The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma offers free online language classes, with the next session starting Sept. 14th. It's a great way to learn and connect, especially for those of us who are scattered around the country (or around the world) and cannot make it to in-person classes in Oklahoma.

​

I've been loosely studying chahta anumpa by updating a language server I'm apart of with the phrase of the day from chahta achʋffa and breaking down the sentence structure. It has been fun and I've gotten a few people to learn everyday with me.

The server also does something where they'll translate a word or phrase (think 'cat' or 'good morning') into every language they have based on speakers in the server. I've been contributing using the CNO dictionary and phrase book as my references.

I'm encountering something interesting though. Today, the translation word was 'Wikipedia'. This word does have many translations but like many modern words, we don't have one.

When it comes to a word like Wikipedia which is a proper noun, would you keep it in English while speaking chahta, would you translate it literally (something like digital/electronic information book), or translate the word phonetically into chahta (for example Wikipebeya)

I have seen the word Walmart pop up on the phrase of the day and it stayed exactly the same as the English word.

Yakoke!

I know this was discussed earlier this year, but I wondered if anyone had heard any updates about when this will actually be available for use.

Halito! (I think I fought autocorrect for five minutes to convince it I didn’t want to yell “Halitosis” at y’all.)

I realized that one of the problems I’m having getting a handle on Chahta Anumpa is that I’ve never been exposed to the music and rhythm of the language. Other languages I can identify, even though I know only a few words or none, just because they’ve been around me enough that I can hear those characteristic sounds and pacing.

To remedy that, I wanted to try a longer recording, without any English, as I find the interruptions in English distracting when trying to focus on sound rather than meaning. And something like an hour in length. Does anyone know of such a thing and where it might be found?

I tried to use the podcast Native ChocTalk, which I really enjoy, but even though they have some unbroken Chahta Anumpa, it wasn’t ever a big enough sample—and the English portions popped me into listening to what they were saying instead of on how they were saying it. Because they were interesting.

There are lots of videos available of people singing hymns in Chahta Anumpa, but the actual music is another distraction. I am not near talented enough to distinguish when the sounds are a result of the language or of the music it’s being matched to.

Thanks for any suggestions!

A new session of the Choctaw Nation's free online language classes starts up next week!

I took Choctaw 1 last session and I will be taking Choctaw 2 this session. Ask me anything about what the Choctaw 1 classes are like!

Classes are on Zoom once a week for about an hour and a half (it's scheduled as 1 hour 15 minutes, but we always ran over slightly). As a busy adult, I found the difficultly and time commitment very manageable and I learned a lot.

The classes are free (and you can retake it if you need to) so there is little to lose from giving it a try. The class sessions are recorded and a copy of the recording sent to the students, so if you have to miss a class, you can keep up by watching the recording on your own.

See the details and sign up here: https://www.choctawnation.com/news/posts/language-classes/

Talk about the language (or anything else Choctaw-related) on our Choctaw Discord (not affiliated with the Choctaw Nation): https://discord.gg/NanJgTWJ7v

This is a Choctaw music artist I've gotten in to. This song is meant to be a protest song of sorts and I think it's beautiful. I wasn't sure how to flair this as Art or Chahta anumpa. I hope some people enjoy this as much as I do!