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

Abstract

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 .