# Choctaw language

The Choctaw language (Choctaw: Chahta anumpa), 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.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma published the New Choctaw dictionary in 2016.

## Dialects

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.

## Phonology

* More information on suffixes is in the Morphology section.

### Consonants

| | Labial | Alveolar | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| | Labial | central | lateral | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| Nasal | m | n | | | | |
| Stop | p b | t | | | k | ʔ |
| Affricate | | | | ch [tʃ] | | |
| Fricative | f | s | ɬ | sh [ʃ] | | h |
| Approximant | | | l | y [j] | w | |
* ^ The only voiced stop is /b/. The voiceless stops /p/, /t/, and /k/ may become partially voiced between vowels, especially /k/ and for male speakers. Also, the voiceless stops are slightly aspirated at the onset of words and before stressed syllables, behaving like English voiceless plosives.
* ^ Controversially, some analyses suggest that all nouns end in an underlying consonant phoneme. Nouns apparently ending in a vowel actually have a glottal stop /ʔ/ or a glottal fricative /h/ as the final consonant. Such consonants become realized when suffixes are attached.
* ^ The distinction between phonemes /s/ and /ʃ/ is neutralized at the end of words.

#### Free variation

* There is free variation of some consonants in Choctaw with some speakers:
* /ɬ/, the voiceless lateral fricative, is pronounced as a voiceless dental fricative [θ]: /ɬ/→[θ].
* The voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ is pronounced as a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ]: /f/→[ɸ].

#### Phonological processes of consonants

* In Choctaw /k/, the voiceless velar plosive, is often pronounced as [ɣ], a voiced velar fricative, between vowels.
    /k/→[ɣ]/V_V
    imofi-aki-lih→imofiy-əɣə̃꞉-lih
* The voiceless glottal fricative /h/ is often pronounced like a voiceless palatal fricative [ç] when it precedes the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate /tʃ/.
    /h/→[ç]/_tʃ
    katihchish→katiçtʃiʃ

### Vowels

| | Short | Short | Long | Nasal |
| | tense | lax | Long | Nasal |
| Close front | i | ɪ | iː | ĩː~ẽː |
| Close-mid back | o | ʊ | oː | õː |
| Open central | a | ə | aː | ãː |
* ^ Lax vowels occur more often in closed syllables. In traditional orthography, ʋ usually indicates [ə] and u usually indicates [ʊ]. Exceptions include pokoli (traditional) for /pʊk.koli/, imalakusi for /imaːlakosi/. The traditional orthography does not distinguish lax and tense front vowels; instead it indicates /iː/ with e.
* ^ Nasal vowels are intrinsically long.

#### Pitch

* In Choctaw, very few words are distinguished only by pitch accent. Nouns in Choctaw have pitch realization at the penultimate syllable or the ultimate syllable. Verbs in Choctaw will have pitch realization at morphemes indicating tense, but sometimes, pitch directly precedes the tense morpheme.

### Syllable structure

Syllables of Choctaw :
| Syllable | Type | Example |
| V | Light | a.bih |
| CV | Light | no.sih |
| VV | Heavy | ii.chih |
| CVV | Heavy | pii.ni' |
| V | Heavy | a.chi' |
| CV | Heavy | ta.chi' |
| VC | Heavy | ish.ki' |
| CVC | Heavy | ha.bish.ko' |
| VVC | Super Heavy | óok.cha-cha |
| CVVC | Super Heavy | náaf.ka |
| VC | Super Heavy | at |
| CVC | Super Heavy | ok.hish |
| *(C)VCC | Super Heavy | tablit.tapt |
| *CCV | Super Heavy | ski.tii.nnih |
* 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.
* 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/.
* Syllables do not begin with consonant clusters CC, but there is an exception in an initial /i-/ deletion, which results in a syllable *CCV .

#### Rhythmic lengthening

* 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.
    CV-CV-CVC→CV-CV꞉-CVC
    salahatok→sala꞉hatok

#### Smallest possible word

* The smallest possible word in Choctaw must contain either two short vowels or one long vowel.
    a꞉t
* /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.
    *bih → a-bih

### Phonological processes
#### Glide insertion

* When a verb root ends with a long vowel, a glide /w/ or /j/ is inserted after the long vowel.
* ∅→/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-/ deletion

* 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.
    /i/→∅ / #____
    Part 1: /i + C/→∅ + /C/ / #____
    Part 2: /∅ + C/→∅ / #____
    ippókni'→ppókni'→pókni'

#### /-l-/ infix assimilation

* The verbal infix /l/ is pronounced /h, ch, or ɬ/ when /l/ precedes a voiceless consonant.
    l → {h, tʃ, ɬ} /_C$_{[-voice]}$
    ho-l-tinah → ho-ɬ-tinah

#### Phonological processes of the suffix /-li/

* 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. Also, the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /b/, the /l/ is realized as /b/. Third, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /p/, the /p/ is pronounced as /b/. Lastly, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /t/, the /t/ is pronounced as /l/.
    /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. 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.
    /li/→∅ / ____/tʃi/
    balii-li-chi-h→balii-chi-h
    /li/→∅ / ____/t/
    balii-li--h→balii-t

#### Schwa insertion

* Schwa insertion: when a glottal fricative /h/ or a velar stop /k/ precedes a voiced consonant within a consonant cluster, a schwa /ə/ is inserted to break up the consonant cluster.
    ∅→/ə/ / /h/____[+voiced] consonant
    ∅→/ə/ / /k/____[+voiced] consonant
    'ahnih'→/ahənih/

#### Vowel deletion

* 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.
* For most vowel deletion cases, the preceding short vowel is deleted at the morpheme boundary.
    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.
    V→∅ / V____
    /sa-ibaa-waʃoohah/→sabaa-waʃoohah

## Orthography

| IPA | Linguistic | CBTC | Mississippi | Traditional | Byington/Swanton |
| Vowels ||||||
| a | a | a | a | a | a |
| i | i | i | i | i | i |
| o | o | o | o | o | o |
| Long ||||||
| aː | aa | á | á | a | a |
| aː | aa | á | ā | a | a |
| iː | ii | í | í | e, i | e, i |
| iː | ii | í | ī | e, i | e, i |
| oː | oo | ó | ó | o | o |
| oː | oo | ó | ō | o | o |
| Nasal ||||||
| ãː | a̱ | a̱ | ą | a̱ | aⁿ |
| +C | a̱ | a̱ | ą | am, an | am, an |
| ĩː | i̱ | i̱ | į | i̱ | iⁿ |
| +C | i̱ | i̱ | į | im, in | im, in |
| õː | o̱ | o̱ | ǫ | o̱ | oⁿ |
| +C | o̱ | o̱ | ǫ | om, on, um, un | om, on, um, un |
| Lax ||||||
| ə | a | a | a | ʋ | ạ |
| ɪ | i | i | i | i | i |
| ʊ | o | o | o | u | u |
| Consonants ||||||
| b | b | b | b | b | b |
| tʃ | ch | ch | č | ch | ch |
| f | f | f | f | f | f |
| h | h | h | h | h | h |
| k | k | k | k | k | k |
| l | l | l | l | l | l |
| ɬ | lh | lh | ł | hl, lh | ł, lh |
| m | m | m | m | m | m |
| n | n | n | n | n | n |
| p | p | p | p | p | p |
| s | s | s | s | s | s |
| ʃ | sh | sh | š | sh | sh |
| t | t | t | t | t | t |
| w | w | w | w | w | w |
| j | y | y | y | y | y |
| ʔ | ꞌ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ |
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.
* ^ Choctaw Bible Translation Committee
* ^ Substituted with 'v' according to typesetting or encoding constraints.
* ^ The former is used before a vowel; the latter, before a consonant. The intervocalic use of ⟨hl⟩ conflated the common consonant cluster /hl/ with /ɬ/.
* ^ Dictionary editors John Swanton and Henry Halbert systematically replaced all instances of ⟨hl⟩ with ⟨ł⟩, regardless whether ⟨hl⟩ stood for /ɬ/ or /hl/. Despite the editors' systematic replacement of all ⟨hl⟩ with ⟨ł⟩, the digraph ⟨lh⟩ was allowed to stand.

## Morphology
### Verbal morphology

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 prefixes

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 affixes

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.
| person markers | person markers | person markers | class I | class I | class I | class II | class II | class III | class III | class N | class N | imperative | imperative |
| person markers | person markers | person markers | +s | +C | +V | +C/i | +a/o | +C | +V | +C | +V | +C | +V |
| first-person | singular | initial | -li | -li | -li | sa- | si- | a̱- | am- | ak- | ak- | n/a | n/a |
| first-person | singular | medial | -li | -li | -li | sa- | si- | -sa̱- | -sam- | ak- | ak- | n/a | n/a |
| first-person | paucal | paucal | ii- | ii- | il- | pi- | pi- | pi̱- | pim- | kii- | kil- | n/a | n/a |
| first-person | plural | plural | ii- | ii- | il- | hapi- | hapi- | hapi̱- | hapim- | kii- | kil- | n/a | n/a |
| second-person | singular | singular | is- | ish- | ish- | chi- | chi- | chi̱- | chim- | chik- | chik- | ∅ | ∅ |
| second-person | plural | plural | has- | hash- | hash- | hachi- | hachi- | hachi̱- | hachim- | hachik- | hachik- | ho- | oh- |
| third-person | third-person | third-person | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | i̱- | im- | ik- | 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 verbs

As the chart above shows, there is no person-number agreement for third person arguments. Consider the following paradigms:
hablitok ("kicked", past tense) :
| $^{DIRECTOBJECT}$$_{SUBJECT}$ | $^{DIRECTOBJECT}$$_{SUBJECT}$ | first-person | first-person | first-person | second-person | second-person | third-person |
| $^{DIRECTOBJECT}$$_{SUBJECT}$ | $^{DIRECTOBJECT}$$_{SUBJECT}$ | singular | paucal | plural | singular | plural | third-person |
| first-person | singular | ili-habli-li-tok '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 'we kicked ourselves' | il-ili-habli-tok '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)' | ish-ili-habli-tok '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' | hash-ili-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked yourselves' | hash-habli-tok 'you (pl.) kicked her/him/it/them' |
| third-person | 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.)' | habli-tok "she/etc. kicked her/him/it/them" ili-habli-tok 'she/etc. kicked herself/etc.' |
* ^ 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:
Ii-
1P.I-
chi-
2S.II-
pi̱sa
see⟨NGR⟩
-tok
-PT
Ii- chi- pi̱sa -tok
1P.I- 2S.II- see⟨NGR⟩ -PT
'We saw you.'
Ish-
2S.I-
pim-
1P.III-
anooli
tell
-tok.
-PT
Ish- pim- anooli -tok.
2S.I- 1P.III- tell -PT
'You told us.'
For intransitive verbs, the subjects of active verbs typically have class I agreement. Because third-person objects are unmarked, intransitive active verbs are indistinguishable in form from transitive active verbs with a third-person direct object.

###### Stative verbs

The subjects of stative verbs typically have II agreement. A small set of psychological verbs have subjects with class III agreement.
Baliili
run
-li
-1S.I
-tok
-PT
Baliili -li -tok
run -1S.I -PT
'I ran.'
Sa-
1S.II-
niya
fat
-h.
-TNS
Sa- niya -h.
1S.II- fat -TNS
'I am fat.'
A̱-
1S.III-
ponna
skilled
-h.
-TNS
A̱- ponna -h.
1S.III- skilled -TNS
'I am skilled.'

##### Negatives

The set of agreement markers labelled N above is used with negatives. Negation is multiply marked, requiring that an agreement marker from the N set replace the ordinary I agreement, the verb appear in the lengthened grade (see discussion below), and that the suffix /-o(k)-/ follow the verb, with deletion of the preceding final vowel. The optional suffix /-kii/ may be added after /-o(k)-/. Consider the following example:
Ak-
1S.N-
iiya
go⟨LGR⟩
-o
-NEG
-kii
-NEG
-ttook
-DPAST
Ak- iiya -o -kii -ttook
1S.N- go⟨LGR⟩ -NEG -NEG -DPAST
'I did not go.'
Compare this with the affirmative counterpart:
Iya
go
-li
-1S.I
-ttook.
-DPAST
Iya -li -ttook.
go -1S.I -DPAST
'I went'.
To make this example negative, the 1sI suffix /-li/ is replaced by the 1sN prefix /ak-/; the verb root iya is lengthened and accented to yield íiya; the suffix /-o/ is added, the final vowel of iiya is deleted, and the suffix /-kii/ is added.

##### Anaphoric prefixes

Reflexives are indicated with the /ili-/ prefix, and reciprocals with /itti-/:
Ili-
REFL-
pi̱sa
see⟨NGR⟩
-li
-1S.I
-tok.
-PT
Ili- pi̱sa -li -tok.
REFL- see⟨NGR⟩ -1S.I -PT
'I saw myself'.

#### Verb suffixes

    While the verbal prefixes indicate relations between the verb and its arguments, the suffixes cover a wider semantic range, including information about valence, modality, tense and evidentiality.
The following examples show modal and tense suffixes like /-aachii̱/ 'irrealis'(approximately equal to future), /-tok/ 'past tense', /-h/ 'default tenses':
Baliili
run
-h.
-TNS
Baliili -h.
run -TNS
'She runs.'
Baliili
run
-aachi̱
-IRR
-h.
-TNS
Baliili -aachi̱ -h.
run -IRR -TNS
'She will run.'
There are also suffixes that show evidentiality, or the source of evidence for a statement, as in the following pair:
Nipi
meat
awashli
fry
-hli
-FIRST:HAND
Nipi awashli -hli
meat fry -FIRST:HAND
'She fried the meat.' (I saw/heard/smelled her do it.)
Nipi
meat
awashli
fry
-tok
-PT
-a̱sha
-GUESS
Nipi awashli -tok -a̱sha
meat fry -PT -GUESS
'She fried the meat.' (I guess)
There are also suffixes of illocutionary force which may indicate that the sentence is a question, an exclamation, or a command:
Awashli
fry
-tok
-PT
-o̱
-Q
Awashli -tok -o̱
fry -PT -Q
'Did she fry it?'
Chahta
Choctaw
si-
1S.II-
a
be
-h
-TNS
-okii
-EXCL
Chahta si- a -h -okii
Choctaw 1S.II- be -TNS -EXCL
'I'm Choctaw!' or 'I certainly am a Choctaw!'

#### Verbal infixes

Choctaw verb stems have various infixes that indicate their aspect. These stem variants are traditionally referred to as 'grades'. The table below shows the grades of Choctaw, along with their main usage.
| 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 |
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':
lowa
burn
-t
-SS
taaha
complete⟨LGR⟩
-na
-DS
falaama
return
-t
-SS
ak-
1S.N-
iiya-
go⟨LGR⟩
o
-NEG
-kii
-NEG
-ttook
-DPAST
lowa -t taaha -na falaama -t ak- iiya- o -kii -ttook
burn -SS complete⟨LGR⟩ -DS return -SS 1S.N- go⟨LGR⟩ -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":
Taloowa
sing
-h
-TNS
Taloowa -h
sing -TNS
'He sang.'
Tálloowa
sing⟨GGR⟩
-h
-TNS
Tálloowa -h
sing⟨GGR⟩ -TNS
'He finally sang.'
The hn-grade is usually translated as 'kept on VERBing':
Ohó̱ba
rain⟨HNGR⟩
-na
-DS
nittak
day
pókkooli
ten
oshta
four
-ttook
-DPAST
Ohó̱ba -na nittak pókkooli oshta -ttook
rain⟨HNGR⟩ -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":
Nóhsi
sleep⟨HGR⟩
-h
-TNS
Nóhsi -h
sleep⟨HGR⟩ -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.
sa-
1S.II-
noshkobo
head
sa- noshkobo
1S.II- head
'my head'
chi-
2S.II-
noshkobo
head
chi- noshkobo
2S.II- head
'your head'
noshkobo
head
noshkobo
head
'his/her/its/their head'
sa-
1S.II-
ishki
mother
sa- ishki
1S.II- mother
'my mother'
chi-
2S.II-
ishki
mother
chi- ishki
2S.II- mother
'your mother'
Nouns that are not lexically specified for II agreement use the III agreement markers:
a̱-
1S.III-
ki'
father
a̱- ki'
1S.III- father
'my father'
am-
1S.III-
ofi
dog
am- ofi
1S.III- dog
'my dog'
Although systems of this type are generally described with the terms alienable and inalienable, this terminology 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

Choctaw nouns can be followed by various determiner and case-marking suffixes, as in the following examples, where we see determiners such as /-ma/ 'that', /-pa/ 'this', and /-akoo/ 'contrast' and case-markers /-(y)at/ 'nominative' and /-(y)a̱/ 'accusative':
alla
child
nakni
male
-m
-that
-at
-NOM
alla nakni -m -at
child male -that -NOM
'that boy (nominative)'
Hoshi
bird
-at
-NOM
itti
tree
chaaha
tall
-m
-that
-ako̱
-CNTR:ACC
o̱-
SUPE-
biniili
sit
-h
-TNS
Hoshi -at itti chaaha -m -ako̱ o̱- biniili -h
bird -NOM tree tall -that -CNTR:ACC SUPE- 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

    The simplest sentences in Choctaw consist of a verb and a tense marker, as in the following examples:
O̱ba
rain
-tok
-PT
O̱ba -tok
rain -PT
'It rained.'
niya
fat
-h
-TNS
niya -h
fat -TNS
'She/he/it is fat, they are fat.'
Pi̱sa-
see⟨NGR⟩
tok
-PT
Pi̱sa- tok
see⟨NGR⟩ -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
hoshi
bird
-at
-NOM
apa
eat
-tok
-PT
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 /-a̱/
hoshi
bird
-at
-NOM
sho̱shi
bug
(-a̱)
-(ACC)
apa
eat
-tok.
-PT
hoshi -at sho̱shi (-a̱) 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
dog
hohchifo
name
ofi hohchifo
dog name
'the dog's name'
Choctaw has postpositional phrases with the postposition after its object:
tamaaha
town
bili̱ka
near
tamaaha bili̱ka
town near
'near a town'

## Vocabulary

Some common Choctaw phrases (written in the "Modern" orthography):
* Choctaw: Chahta
* hi: Halito!
* See you later!: Chi pisa la chike!
* number: holhtina/holhtini
* Thank you: Yakóki
* What is your name?: Chi hohchifo yat nanta?
* My name is...: Sa hohchifo yat...
* yes: a̱
* no: kíyo
* okay: ohmi
* I don't understand.: Ak akostiníncho.
* I don't know.: Ak ikháno.
* Do you speak Choctaw?: Chahta imanompa ish anompola hinla ho̱?
* What is that?: Yammat nanta?
Other Choctaw words:
* Cherokee: Chalaki
* Chickasaw: Chickashsha
* Seminole: Siminóli
* Creek/Muskogee: Maskóki
* today: himak nittak
* tonight: himak ninak
* tomorrow: onnakma
* yesterday: piláshásh
* month: hashi
* year: affami
* 2009: talhípa sippokni toklo akochcha chakkali
* house: chokka
* school: holisso ápisa
* cat: katos
* dog: ofi
* cow: wák
* horse: issoba/soba
Counting to twenty:
* one: achaffa
* two: toklo
* three: tochchína
* four: oshta
* five: talhlhapi
* six: hannali
* seven: o̱toklo
* eight: o̱tochchina
* nine: chakkali
* ten: pokkoli
* eleven: awahachaffa
* twelve: awahtoklo
* thirteen: awahtochchina
* fourteen: awahoshta
* fifteen: awahtalhlhapi
* sixteen: awahhannali
* seventeen: awaho̱toklo
* eighteen: awaho̱tohchínah
* nineteen: abichakkali
* twenty: pokkoli toklo
At "Native Nashville" web , there is an Online Choctaw Language Tutor, with Pronunciation Guide and four lessons: Small Talk, Animals, Food and Numbers.