Monday, February 17, 2014

Chickasaw Greetings

Josh's Chickasaw name is "Lokosh," which means "gourd"
In February 2012, I visited with Joshua D. Hinson, Director of Cultural Education and Outreach for Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program at his office here in Ada in anticipation of his visit to my linguistics class here at ECU. While I was there, I asked him if wouldn't mind pronouncing a few Chickasaw phrases for us so that we could practice them before his visit. Fortunately for us, he was happy to help.

The specific phrases I asked for were: "chukma," which means "hello;" "[Name] se-holhchifo-ut" (My name is); and "Chipitsaliket Chukma" (or "Chukma chipitsaliket", either of which translates as "It's good to see you").



After I spoke with Joshua, he introduced me to JoAnn Ellis, a native speaker of Chickasaw, who teaches Chickasaw language classes here at ECU (enroll, guys!). She also generously agreed to help us out.



Yakoke!
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 20, 2014 at 9:30 PM

    This is extremely difficult and made me very aware of how white I truly am. I will attempt it, but do not hate me for the butchering that shall ensue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2014 at 8:33 PM

    My question for Josh would be...

    Who taught you to speak Chickasaw?

    -Amanda Johnson

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFebruary 23, 2014 at 9:45 PM

    My question: Why did you learn Chickasaw?

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownFebruary 24, 2014 at 12:01 AM

    How often do you speak Chickasaw in your daily life?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Miranda!February 27, 2014 at 9:23 PM

    Was learning Chickasaw hard?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sarah SnowMarch 5, 2014 at 4:15 PM

    Similarly to what Amelia asked, why did you choose to learn Chickasaw? It does not have very many speakers anymore, so what made you choose this language instead of a more widely spoken one? What made this language stand out to you?

    ReplyDelete

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