Choctaw language

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other Template:Main other Template:Infobox ethnonym The Choctaw language (Choctaw: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>), 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.<ref>Munro 1984</ref>

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

DialectsEdit

There are three dialects of Choctaw (Mithun 1999):

"Native" Choctaw on the Choctaw Nation in southeastern Oklahoma
Mississippi Choctaw of Oklahoma on Chickasaw Nation of south-central Oklahoma (near Durwood)
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.

PhonologyEdit

More information on suffixes is in the Morphology section.

ConsonantsEdit

	Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
	Labial	central	lateral	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Stop^{{{#if:1\|1\|[1]}}}	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link^{{{#if:2\|2\|[2]}}}
Affricate				ch [[[:Template:IPA link]]]
Fricative	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link^{{{#if:3\|3\|[3]}}}	Template:IPA link	sh [[[:Template:IPA link]]]^{{{#if:3\|3\|[4]}}}		Template:IPA link
Approximant			Template:IPA link	y [[[:Template:IPA link]]]	Template:IPA link

<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} The only voiced stop is {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. The voiceless stops {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} may become partially voiced between vowels, especially {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and for male speakers. Also, the voiceless stops are slightly aspirated at the onset of words<ref name="Broadwell15 2006">Broadwell (2006:15)</ref> and before stressed syllables, behaving like English voiceless plosives.
<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} Controversially, some analyses suggest that all nouns end in an underlying consonant phoneme.<ref name="Broadwell19-20 2006">Broadwell (2006:19-20)</ref> Nouns apparently ending in a vowel actually have a glottal stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or a glottal fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}} as the final consonant. Such consonants become realized when suffixes are attached.
<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} The distinction between phonemes {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is neutralized at the end of words.

Free variationEdit

There is free variation of some consonants in Choctaw with some speakers:<ref name="Broadwell15-20 2006">Broadwell (2006:15-20)</ref>

/ɬ/, the voiceless lateral fricative, is pronounced as a voiceless dental fricative [θ]:<ref name="Broadwell15-20 2006" /> {{#invoke:IPA|main}}→{{#invoke:IPA|main}}.
The voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ is pronounced as a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ]:<ref name="Broadwell15-20 2006" /> {{#invoke:IPA|main}}→{{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

Phonological processes of consonantsEdit

In Choctaw {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, the voiceless velar plosive, is often pronounced as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, a voiced velar fricative, between vowels.<ref name="Broadwell15 2006" />

{{#invoke:IPA|main}}→{{#invoke:IPA|main}}/V_V

im-ofi-aki̱lih → [ɪmofiyəɣẽːlih]

III-dog-indeed

'his own dog'

The voiceless glottal fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is often pronounced like a voiceless palatal fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}} when it precedes the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref name="Broadwell16 2006" />

{{#invoke:IPA|main}}→{{#invoke:IPA|main}}/_{{#invoke:IPA|main}}

katihchish → [katɪçtʃɪʃ]

'how'

VowelsEdit

	Short^{{{#if:1\|1\|[5]}}}		Long	Nasal^{{{#if:2\|2\|[6]}}}
	tense	lax	Long	Nasal^{{{#if:2\|2\|[6]}}}
Close front	main}}	main}}	main}}	main}}
Close-mid back	main}}	main}}	main}}	main}}
Open central	main}}	main}}	main}}	main}}

<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} Lax vowels occur more often in closed syllables.<ref name="Broadwell16-18 2006" /> In traditional orthography, ʋ usually indicates {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and u usually indicates {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. Exceptions include pokoli (traditional) for {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, imalakusi for {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. The traditional orthography does not distinguish lax and tense front vowels; instead it indicates {{#invoke:IPA|main}} with e.
<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} Nasal vowels are intrinsically long.

PitchEdit

In Choctaw, very few words are distinguished only by pitch accent.<ref name="Broadwell16-18 2006">Broadwell (2006:16-18)</ref> Nouns in Choctaw have pitch realization at the penultimate syllable or the ultimate syllable.<ref name="Broadwell16-18 2006" /> Verbs in Choctaw will have pitch realization at morphemes indicating tense, but sometimes, pitch directly precedes the tense morpheme.<ref name="Broadwell16-18 2006" />

Syllable structureEdit

Syllables of Choctaw<ref name="Broadwell18-19 2006">Broadwell (2006:18-19)</ref>
Light	example	meaning
V	a.bih	'to kill'
CV	no.sih	'to sleep
Heavy	example	meaning
VV	ii.chih	'to drive'
CVV	pii.ni'	'boat, train'
V̱	a̱.chi'	'quilt'
CV̱	ta̱.chi'	'corn'
VC	ish.ki'	'mother'
CVC	ha.bish.ko'	'nose'
Superheavy	example	meaning
VVC	óok.cha-cha	'she/he woke up and ...'
CVVC	náaf.ka	'dress'
V̱C	a̱t	'come and'
CV̱C	ok.hi̱sh	'medicine'

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.<ref name="Broadwell18-19 2006">Broadwell (2006:18-19)</ref>
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/.<ref name="Broadwell18-19 2006" />
Syllables do not begin with consonant clusters CC, but there is an exception in an initial /i-/ deletion, which results in a syllable *CCV .<ref name="Broadwell18-19 2006" />

Rhythmic lengtheningEdit

Rhythmic lengthening is the process of lengthening the vowel duration of an even-numbered CV syllable in Choctaw. However, vowels at the end of words are not permitted to undergo that process. Also, if an even-numbered syllable is a verbal prefixes class I or III, the affix's vowel may not undergo lengthening, and the same holds true for noun prefixes class III as well.<ref name="Broadwell 21-26 2006">Broadwell (2006:21-26)</ref>

CV-CV-CVC→CV-CV꞉-CVC

salahatok→sala꞉hatok

Smallest possible wordEdit

The smallest possible word in Choctaw must contain either two short vowels or one long vowel.<ref name="Broadwell 20 2006">Broadwell (2006:20)</ref>
ofi' 'dog'

waak 'cow'

/a-/ insertion: there are verbs with only one short vowel in their roots. Without an affix attached to the verb root, the verbs become impossible utterances because Choctaw requires either two short vowels or a long vowel for a word to be formed. An initial A-prefix is thus attached to the root of the verb.<ref name="Broadwell18-21 2006">Broadwell (2006:18-21)</ref>

*bih → a-bih

Phonological processesEdit

Glide insertionEdit

When a verb root ends with a long vowel, a glide /w/ or /j/ is inserted after the long vowel.<ref name="Broadwell125 2006">Broadwell (2006:125)</ref>
∅→/wa/ / V꞉____

Where V꞉ is oo
boo-a-h→bóowah

∅→/ja/ / V꞉____

Where V꞉ can be either ii or aa
talaa-a-h→talaayah

/i-/ deletionEdit

In Choctaw, there is a group of nouns which contain an initial /i-/ that encodes for 3rd person possession. It may be deleted, but if the /i/ is part of a VC syllable structure, the C is also deleted, because the resulting CCV syllable is rarely a permissible syllable structure at the onset of words.<ref name="Broadwell60-62 2006">Broadwell (2006:60-62)</ref>

/i/→∅ / #____

Part 1: /i + C/→∅ + /C/ / #____

Part 2: /∅ + C/→∅ / #____

ippókni'→ppókni'→pókni'

/-l-/ infix assimilationEdit

The verbal infix /l/ is pronounced /h, ch, or ɬ/ when /l/ precedes a voiceless consonant.<ref name="Broadwell124-125 2006">Broadwell (2006:124-125)</ref>

l → {h, tʃ, ɬ} /_C_[-voice]

ho-l-tinah → ho-ɬ-tinah

Phonological processes of the suffix /-li/Edit

There are several assimilation processes that occur with the suffix /-li/. When the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by /f/ /ɫ/ /h/ /m/ /n/ or /w/, the /l/ assimilates to the corresponding consonant that precedes it.<ref name="Broadwell26-27 2006">Broadwell (2006:26-27)</ref> Also, the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /b/, the /l/ is realized as /b/.<ref name="Broadwell26-27 2006" /> Third, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /p/, the /p/ is pronounced as /b/.<ref name="Broadwell26-27 2006" /> Lastly, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /t/, the /t/ is pronounced as /l/.<ref name="Broadwell26-27 2006" />

/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/ / ____/l/

/tap-li-h/→ tablih

/t/→/l/ / ____/l/

/palhat-li-h/→ pallalih

There are two deletion processes that occur with the suffix /-li/. If the verbal suffix /-li/ precedes the verbal suffix /-tʃi/, the suffix /-li/ may be deleted if the resulting syllable, after deletion, is a consonant cluster.<ref name="Broadwell130 2006">Broadwell (2006:130)</ref> The other process occurs when the verbal suffix /-li/ precedes the suffix /-t/, which results with the suffix /-li/ being sometimes deleted if the syllable /-li/ has not already gone under phonological processes as described above.<ref name="Broadwell219 2006">Broadwell (2006:219)</ref>

/li/→∅ / ____/tʃi/

balii-li-chi-h→balii-chi-h

/li/→∅ / ____/t/

balii-li--h→balii-t

Schwa insertionEdit

Schwa insertion: when a glottal fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or a velar stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}} precedes a voiced consonant within a consonant cluster, a schwa {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is inserted to break up the consonant cluster.<ref name="Broadwell16 2006">Broadwell (2006:16)</ref>

∅→{{#invoke:IPA|main}} / {{#invoke:IPA|main}}____[+voiced] consonant

'ahnih'→/ahənih/

Vowel deletionEdit

Vowel deletion is the process of a short vowel being deleted at a morpheme boundary. It occurs when an affix containing a short vowel at the morpheme boundary binds to a word that also contains a short vowel at the morpheme boundary.<ref name="Broadwell26 2006">Broadwell (2006:26)</ref>

For most vowel deletion cases, the preceding short vowel is deleted at the morpheme boundary.<ref name="Broadwell26 2006" />

V→∅ / ____V

/baliili-aatʃĩ-h/→baliilaatʃĩh

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.<ref name="Broadwell26 2006" />

V→∅ / V____

/sa-ibaa-waʃoohah/→sabaa-waʃoohah

OrthographyEdit

Template:Multiple image

IPA	Linguistic	{{{2}}}\|[7]}}	Mississippi	Traditional	Byington/Swanton
Vowels
a	a
i	i
o	o
Long
aː	aa	á	á	a
aː	aa	á	ā	a
iː	ii	í	í	e, i
iː	ii	í	ī	e, i
oː	oo	ó	ó	o
oː	oo	ó	ō	o
Nasal
ãː	a̱		ą	a̱	aⁿ
+C	a̱		ą	am, an
ĩː	i̱		į	i̱	iⁿ
+C	i̱		į	im, in
õː	o̱		ǫ	o̱	oⁿ
+C	o̱		ǫ	om, on, um, un
Lax
ə	a			{{{2}}}\|[8]}}	ạ
ɪ	i
ʊ	o			u
Consonants
b	b
tʃ	ch		č	ch
f	f
h	h
k	k
l	l
ɬ	lh		ł	{{{2}}}\|[9]}}	{{{2}}}\|[10]}}
m	m
n	n
p	p
s	s
ʃ	sh		š	sh
t	t
w	w
j	y
ʔ	Template:Saltillo	∅

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.

<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} Choctaw Bible Translation Committee
<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} Substituted with 'v' according to typesetting or encoding constraints.
<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} The former is used before a vowel; the latter, before a consonant. The intervocalic use of Template:Angbr conflated the common consonant cluster /hl/ with /ɬ/.
<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} Dictionary editors John Swanton and Henry Halbert systematically replaced all instances of Template:Angbr with Template:Angbr, regardless whether Template:Angbr stood for /ɬ/ or /hl/. Despite the editors' systematic replacement of all Template:Angbr with Template:Angbr, the digraph Template:Angbr was allowed to stand.

MorphologyEdit

Verbal morphologyEdit

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 prefixesEdit

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 affixesEdit

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.<ref>Broadwell (2006:137-140)</ref>


person markers			class I			class II		class III		class N		imperative
person markers			+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
	singular	medial	-li			sa-	si-	-sa̱-	-sam-	ak-
	paucal		ii-		il-	pi-		pi̱-	pim-	kii-	kil-
	plural		ii-		il-	hapi-		hapi̱-	hapim-	kii-	kil-
second-person	singular		is-	ish-		chi-		chi̱-	chim-	chik-		∅
second-person	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.

Active verbsEdit

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

hablitok ("kicked", past tense)
singular	paucal	plural	singular	plural		third-person
style="background: none; border: none;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" Template:Diagonal split header	first-person			second-person		third-person
first-person	singular	1\|[11]}} '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'
first-person	plural	ii-sa-habli-tok 'we kicked me'	il-ili-habli-tok^{{{#if:1\|1\|[12]}}} '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)'	1\|[13]}} 'you kicked yourself'	ish-hachi-habli-tok 'ýou kicked you (pl.)'	ish-habli-tok 'you kicked her/him/it/them'
second-person	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'	1\|[14]}} '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.)'	1\|[15]}} 'she/etc. kicked herself/etc.'

<templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:| }} 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:

Am-anoli-tok 'She/he/it/they told me.'
Chim-anoli-tok 'She/he/it/they told you.'
Im-anoli-tok 'She/he/it/they told him/her/it/them.'
Pim-anoli-tok 'She/he/it/they told us.'
Hachim-anoli-tok 'She/he/it/they told y'all.'

When a transitive verb occurs with more than one agreement prefix, I prefixes precede II and III prefixes:

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

Choctaw language

DialectsEdit

PhonologyEdit

ConsonantsEdit

Free variationEdit

Phonological processes of consonantsEdit

VowelsEdit

PitchEdit

Syllable structureEdit

Rhythmic lengtheningEdit

Smallest possible wordEdit

Phonological processesEdit

Glide insertionEdit

/i-/ deletionEdit

/-l-/ infix assimilationEdit

Phonological processes of the suffix /-li/Edit

Schwa insertionEdit

Vowel deletionEdit

OrthographyEdit

MorphologyEdit

Verbal morphologyEdit

Verb prefixesEdit

Agreement affixesEdit

Active verbsEdit

Stative verbsEdit

NegativesEdit

Anaphoric prefixesEdit

Verb suffixesEdit

Verbal infixesEdit

Nominal morphologyEdit

Noun prefixesEdit

Noun suffixesEdit

Word order and case markingEdit

VocabularyEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

SourcesEdit

Further readingEdit

External linksEdit