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The evolution of Choctaw grammatical words hosh and ho: Evidence from the Pitchlynn manuscript

  • Marcia Haag EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 27, 2018
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Abstract

The ubiquitous and characteristic pair of Choctaw grammatical words hosh and ho appear to have evolved from an older form, the pair hocha and hona. There are very few if any modern instances of the latter pair. But the manuscript of the Choctaw council meetings from 1826–1828, whose author was Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, shows that the older pair was common if not dominant in that era. This article illustrates the parallel usage of those forms with modern speech and the phonological processes that account for modern forms. Pitchlynn’s Council Notes manuscript, which is one of the earliest significant Choctaw texts, contemporaneous legal documents from the mid-nineteenth century, and other writings of that era, specifically hymns, show the decreasing distribution of hocha and hona and their replacement with hosh/ho.

Abbreviations

1

first person

1sI

first person singular agent

1sII

first person singlular patient

1p.pt

first person plural patient

2

second person

a

agent

cont

continuous aspect

dat

dative

def

definite

ds

different subject

emph

emphatic

indf

indefinite

int

interrogative

irr

irrealis

neg

negative

pl

plural

prs

present

ptcp

participle

pst

past

poss

possessive

prev

previous mention

pt

patient

recp

reciprocal

sbj

subject

sg

singular

ss

same subject

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Jack Martin for relaying information about the appearance of these forms from his contacts with speaker Robert Ludlow.

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Received: 2017-08-02
Revised: 2018-03-15
Accepted: 2018-03-15
Published Online: 2018-10-27
Published in Print: 2018-10-25

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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