The Choctaw Language! - SpeechLeech 'C'

Forgot to credit the video I found of the Choctaw elders speaking:

Standing Pine Residents Discuss Choctaw Language & Culture by (Choctaw Cultural Legacy)

Welcome All!

SpeechLeech is a series in which I learn one of 4 languages beginning with the same letter, according to the English alphabet, voted for by You, the audience!

It comes in 2 parts:
- the choices video (in which I briefly introduce the 4 languages of the letter)
- the results video (in which I talk about the language and the history and culture of the people who speak it a bit more in-depth, after which I briefly show what I've managed to learn after 2 weeks of studying by attempting to speak the language)

How it works:
o Based on English alphabet
o 4 languages per letter (A, B, C, D, etc...)
o Vote during the the first 24 hours after the video is posted
o Winner is announced the following day

Criteria for choices:
1) Must have enough online resources to learn
2) Must be written using one of the following scripts: Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew

Criteria for learning:
1) Be able to introduce myself
2) Be able to count, say today’s date
3) Be able to read a passage of text
4) Discuss something about the language/culture in question in said language
5) Talk about daily life (weather, food, activities, etc.)
6) Be able to ramble a bit off topic

The week in between the choices video and the results video, I will be posting an "Honourable Mentions" video, in which I talk about another language beginning with the same letter, as well as the history and culture of the people who speak it in-depth, which wasn't featured as one of the 4 learning choices.

If you’ve ever been curious to learn a language, no matter how ‘irrelevant’ or small, just do it!
Keep it alive, and pass it on to the next generation!
Let’s make the world a more colourful place!

[contumacious]

I overheard a man speaking Choctaw about ten years ago at an Aldi supermarket in Moore, Oklahoma, and have even met monolingual Choctaw elders in southeast Oklahoma where I grew up. I also overheard an elderly Choctaw couple speaking Choctaw at a MacDonald's restaurant along the high here some years ago.

[tonguesinc.]

It's great you're spreading knowledge on these languages that don't get spotlight!

[thomasolive]

Interesting. You were able to pick up on several different aspects of speaking Choctaw. we have a past tense marker "tuk". For the sentence to be in the past tense, it must have "tuk" at or near the end of the sentence. nipi awashli = he/she/it is frying meat. nipi awashli li = I am frying meat. I see how you came to the conclusion on the ansha sentence. Howerver, it gives off more of a "He/She fried meat, here it is." You learned that "li" is used after verbs to indicate "I am doing (said verb)" However, that is not true for bvnna at the 5:40 mark. Chahta okla yvt America anuka miya atako America ia sv bvnna. Kanat Chahta anumpa anumpola hinla ka afama sv bvnna. At the 6:04 mark, you used kiyo instead of keyu. Kiyo is our negation marker and keyu is our word for no. Himak nittak vt nitak hullo nakfish. Himak nittak holhtina yvt pokkoli tuklo akocha tahlapi. Himak hvshi yvt eplil. your "do you want to go outside" at 6:25 was spot on in spelling. lol. at 6:55 ishi is the Choctaw word for "have/has." Howerver, it only works with objects that can be held and not living. I have a pencil. I have a book. I cant have a house. I cant have anything alive. At 6:59 the same thing kinda applies for hochvffo. It would be "sv hochvffo" I am hungry. That is a wonderful clip of Mississippi Choctaw speakers. Spelling is always a topic of discussion among Choctaw people. We spell how it sounds and therefore spellings can differ. Not to mention the different dialects. The Choctaw School of Language is still a functioning website. I'm so glad our language is being talked about. Yakoke Chito!

[ericgibson]

We don't have an actual spelling, we have common spellings. I'll give u props u did good.

[rachellewhite]

I am Chahta. My tribe is Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Thank you for spreading info on my tribe. Also - I love the Irish! They often re-walk the trail of tears in honor of our tribe.

It means so much to hear the words of my ancestors being spoken from you!

[cbbuntz]

I grew up in the Choctaw nation. I actually helped document interviews with the last surviving original enrollees. A lot of the interviews were conducted in Choctaw. All I picked up was "what is your name?" because each interview started that way. Also, my nephew is related to one of the WWII code talkers which is a pretty cool thing to have in your family tree.

But I've never heard Choctaw spoken in the wild outside of those interviews. Sadly, it's pretty much a dead language now.

[jimowens]

There are a few things to add. First, none of those pictures with people in traditional clothes were Choctaw.

Another thing is that Van Cleave Live Oak are fake. In the US, there are high requirements for the federal government to recognize tribes. The Van Cleave "tribe" do not pass muster, so they are only state recognized, which was bolstered in part by nepotism on the side of the state of Mississippi and the "chief". They have very little understanding of Choctaw culture, traditions, etc. and their customs are pretty foreign to us. However, the MOWA band is recognized as being pretty similar to us, so federally-recognized Choctaw bands generally support their federal recognition since they have a very strong argument to claim relation to us.

The clans (iksa not iska) do not exist due to cultural annihilation on the part of the federal government, but animals being part of the nomenclature is pretty correct (at least that's what old timers have said).

Here are some notes on the phrases:

She fried the meat - Nipi awashli tuk. (tuk indicates something that happened in the past. There is no "she" because Choctaw is contextual, so the phrase could equally mean he, she, or it). the "hli" part is off, too, but you do seem to catch the contextual nature of the language, which is rough since other languages don't have that. To say that you saw or smelled someone do it, you'd just say that, which would be "Nipi awashli pisali tuk" (I saw her/him/it fry meat). To say you smelled it in your context, it would be "Nipi awashli aiishwali tuk" (I smelled the frying meat.)

I've never heard asha being a suffix to describe whether you were there or not; it just means "where something is" as far as I know. It could maybe be the suffix -ash, which indicates something that happened in the past?

For the first phrases, here's how a native speaker would construct it: Chahta anumpa ahchiba fehna - Your translation is exactly right. Aiali is one of those words that varies wildly depending on context, but its common use is to mean something is from somewhere.

The second phrases is pretty good. It has lots of weird things in it and is kind of a complex phrase. It would be: America iali sv bvnna; Chahta yvt okchaya aiasha.

The third phrase is one of those that has a lot of lingual quirks. Choctaw is very direct, so there is no "and well", "and so", etc. I would kind of swap things around to be: Hattak Chahta anumpoli afama sv bvnna.

The fourth phrases are great. It has perfect structure and is what a native speaker would say, but it has another little quirk: There are suffixes that indicate questions, so your phrases would look like this: Katimma iala chi o? ("O" indicates an interrogative with an action taking place). The other phrase would have the same rule, so it would just be "Nanta pisala chi o?)

The greeting phrase is correct, but sounds a little odd to me. I've heard of hvt being used. I guess the Oklahoma dialect I speak doesn't use it, but it's definitely a subject marker. Aside from that nitpick, those phrases are perfect, too.

The next two phrases are perfect, too. The weather one is a little rough. Here's what we say: Himak nittak kucha ya omba. (Today it is raining outside). "Hikia" means standing. The interrogative about weather is perfect, except since it indicates an action, you'd end it with "o", but you understand the sentence structure.

My parents have two dogs: sv ki micha ishki itatuklo yvt imasha ofi tuklo. The only thing missing from the other phrase is the subject marker (hochifo yvt...). The phrase for parents seems odd, but it's in the dictionary, which is odd. You'd never use "sv" with a father, only with a mother, which is confusing. I'd just say "aki cha svshki" (my father and mother)

Being hungry: ilimpa himonasi (let's eat now); sv hochvffo. ilhkoli does mean "move", but it means like to move a limb or to shift around; movement to go somewhere is "ia".

Those women in the video sound like they're speaking very formally. Unfortunately, my speech and that of some others I've met have a more informal style, so even we have some problems understanding each other. It gets even more complex because all of our different communities were squished together in Oklahoma, so there are tons of dialects and it can be very different amongst them.

Overall, really good for someone without any prior knowledge of the language.

[EgyptNile]

My grandparents was fully Choctaw from Mississippi 😁✨

[moonoverhwy]

I absolutely love this video! Good job!!- I'm currently learning Choctaw and I have to agree. After having learned two other languages (Spanish and French), Chahta Anumpa is by far, the hardest.😩

[datasterisk]

I believe that most of the inconsistent material you found is a consequence of Choctaw being a spoken language first and foremost. MBCI reservation has a number of different communities and each has their own little quirks that differentiates, say, red water speakers from conehatta speakers from pearl River and so on. Spellings are also all over the place so bogue chitto can become bok cito or conehatta can be konihata depending on who you ask

[bas]

I’m Choctaw I used to live in Oklahoma but I moved to Alaska am I do have a lot of family members that live in Oklahoma still

[savannahtheequestrian]

I'm Choctaw but I don't know much about the language so this helps a lot

[RelenaJenn]

Do you know how to say "Oh, wife my dear"?

I am trying to figureout this Native American, song that was passed down.
I used to think it was Cherokee, but one lady told me it sounded like Choctaw.
Granny used to sing it as well, my sister said Granny father also used to sing it.

I really am trying to find out which tribe it would be from. It isn't easy and all. So, any help would be greatly appreciated. (If you can help at all.)

[emilygold]

Yeah, that's not exactly how we speak Chahta or pronounce it. Good luck and keep learning.

[michaeldavis]

I live in Pushmataha county lol, and I have no clue who Pushmataha is. Oklahoma's education system is a joke.

[DarkovNyteGaming]

Native Americans didn’t get citizenship until 1920’s and didn’t get to use our traditional ceremonies until 1970’s

[noahinson]

Im chickasaw so choctaw isnt 100% understandable to me, but the stuff that is intelligible was relatively good!

[georgeherbertcarson]

A lot of black Americans(aboriginals) in the Louisiana Mississippi area are Chata (Choctaw) and don’t even know it. Our classification was changed over time.

[courtneysisneros]

Chahta anumpa anumpuli chommi la hinla

[nzjosiah]

Pushmataha is my great great great grandfather!