Re: CHAT: (no subject)

Ha!  I found a sample of Choctaw text.: the first few paragraphs of one of
the Oklahoma Choctaw Constitutions, what year I can't say.  I changed the
underlined vowels to vowels with tildes (since Latin-1 lacks i-tilde, I
rendered nasal i as i~)

Submitted for your approval...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ATIKEL I

Aivlhpiesa Makosh Ulhpisa

Nana isht ilklaivlhpiesa moma ishahumicha, Kvfamint yoka keyu hosh ilvppa ka
tokma atobacha aivlhpisa chi~ mako yakohtnashke.

SEK 1.  Hattak yuka keyu hokvtto yakohmit itibachvfat hielikvt, nan isht
imaivlhpiesa atokmvt itilawashke: yohmi kã hattak nana hohkia.  keyukmvt
kanohmi hohkia okla moma nana isht aim aivilipiesa, micha isht aimaivlhtoba
he aima kã kanohrni [sic] bano hosh isht ik iniavlhpieso kashke.  Amba mõma
kvt nãna isht iniachukma chi~ ho tiksuvli hokmakashke.

SEK 2.  Oklah moma hatokmvt, nãna kvt aivlpiesa hinla kvt afoyoka hõ mvtli
hatokma kõ, nãna kvt vlhpisa na Okla moma kvt isht imachukmã chi~ kã ãpisa
he vt imaivlhpiesa cha kafanmint yuka keyll [sic] ikbashke, yohmi tok osh
ishahut isht a inahãya hinla kvt otani hokmã.  nittak nãna hohkia nãna hõ
apihinsa tok vt kobafi, keyukinvt mosholichi cha i~lã ikbi bvnna hokmvt
imaivhpiesashke.

[Some corrections were made; the letter <c> somehow appeared in a couple
places that <v> should've.  Or is <c> also a vowel, or the initial form of
<v>?  Also, two words, _kanohrni_ and _keyll_, seem to be errors; I'll have
to find a more reliable text to check these out.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The basic vowels I see are: a e i o u v.  The polyphthongs in the text: ai
aiv aivi ia ie uv.  Nasal vowels are ã, i~ and õ.  Also, <ah> and <oh> (and
possibly <ih>, not cited in the sample) word-finally or before consonants
can be found, so there could be aspirated vowels as well.

Consonants are: b ch f h k l lh m n p s sh t w y.  Consonants can be
doubled, and sequences of most any two consonants (see also VhC comment
above) are possible, but not three.  All consonants of course are as in
English (<ch> = /tS/, <sh> = /S/, <y> = /j/), and <lh> = /L/ (should be
l-curl; same as Welsh <ll> and Navajo <l-stroke>; note the <hl> spelling is
not used in the sample).

Anyway, since we discussed it not too many days ago, I got it cleared up for
myself.  Chickasaw phonology is definitely similar if not almost identical.
I wish I knew of a comparison with Creek and Seminole, and possibly a
reconstructed Proto-Muskogean language.

Now I mentioned earlier applying the Sequoyah syllabry of Cherokee to
Choctaw.  The Cherokee consonants are: zero, g = /k/ (plus ka = /kh/), h, l,
m, n (plus hna = /n-ring below/ and nah = ?), qu = /kw/, s (plus s without
vowel), d = /t/ (plus ta, te, ti), tl = /tL/ (plus dla = /dl/?), ts = /ts/
or /tS/, w and y = /j/.

I'll convert this list to how they'd be written in Choctaw: h k kw l m n s t
tl ts w y.  /kw/, /tl/ and /ts/ may occur, but not as a single phoneme.
Even more problematic, Cherokee does not have b, ch, f, lh, p or sh!  I
could map Cher /kw/ to Choc <p> (hey, Proto-Celtic /kw/ did become
Brythonic/Gaulish /p/, didn't it?!), /tl/ to <lh>, and /ts/ to <ch>.  But
I'm left with b, f and sh, so I'd have to come up with diacritics (like the
Japanese voiced consonant marker <"> and the /h/-to-/p/-shift marker <°>.  I
could make /kw/ map to /f/ then use these Japanese diacritics to make /b/
and /p/!  Finally, I have <sh> left over.  So I'll map Cher <ts> to Choc
<sh>, and add the _maru_ used for Japanese pV syllables to mark <ch>.

My last problem is how to mark consonants without vowels, and the only
vowelless consonant symbol in Cherokee is <s>.  So I'll borrow the Indic
_virama_ (which varies according to scripts from Devanagari to Javanese)
which cancels out the short /a/ vowel in a Ca alphasyllable.  Devanagari has
a diagonal stroke below, so I want an underline <_> to go below the glyph.
(The Japanese shift marks go on the upper right corner of the syllable.)

For nasalization and aspiration of vowels, I'd also borrow Indic symbols:
_anusvara_ (a dot above) and _visarga_ (two dots to the right, like a
colon).  But what am I to do with the real colon...

I'll try and find someone with a scanner so I can display my own written
version of what I'd call the "Sequoyah Oklahoma syllabry" (well, I'm the
great-grandson of a Mississippi Choctaw, so it's not to be used exclusively
in the State of Oklahoma).  But this is a private experiment, not a major
crusade; however, I'd like to see what would happen if I tried to write and
display it.  Eventually, I'd like to apply this to all of the "Five
Civilized Nations" langauges.

Wow, Cherokee, Devanagari et al and Japanese working together!  I like this!
  BUt the floor is now open for discussion.

DaW.
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