'

Hoshiit itti chaahamako obiniilih.
Hoshi’-at itti’ chaaha-m-ako o-biniili-h
bird-nom tree tall-that-cntr:acc superessive-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.

Word order and case marking

Niyah.
Niya-h
fat-tns
'She/he/it is fat.'
'They are fat.'

Písatok.
Písa-tok
see-pt
'She/he/it/they saw her/him/it/them.'

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

Hoshiyat apatok.
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 /-a/:
Hoshiyat shoshi(-ya) apatok.
Hoshi'-at shoshi'(-a) 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' hohchifo'
dog name
'the dog's name'

Choctaw has postpositional phrases with the postposition after its object:

tamaaha' bilika
town near
`near a town'

Examples

Some common Choctaw phrases (written in the traditional orthography):

• Choctaw: Chahta
• Hello!: Halito!
• See you later!: Chi pisa la chike!
• number: hohltina/hohltini
• Thank you: Yakoke
• What is your name?: Chi hohchifo yut nanta?
• My name is...: Sa hohchifo yut...
• yes: a̱
• no: keyu
• okay: omi
• I don't understand.: Ak akostinincho.
• I don't know.: Ak ikhano.
• Do you speak Choctaw?: Chahta imanumpa ish anumpola hinla ho̱?
• What is that?: Yummut nanta?

Other Choctaw words:

• Cherokee: Chalaki
• Chickasaw: Chickashaw
• Seminole: Seminuli
• Creek/Muskogee: Muskoki
• today: himak nittak
• tonight: himak ninak
• tomorrow: onnakma
• yesterday: pilashash
• month: hushi
• year/2008: affami/tahlepa sipokni tuklo akohcha untuchina
• house: chukka
• school: holisso apisa
• cat: katos
• dog: ofi
• cow: wak
• horse: issuba/suba

Counting to twenty:

• one: achuffa
• two: ''tuklo
• three: tuchina
• four: ushta
• five: tahlapi
• six: hannali
• seven: untuklo
• eight: untuchina
• nine: chakkali
• ten: pokkoli
• eleven: auahachuffa
• twelve: auahtuklo
• thirteen: auahtuchina
• fourteen: auahushta
• fifteen: auahtahlapi
• sixteen: auahhannali
• seventeen: auahuntuklo
• eighteen: auahuntuchina
• nineteen: abichakkali
• twenty: pokkoli tuklo

At " Native Nashville " web , there is an Online Choctaw Language Tutor, with Pronunciation Guide and four lessons: Small Talk, Animals, Food and Numbers.

See also

External links

• Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
• Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
• Choctaw

References

• Broadwell, George Aaron. (2006). A Choctaw reference grammar. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
• Broadwell, George Aaron. (1991). "Speaker and self in Choctaw". International Journal of American Linguistics, 57, 411-425.
• Byington, Cyrus. (1915). A dictionary of the Choctaw language. J. R. Swanton & H. S. Halbert (Eds.). Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin 46. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. (Reprinted 1973 & 1978).
• Downing, Todd. (1974). Chahta anompa: An introduction to the Choctaw language (3rd ed.). Durant, OK: Choctaw Bilingual Education Program, Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
• Haag, Marcia, and Willis, Henry. (2001). Choctaw Language & Culture: Chahta Anumpa, University of Oklahoma Press.
• Haag, Marcia, and Fowler, Loretta. (2001). Chahta Anumpa: A Choctaw Tutorial CD-ROM, University of Oklahoma Press.
• Heath, Jeffrey. (1977). Choctaw cases. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 3, 204-213.
• Heath, Jeffrey. (1980). Choctaw suppletive verbs and derivational morphology.
• Howard, Gregg; Eby, Richard; Jones, Charles G. (1991). Introduction to Choctaw: A primer for learning to speak, read and write the Choctaw language. Fayetteville, AR: VIP Pub.
• Jacob, Betty. (1980). Choctaw and Chickasaw. Abstract of paper delivered at the 1978 Muskogean conference. International Journal of American Linguistics, 46, 43.
• Jacob, Betty; Nicklas, Thurston Dale; & Spencer, Betty Lou. (1977). Introduction to Choctaw. Durant, OK: Choctaw Bilingual Education Program, Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Munro, Pamela. (1987). Some morphological differences between Chickasaw and Choctaw. In P. Munro (Ed.), Muskogean linguistics (pp. 119-133). Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Linguistics.
• Munro, Pamela (Ed.). (1987). Muskogean linguistics. UCLA occasional papers in linguistics (No. 6). Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Linguistics.
• Nicklas, Thurston Dale. (1974). The elements of Choctaw. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).
• Nicklas, Thurston Dale. (1975). Choctaw morphophonemics. In J. Crawford (Ed.), Studies in southeastern Indian languages (pp. 237-249). Athens: University of Georgia.
• Nicklas, Thurston Dale. (1979). Reference grammar of the Choctaw language. Durant, OK: Choctaw Bilingual Education Program, Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
• Pulte, William. (1975). The position of Chickasaw in Western Muskogean. In J. Crawford (Ed.), Studies in southeastern Indian languages (pp. 251-263). Athens: University of Georgia.
• Ulrich, Charles H. (1986). Choctaw morphophonology. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles).
• Ulrich, Charles H. (1987). Choctaw g-grades and y-grades. In P. Munro (Ed.), Muskogean linguistics (pp. 171-178). Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Linguistics.
• Ulrich, Charles H. (1987). Choctaw verb grades and the nature of syllabification. In A. Bosch, B. Need, & E. Schiller (Eds.), Papers from the 23rd annual regional meeting. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
• Ulrich, Charles H. (1988). The morphophonology of Choctaw verb roots and valence suffixes. In W. Shipley (Ed.), In honor of Mary Haas: From the Haas Festival conference on Native American linguistics (pp. 805-818). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN