Choctaw phonology


 * When suffixes are mentioned within this section, please refer to the section on Morphology for further clarification.

Consonants

 * 1) The only voiced stop is . The voiceless stops, , and  may become partially voiced between vowels, especially  and especially for male speakers. Additionally, the voiceless stops are slightly aspirated at the onset of words and before stressed syllables, behaving like English voiceless plosives.
 * 2) According to one analysis, all words must end in a consonant. Words apparently ending in a vowel actually have either a glottal stop  or a glottal fricative  as the final consonant. These consonants become realized when suffixes are attached.
 * 3) The phonemes  and  are neutralized at the end of words.

Free variation

 * There is pronunciation variability of some consonants in Choctaw that occurs with some speakers.
 * 1) /ɬ/, the voiceless lateral fricative, is pronounced as a voiceless dental fricative /θ/.


 * 1) The voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ is pronounced as a voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/.

Phonological processes of consonants

 * In Choctaw, the voiceless velar plosive, is realized as , a voiced velar fricative, when in intervocalic position.
 * →/V_V
 * imofi-aki-lih→imofiy-əɣə̃:-lih


 * The voiceless glottal fricative is realized as a voiceless palatal fricative  when it precedes the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate.
 * →/_
 * katihchish→katiçtʃiʃ

Vowels

 * 1)  In closed syllables,, , and  occur as allophonic variants of , , and . Traditional orthography distinguishes the lax allophones from the tense vowels but failed to distinguish phonemic long vowels from phonemic short ones.
 * 2)  Nasal vowels are not distinguished by duration as are oral vowels. However, nasal vowels are phonetically long, suggesting an underlying phoneme /N/.

Pitch

 * 1) In Choctaw, there are almost no minimal pairs distinguished only by pitch accent. Nouns in Choctaw will have pitch realization at the penultimate syllable or the ultimate syllable. Verbs in Choctaw will have pitch realization at morphemes indicating tense, however pitch can directly precede the tense morpheme on occasion.

Syllable structure

 * 1) As seen in the chart above, there are three syllable structure types in Choctaw: Light, Heavy and Super Heavy. And all the possible syllables in Choctaw must contain at least one vowel of any quality.
 * 2) Syllables cannot end with a consonant clusters, CC. However, there is an exception with the structure *(C)VCC which occurs when a word in Choctaw ends with the suffix /-t/.
 * 3) Syllables do not begin with consonant clusters, CC, however, there is an exception to this rule described below in initial /i-/ deletion that will result with a syllable *CCV.

Rhythmic lengthening

 * Rhythmic lengthening is the process of lengthening the vowel duration of an even numbered CV syllable in Choctaw. However there is a limitation on this process because vowels at the end of words in Choctaw are not permitted to undergo this process. Also when an even numbered syllable is a verbal prefixes class I or III, the affix's vowel is not permitted to undergo lengthening,and this is the same for noun prefixes class III as well.
 * CV-CV-CVC→CV-CV : -CVC
 * salahatok→sala:hatok

The smallest possible word

 * The smallest possible word in Choctaw must contain either two short vowels or one long vowel.
 * a:t


 * /A-/ insertion: In Choctaw there are verbs that only contain one short vowel in their roots, and without an affix attached to the verb root, these verbs become impossible utterances because Choctaw requires either two short vowel or a long vowel for a word to be formed. In order to overcome this issue an initial A- prefix is attached to the root of the verb.
 * *bih → a-bih

Glide insertion

 * When a verb root ends with a long vowel, a glide /w/ or /j/ is inserted after the long vowel.
 * ∅→/wa/ / V:____
 * 1) Where V: is oo
 * 2) boo-a-h→bóowah
 * ∅→/ja/ / V:____
 * 1) Where V: can be either ii or aa
 * 2) talaa-a-h→talaayah

/i-/ deletion

 * In Choctaw, there is a group of nouns which contain an initial /i-/ that encodes for 3rd person possession. This initial /i-/ can be optionally deleted, however if the /i/ is part of a VC syllable structure, the C is also deleted, because in most cases the resulting CCV syllable is not a permissible syllable structure at the onset of words.
 * /i/→∅ / #____
 * Part 1: /i + C/→∅ + /C/ / #____
 * Part 2: /∅ + C/→∅ / #____
 * ippókni'→ppókni'→pókni'

/-l-/ infix assimilation

 * The verbal infix /l/ is realized as /h, ch, or ɬ/ when /l/ precedes a voiceless consonant.
 * l → {h, tʃ, ɬ} /_C[-voice]
 * ho-l-tinah → ho-ɬ-tinah

The phonological processes of the suffix /-li/

 * There are several assimilation processes that occur with the suffix /-li/. First when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by any of the following consonants /f/ /ɫ/ /h/ /m/ /n/ or /w/, the /l/ assimilates to the corresponding consonant that precedes it. Second, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /b/, the /l/ is realized as /b/. Third, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /p/, the /p/ is realized as /b/. Lastly, when the verbal suffix /-li/ is preceded by the consonant /t/, the /t/ is realized as /l/.
 * /l/→/f, ɫ, h, m, n, w/ / /f, ɫ, h, m, n, w/____
 * /kobaf-li-h/→ kobaaffih


 * /l/→/b/ / /b/____
 * /atob-li-h/→ atobbih


 * /p/→/b/ / /b/____
 * /tap-li-h/→ tablih


 * /t/→/l/ / ____/l/
 * /palhat-li-h/→ pallalih


 * There are two deletion processes that occur with the suffix /-li/. First when the verbal suffix /-li/ precedes the verbal suffix /-tʃi/, the suffix /-li/ is optionally deleted. However, this is only allowed if the resulting syllable after deletion will not be a consonant cluster. The other process occurs when the verbal suffix /-li/ precedes the suffix /-t/, which results with the suffix /-li/ being optionally deleted. However, this only allowed if the syllable /-li/ has not already gone under phonological processes as described above.
 * /li/→∅ / ____/tʃi/
 * balii-li-chi-h→balii-chi-h


 * /li/→∅ / ____/t/
 * balii-li--h→balii-t

Schwa insertion

 * Schwa insertion: when a glottal fricative or a velar stop  precedes a voiced consonant within a consonant cluster, a schwa  is inserted to break up the consonant cluster.
 * ∅→ / ____[+voiced] consonant
 * ∅→ / ____[+voiced] consonant
 * 'ahnih'→/ahənih/

Vowel deletion

 * Vowel deletion in Choctaw is the process of a short vowel being deleted at a morpheme boundary. This process occurs when an affix containing a short vowel at the morpheme boundary binds to a word which also contains a short vowel at the morpheme boundary.
 * 1) For the majority of vowel deletion cases, the preceding short vowel is deleted at the morpheme boundary.
 * V→∅ / ____V
 * /baliil i-aa tʃĩ-h/→baliil aa tʃĩh


 * 1) In the case when a class II suffix attaches to a word that results with two short vowels occurring together, the short vowel that follows the class II suffix will be deleted.
 * V→∅ / V____
 * /s a-i baa-waʃoohah/→s a baa-waʃoohah