Chahta imanumpa ish anumpola hinla ho?
"Do you speak Choctaw?"
Charley Jones
Our deepest gratitude is extended to Gregg Howard, executive producer of Various Indian Peoples Publishing Company
for providing source material and recordings used here in our Choctaw Language pages. Gregg Howard has graciously
provided explicit written permission to share Various Indian Peoples Publishing copyrighted material, for the
benefit of our internet community and for the benefit of all people.
A special thanks to Charley Jones, a Chahta elder being born in 1917, who lives in Idabel, Oklahoma, just a handful
of mule miles from our family's birthplace, Eagletown, Oklahoma. Charley provides all audio sources, spoken in
native Sixtowns Choctaw Dialect.
Many excerpts are sourced from "A Dictionary Of The Choctaw Language" written by Cyrus Byington back in 1909.
This Choctaw dictionary, the only in existence, is provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau Of American
Ethnology. Excerpts from Byington's Dictionary are protected under Federal "Fair Usage" policies. Byington's
dictionary is available online at prices ranging from twenty dollars to fifty dollars. Do shop around for a
good price, with a good average price being around thirty dollars.
Your best choice for American Indian educational sources is Various Indian Peoples Publishing.
They provide very nice language packages for many native tongues. Their site also features many
other resources, including enjoyable diverse American Indian topics and news. Please visit with
Various Indian Peoples Publishing, you will be absolutely delighted.
An excerpt from Various Indian Publishing,
Since 1988 - Publishing, Producing and Promoting American Indian Languages and Cultures. Twice nominated for
American Business of the Year by the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Texas. Our programs can also be
seen in the Smithsonian, the Eitlejorg, the Gilcrease, and other prestigious museum stores....
Both Greg Howard and Various Indian Peoples Publishing have provided tremendous amounts of reference material
making our Chahta language lessons possible. Great folks contributing much to all communities and to all cultures.
Various Indian Peoples Publshing is truly your best source for American Indian reference and educational
materials. Their prices are very fair and their quality is exceptionally high. They are the best, no argument.
Do visit with Various Indian Peoples Publishing! You will learn a lot! Click on the feather below to
visit Various Indian Peoples Publishing. Please visit with them!
Various Indian Peoples Publishing. The very best Indian educational source. Please visit!
Ready to learn?
Chahta imanumpa ish anumpola hinal ho? Chahta iskitini anumpuli li!
"Do you speak Choctaw? I speak a little Choctaw!"
These following links are divided into logical blocks, each containing basic introductory material
which is easy to learn and none are overwhelming. Charlie Jones provides audio examples for almost
all words and phrases, so you can actually hear Chahta being spoken! All audio files are compressed
wav format; small and fast loading. Various Indian Peoples Publishing provides a basic format for
these lessons, with some personalized words and phrases included by Kintushi Kiseli Sholatubbee,
your dubious hostess.
Each linked page has one "embedded" audio, Charley Jones, announcing the lesson number. If you are
using a browser which does not handle embedded sounds correctly, such as MSIE 6.x and Netscape 7.x
my suggestion is you upgrade your browser to Netscape 4.x series. A click button is provided for
those of you using a "dumb" browser. If you did not hear Charley welcome you upon loading this
page, you have a dumb browser. Click on the small square button beneath Charley's name way up top
to test your browser. With no audio ability, you will miss the best part of these lessons.
IMPORTANT UPDATE - January 16, 2007
I have worked my way through lesson five and hope to have all lessons available in the coming months.
This is time consuming work! Each lesson consumes six months of my evening time! I have been working
on this project for three years! Please visit again to check for recent updates. Currently, lesson one
and most of lesson two are available. Be sure to check back!
As of January 16, 2007, I have replaced all recordings with high quality recordings. Sound files are
slightly larger but of much higher quality. Encouraged by relatives, I am adding my own voice to sound
files, words and phrases beyond what Charley Jones covers. Like Charley, I have a heavy Oklahoma accent
and my dialect is mostly Six Towns although some influence from other regional areas. Other changes are
correct a handful of spelling errors and correcting three links to wrong song files. Many pages have
changed and will be change during January and February, 2007.
You will need to download all pages to replace old versions.
Isht Ala - Introduction: Why you need to forget na hollo imanumpa "language of white men."
Apisa Achuffa - Lesson One: Basic enunciation, tense and grammar syntax.
Apisa Tuklo - Lesson Two: Simple greetings, questions and counting numbers.
Apisa Tuchina - Lesson Three: Seasons, time and temporal tense.
Apisa Ushta - Lesson Four: People, relatives and things.
Apisa Tahlapi - Lesson Five: Food, drink, weather and locations.
Apisa Hannali - Lesson Six: Clothing, colors, purchasing and money.
Apisa Untuklo - Lesson Seven: An endearing story of the "Little People."
Tikshaneli - Dictionary: Discussion of a personal project - online dictionary. Coming soon!
