Conjunctions? What are those?
A round-up of all the ways I know to say “and” in Chickasaw.
There are several different ways to say “and,” but each one has a unique usage, so they are not interchangeable. You can use:
a switch reference ending
the word mikmat or micha’
Or use something completely different!
1. Switch reference ending
Let’s start with the switch reference endings. They are -na and -cha. Here are some example sentences:
Ihooat hilhacha taloowatok - The woman danced and sang
Ihooat hilhana hattakat taloowatok - The woman danced and the man sang.
These two switch reference endings connect two different verbs together. If they are referring to DIFFERENT subjects, then use -na. If they are referring to the SAME subject, then use -cha.
These are used to connect 2 verbs.
-cha and -na become -lit and -li: respectively after the A subject ending -li. Thus: Chikashshanompalit Naahollimanopali “I speak Chickasaw and English.”
The next way to say “and” is with the word táwwa’a. This word is used to link two different nouns. It has different versions depending on if what you are linking are subjects are objects. Here are some examples:
Ihoo hattak táwwa’at hilha - The woman and the man are dancing [subject ending]
Hattak ihoo táwwa’a: pḯslitok - I saw the man and the woman. [object ending]
So, how does this work? Put the two nouns you want to link [let’s call them noun1 and noun2] before either the subject “and” word táwwa’at or the object version táwwa’a: as in this picture -
táwwa’a is a verb! That means you can add pronoun prefixes to it.
If táwwa’a connects two different nouns, what verb would you use if you wanted to connect more than two? The answer is cho’mi. It follows the same pattern as táwwa’a. Here are some examples:
Ihoo hattak chipota cho’maat hilha - The woman, the man, and the child are dancing
Ihoo hattak chipota cho’ma: pḯslitok - I saw the woman, the man, and the child.
cho’mi is also a verb, so it can have pronoun prefixes too.
cho’mi connects 3 nouns. I’ve not heard it used to connect more than 3, so I don’t know if that is possible or if a different word is used instead.
notice that the -i drops when you add endings to cho’mi
I don’t know much about these two. They are not commonly used in conversation. I get the impression they may be archaic or used primarily in Bible translations. Here is the example my textbook gives:
Aapihlichika’ mikmat nannishtaaya:lhlhi’ micha’ nannishtaaholiito’pakaat chimmit billi’yacha billi’ya’shki - The kingdom and power and glory will be yours forever and ever.
If you’ve seen/heard these 2 words used in Chickasaw or Choctaw, please tell me about them so I can expand my knowledge :)
5. Something completely different.
There are other words that you can use in specific situations, such as:
haatokoot and haatoko: - and then [same subject and different subject]
Probably many more I have not encountered yet!!
