Bishinik, unknown date
Choctaw Language
Language is always changing, like fashions and especially music. People will say a word in a particular style and other will follow the example until it is accepted as the way to say it. It is these differences that set people apart from other people. It can denote an area where they live, or even a state. Slang is often created just for this purpose. People who live in the north sound different than people who live in the south and each one is proud of the way they talk. That goes for city folks and country folks as well.
When the Choctaws lived in Mississippi before 1830, they probably all spoke Choctaw in the same way, however, when the tribe was removed to Oklahoma, certain changes came into the language. The Choctaws who stayed in Mississippi now speak differently from those who now live in Oklahoma. This is called a dialect. All Choctaws can understand each other. they merely pronounce the words slightly different. And as a result, there are many ways of saying the same thing.
There are only 21 letters in the Choctaw alphabet including three combinations. You'll find most of the letters pronounced as they are in English. This fact, alone, made it very easy for the missionaries to translate many of their materials in Choctaw enabling the Choctaw people to learn very quickly.
A - as in father, or in sofa
A - as "u" in tub
B - as in boy, or bat
Ch - as in church
E - as in they, or long "a"
F - as in far, or fight
H - as in house, or horse
HI - as in think
I - as in it, or give
K - as in kick, or kite
L - as an aspirated "I"
M - as in might, or more
N - as in night or now
0 - as in not, or "u" in put
P - as in pow
S - as in sir, but never as in his
Sh - as in shall or shirt
T - as in top or tight
W - as in we, or way
Y - as in young, or year
L - as in laugh, or lay
There are two diphthongs: AI - as in pine AU - as in now, or all
Nasalized vowels: "A", "I", "0", and "U" or A, I, O and U. These can be written either way and are pure nasals. They retain the vowel sounds with the exception of some of the sound coming through the nose like a slight breath creating a softer sound. The only difference in the sound is when it occurs before the letter "k". The the vowel sound is long and harder, more like "ang", "ing", "ong", and "ung".
In pronouncing words K or H is followed by I, M, N, or B, there is a very short vowel sound. It is almost like a soft breath between the two letters.
Ahni - to think (ah-a-neh) tohbi - white (toe-i-beh)
ikbi - to make (ik-i-beh) lakna - yellow (lahk-na)
hokli - to catch (hok-i-leh) mahli - to blow (mah-i-leh)
In some words u is written for o, and v and a have the same sounds. For example:
hashi - Sun (Han-sheh) hushi - bird (ho-sheh)
chula - fox (chew-lah) hapi - salt (ha-peh)
pala - lamp (pa-lah) shinuk - sand (Shee-newk)
The consonant hl has three pronounciations. Older Choctaws will say "thl" where as a more modern pronounciation is simply "th" as in think.
hlampko - strong (thlamp-ko/thamp-ko)
Okhlili - dark (oak-thlee-lee/oak-thee-lee)
However, these are not to be confused with some Choctaw words that use both the "h" and "l" sound. For instance: Mahli - (to blow) is pronounced "mah-i-leh", with the middle syllable (i) nothing more than a quick breath. This is one reason why learning the vocabulary is so important.
A double consonant is given an extended sound.
homma - red (hoem-mah) ibbak - hand (eb-bach)
issi - deer (es-seh) chukka - house (chew-kah)
iyi - foot (ee-yeh) nittak - day (neh-tach)
Words containing the combination-letters of "oi" and "oa" are prounounced as though they were "owi" and "owa" - and the combined letters of "ia" and "io" are pronounced as though they were written "iya" and "iyo".
nia - fat (nee-ya) ia - to go (eh-ya)
foi - bee (foe-weh) nukoa - mad (no-koe-wah)
keyu - not (kee-yeh) fiopa - to breath (fi-yoe-pah)
In the study of Choctaw, there is a sound known as "nasalization" or "through the nose". There are two nasal consonants, (m) and (n) in which the vowel before the (m) or (n) is nasalized. In other words, the nasalized sound will be indicated by underlining the vowel.
ampo - dish (ahmpoe) ompi - pawpaw (ohm-peh)
sinti - snake (sehn-teh) pinti - mouse (pehn-teh)
anchi - quilt (ahn-cheh) ofunlo - screech owl ( oe-fun-lo)
Choctaw is not difficult, but it is different than English. To learn more, you may purchase the book and two cassette combination set that this article was taken from. "Introduction to Choctaw" is available at the Choctaw Capitol Museum, Rt.1, Box 105AAA Tuskahoma, OK 74574 for $30 plus $3 shipping and handling. (THE AVAILABLITY AND PRICE MAY NOT BE VALID NOW! CHECK WITH THE MUSEUM BEFORE ORDERING!)
Choctaw Nation News, unknown date
USING THE CHOCTAW DICTIONARY
by Randy Jacobs
(I wasn't able to put in certain diacritical marks that were in the original article. See the Dictionary for correct usage. MB)
In community meetings that have been held around the Choctaw Nation, and one or two outside the ten county area CNN has found a lot of interest in the community happenings and in the area of culture,, history and language.
This month CNN would like to give a little help which concerns the Dictionary of the Choctaw Language which many of our people have and use.
First, we are very fortunate in that the Council of Choctaws of Oklahoma City have been willing to do reprinting of the dictionary as it was printed by the Federal Goverment in 1915.
Second, the latest printing divided the dictionary into two parts. You must be sure to get both parts in order to have the complete dictionary.
The first section, which has the word, then the meaning in English is the vocabulary and the second section, which has the English word first and then words in the Choctaw, is the INDEX. This is very important. I had a friend, who, just the other day said to me, "Who ever heard of a dictionary that had an index?' What could I say but, "You have! Today!"
So don't compare the Choctaw Dictionary to any other dictionary in the world. It is unique.
But rather than trying to explain how the dictionary is to be used why don't we go right to the experts; the latest book on the Choctaw language (1977) comes to us from the Choctaw Bilingual Program which was located at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
The book Introduction To Choctaw was written by Betty Jacob, Dale Nicklas, and Betty Lou Spencer (now Hunkapiller).
On page 184 of this textbook you will find this heading and explanation, slightly edited here:
'USING BYINGTON'S DICTIONARY'
In 1915, the Bureau of American Ethnology published as its Bulletin 46, A dictionary of the Choctaw Language, by the missionary, Rev. Cyrus Byington. This is probably the most easily available Choctaw dictionary, and every serious student of the language should have one.
The dictionary was edited from Byington's manuscripts by John R. Swanton,... with some aid by Henry S. Halbert. Swanton, unlike Byington and Halbert, knew very little about the Choctaw language; he misunderstood certain rules of Choctaw spelling, and so 'revised' Byington's spellings to fit his own misconceptions. Fortunately, by learning a few simple rules, the correct spellings can be restored. Note the following.
1. Swanton substituted a for v; thus hvshi is written hashi, and vlla is written alla.
2. Instead of underlining nasal vowels in accordance with (the Byington rule) , Swanton wrote a raised n after the vowel; for example, miko is written minko), and paki is written panki.
3. Swanton thought that all hl sequences were the sound (in Choctaw equivalent to the English th sound); he did not realize that lh was the way this sound was written before consonants. He therefore changed all hl sequences, even when this spells the sound h before l, to l (barred 1), but left lh unchanged. For example, he wrote alha for vhliha, and tali for tahli, but he left lh in alhtaha for vlhtaha.
Byington's Dictionary is in two parts, The first is the 'Choctaw-English Vocabulary'; this gives an alphabetical list of Choctaw words with their meanings in English. In other words, it translates from Choctaw to English. The second part is the 'English-Choctaw Index'. Note 'Index' not 'Vocabulary'. This contains an alphabetical list of English words, and for each, the Choctaw word in the Vocabulary under which you will find the translation for the English word. Unless this is understood, the Index cannot be properly used.
For example, suppose you want to look up the Choctaw word for 'forty'. . You look this up in the index and find the following entry: forty, pokoli. Now the point is that pokoli is not the Choctaw word for 'forty'. What you have to do now is look pokoli up in the Vocabulary. There, you will find the following entry: pokoli, a. ten; ... pokoli ushta, a., forty...
One final word: notice that the alphabetical order is a a b ch e f h i k l l m n o p s sh t u w y.