Kmack
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Update 2019 edit
I stopped using this account eight years ago. I had kind of hoped that Choctaw would have been much more developed on Wiktionary since then. At the time, I didn't understand Choctaw well enough to contribute much more than adding lemmas I could find from various sources. The Byington/Swanton dictionary is out of copyright and free on Google Books. Its idiosyncratic transcription of Choctaw as well as its archaic and obsolete vocabulary make it a challenging source.
Orthography is one of the most intimidating and confounding aspects of incorporating Choctaw. Native American linguistics in general is extremely bogged down by everyone feeling the need to create their own writing system. You wouldn't begin a grammar of French by inventing your own French orthography. Why do you feel the need to do it with Choctaw? Yes, the spelling systems are defective and ambiguous. But so is English and most other languages.
I'm starting to realize that final apostrophes, final h's and double vowels are strictly restricted to academic writing. (Not to mention superscript n and dot under a.) As far as I can tell, there really are two Choctaw orthographies. One is traditional which is fairly standardized. The other is modern which consistently indicates geminate consonants and replaces vowels e, u, v with i, o, a with long vowels indicated with an acute or a macron.
My ideal would have all lemmas under the modern orthography, with vowel length and pitch indicated in the headword just like nasalization, kind of like how Latin entries don't include macrons in the lemmas.
AS I keep adding Choctaw entries, I'm figuring new and better ways to incorporate and present Choctaw. My goal is to be comprehensive and informative.
- Broadwell criticizes the editors of the Byington dictionary for something he did himself:
- This yields an unfortunate situation in which this, the largest dictionary of Choctaw, is written in an orthography which does not match any of the orthographies in general use.
Choctaw headwords edit
Inalienable nouns mostly use class II possessive prefixes, but they also use class III prefixes. For some reason, references treat the class III inalienable nouns as either first-person (anki "my father") or as non-lexical morphemes (-ki "father"). There is no justification for this distinction. The lemma form of ishki isn't sashki or -shki.
Orthography table edit
I made a table comparing the various Choctaw orthography standards:
Moved to Appendix:Choctaw orthography
Proto-Muscogean edit
IPA reconstructed |
Choctaw-Chickasaw | Koasati-Alabama | Mikasuki-Hitchiti | Creek-Seminole |
---|---|---|---|---|
/b/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/tʃ/ | chi- | chi- | chi- | chi- |
/ts/ | sa-, nusi | cha-, nuci | cha- | cha-, nucita |
/f/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/h/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/k/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/kʷ/ | bihi | bihicuba | Example | ki |
/l/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/ɬ/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/n̥/ | nani | ɬaɬo | lhaalhi | rvro |
/m/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/n/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/p/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/s/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/t/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/w/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/j/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
Vowels | ||||
/a/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/o/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/i/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/aː/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/oː/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/iː/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/ãː/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/õː/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
/ĩː/ | Example | Example | Example | Example |
Declension (work in progress edit
There are at least three distinct paradigms: final consonant, final vowel with glottal stop, final vowel with glottal fricative. Hattak, ofi and koni are representatives of each. One challenge is that the determiners can be stacked, as many as three at a time. I'm not sure it's necessary to include them in a declension table.
Case marker | with determiners | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
distal -ma(k) "that" |
proximal -pa(k) "this" |
contrastive -akoo |
focus -oo |
-kia "too, also" | pejorative -akhii | ||
ommitted | hattak | hattakma | hattakpa | hattakakoo | hattakoo | - | |
nominative | hattakat | hattakmat | hattakpat | hattakakoosh | hattakoosh | - | hattakakhiit |
accusative | hattaka | hattakma | hattakpa | hattakako | hattako | - | hattakakhi |
nominative2 | hattakato | hattakmato | hattakpato | - | - | - | hattakakhiito |
accusative2 | hattakano | hattakmano | hattakpano | - | - | - | hattakakhiino |
oblique | hattakak | hattakmak | hattakpak | hattakakoo | hattakoo | hattakkia | |
oblique + -kia "also, too" | hattakakkia |
Kinship terms (work in progress) edit
of a man | of a woman | of your mother | of your father | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
brother | older | -anni -tikba |
-tikba | -oshi | -ki |
younger | nakfish | nakfi | |||
sister | older | -tikba tik |
-anni -tikba |
-shki | -hokni |
younger | tik | nakfish | |||
niece | of your brother | oshitik iklanna | ibbitik | obsolete | obsolete |
of your sister | ibbitik | oshitik iklanna | obsolete | -hokni | |
nephew | of a brother | oshi iklanna | sabbayyi | cousin | (obsolete) |
of your sister | sabayyi | oshi iklanna |
Conjugation tables (work in progress) edit
- Different paradigms: initial vowel, initial s, initial consonant.
- Verbs have several grades, modes and aspects. There are also particles. These tables could get HUGE.
Active intransitive edit
first-person | second-person | third-person | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | plural | singular | plural | |||
present | bilalih | ībilah | ishbilah | hashbilah | bilah | |
negative | akbíiloh | iibíiloh | chikbíiloh | hachikbíiloh | ikbíilloh | |
imperative | akbilah | iibilah | chikbila | hachikbilah | ikbilah | |
interrogative | bilaloh | ībiloh | ishbiloh | hashbiloh | biloh | |
Tense | ||||||
default | past | distant past | embedded | nomic | -hattok | |
bilah | bilatok | bilattōk | bilak | bila | bilahattok | |
Aspect | ||||||
n-grade durative |
h-grade | hn-grade iterative |
l-grade | g-grade delayed inception |
y-grade delayed inception | |
bila | bihíla | bihila | bī́la | ? | bíyyila |
Active transitive edit
DIRECT OBJECT SUBJECT
|
first-person | second-person | third-person | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | paucal | plural | singular | plural | |||
first-person | singular | sa-bilachi-lih | pi-bi-lachi-lih | hapi-bilachi-lih | chi-bilachi-lih | hachi-bilachi-lih | bilachi-lih |
plural | ī-sa-bilachih | ī-pi-bilachih | ī-hapi-bilachih | ī-chi-bilachih | ī-hachi-bilachih | ī-bilachih | |
second-person | singular | issabilachih | ishpibilachih | ishhapibilachih | ishchibilachih | ishhachibilachih | ishbilachih |
plural | hassabilachih | hashpibilachih | hashhapibilachih | hashchibilachih | hashhachibilachih | hashbilachih | |
third-person | bilachih |
Active transitive affective (class I-class III agreement) edit
Present tense | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
direct object subject
|
first-person | second-person | third-person | |||||
singular | paucal | plural | singular | plural | ||||
first-person | singular | am-áchi-lih | pim-áchi-lih | hapim-áchi-lih | chim-áchi-lih | hachm-áchi-lih | im-áchi-lih | |
plural | il-am-áchih | ī-pim-áchih | ī-hapim-áchih | ī-chim-áchih | ī-hachim-áchih | il-im-áchih | ||
second-person | singular | ishamáchih | ishpimáchih | ishhapimáchih | ishchimáchih | ishhachimáchih | ishimáchih | |
plural | hashamáchih | hashpimáchih | hashhapimáchih | hashchimáchih | hashhachimáchih | hashimáchih | ||
third-person | imáchih | |||||||
Past tense |
Stative transitive (class II-III agreement) edit
DIRECT OBJECT SUBJECT
|
first-person | second-person | third-person | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | paucal | plural | singular | plural | |||
first-person | singular | a-sa-nokowa-h | a-pi-nokowa-h | a-hapi-nokowa-h | a-chi-nokowa-h | a-hachi-nokowa-h | a-nowkowa-h |
paucal | pi-sa-nokowah | pi-pi-nokowah | pi-hapi-nokowah | pi-chi-nokowah | pi-hachi-nokowah | pi-nokowah | |
plural | hapi-sa-nokowah | hapi-hapi-nokowah | hapi-hapi-nokowah | hapi-chi-nokowah | hapi-hachi-nokowah | hapi-nokowah | |
second-person | singular | chisanokowah | chi-pi-nokowah | chi-hapi-nokowah | chi-chi-nokowah | chi-hachi-nokowah | chi-nokowah |
plural | hachisanokowah | hachi-pi-nokowah | hachi-hapi-nokowah | hachi-chi-nokowah | hachi-hachi-nokowah | hachi-nokowah | |
third-person | inokowah |
Active ditransitive edit
Oh, boy.
SUBJECT | DIRECT OBJECT INDIRECT OBJECT
|
first-person | second-person | third-person | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | paucal | plural | singular | plural | |||||
first-person | singular | first-person | singular | a-sa-pila-lih | a-pi-pila-lih | a-hapi-pila-lih | a-chi-pila-lih | a-hachi-pila-lih | a-pila-lih |
paucal | pi-sa-pilah | pi-pi-pilah | pi-hapi-pilah | pi-chi-pilah | pi-hachi-pilah | pi-pilah | |||
plural | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
second-person | singular | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | ||
plural | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
third-person | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
plural | first-person | singular | a-sa-pila-lih | a-pi-pila-lih | a-hapi-pila-lih | a-chi-pila-lih | a-hachi-pila-lih | a-pila-lih | |
paucal | pi-sa-pilah | pi-pi-pilah | pi-hapi-pilah | pi-chi-pilah | pi-hachi-pilah | pi-pilah | |||
plural | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
second-person | singular | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | ||
plural | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
third-person | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
second-person | singular | first-person | singular | a-sa-pila-lih | a-pi-pila-lih | a-hapi-pila-lih | a-chi-pila-lih | a-hachi-pila-lih | a-pila-lih |
paucal | pi-sa-pilah | pi-pi-pilah | pi-hapi-pilah | pi-chi-pilah | pi-hachi-pilah | pi-pilah | |||
plural | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
second-person | singular | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | ||
plural | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
third-person | hapi-sa-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-hapi-pilah | hapi-chi-pilah | hapi-hachi-pilah | hapi-pilah | |||
plural | first-person | singular | hashasapilah | hashpisapilah | hapisapilah | hashchisapilah | hashhachisapilah | hashisapilah | |
paucal | hashapipilah | hashpipipilah | hashhapipipilah | hashchipipilah | hashhachipipilah | hashipipilah | |||
plural | hashahapipilah | hashpihapipilah | hashhapihapipilah | hashchihapipilah | hashhachihapipilah | hashihapipilah | |||
second-person | singular | hashachipilah | hashpichipilah | hashhapichipilah | hashchichipilah | hashhachichipilah | hashichipilah | ||
plural | hashahachipilah | hashpihachipilah | hashhapihachipilah | hashchihachipilah | hashhachihachipilah | hashihachipilah | |||
third-person | hashapilah | hashpipipilah | hashhapipilah | hashchipilah | hashhachipilah | hashipilah
| |||
third-person | first-person | singular | asapilah | pisapilah | hapisapilah | chisapilah | hachisapilah | isapilah | |
paucal | apipilah | pipipilah | hapipipilah | chipipilah | hachipipilah | ipipilah | |||
plural | ahapipilah | pihapipilah | hapihapipilah | chihapipilah | hachihapipilah | ihapipilah | |||
second-person | singular | achipilah | pichipilah | hapichipilah | chichipilah | hachichipilah | ichipilah | ||
plural | ahachipilah | pihachipilah | hapihachipilah | chihachipilah | hachihachipilah | ihachipilah | |||
third-person | apilah | pipipilah | hapipilah | chipilah | hachipilah | ipilah |
Stative intransitive (class II subject) edit
yoppa ("to be happy") | declarative | past | future | |
---|---|---|---|---|
first-person | singular | sa-yoppa | sa-yoppatok | sa-yoppāchih |
paucal | pi-yoppah | pi-yoppah | pi-yoppāchih | |
plural | hapi-yoppah | hapi-yoppah | hapi-yoppāchih | |
second-person | singular | chiyoppah | chiyoppah | chiyoppāchih |
plural | hachiyoppah | hachiyoppah | hachiyoppāchih | |
third-person | yoppah |
Stative intransitive affective (class III subject) edit
declarative | past | future | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
first-person | singular | am-achokmah | am-achokmatok | am-achokmāchih |
paucal | pim-achokmah | pim-achokmah | ||
plural | hapim-achokmah | hapim-achokmatok | hapim-achokmāchih | |
second-person | singular | chim-achokmah | chim-achokmatok | chim-achokmāchih |
plural | hachim-achokmah | hachim-achokmatok | hachim-achokmāchih | |
third-person | im-achokmah | im-achokmatok | im-achokmāchih |