February 4, ISTO.] '-'•'-' [Brinton. 



GRAMMAR OF THE CHOCTAW LANGUAGE. 



Pkbpaked bt the Rbvekend Cyrus Byington, akd Edited bt 

 Dr. Brinton. 



Bead before the American PhilosopMcal Society, Feb, 4, 1870, 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Choctaw, or properly Chahta nation, numbers at present about 

 17,000 souls, 4,500 of whom are Chickasaws. When first known to 

 Europeans these allied peoples occupied the territory on the left bank 

 of the Mississippi, almost from the Ohio river to the Gulf. They be- 

 long to the great Chahta-Mijskokee family, which, in early days, 

 controlled the whole country from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, 

 and from the Gulf shore to the Apalachians. 



The Choctaws have always been quick to adopt the instruction of 

 their civilized neighbors, and at preseut have about seventy schools 

 with nearly two thousand pupils on their reservation. ' During the 

 French occupation of Louisiana, in the early part of the last century, 

 efforts were made by the Roman Catholic missionaries to convert 

 them, but without success. ^ In 1818, Protestant missionaries were 

 sent among them, who effected a permanent impression upon them, 

 and were mainly instrumental in bringing about their present highly 

 creditable condition. Their evil habits were reformed, they were 

 instructed in agriculture, and their language was reduced to writing. 

 In the latter, the alphabet suggested by the Hon. John Pickering, in 

 his essay "On a uniform orthography of the languages of the Indians 

 of North America," was employed. The first book printed was a 

 spelling book, by the American Tract Society, in 1825. Since that 

 time, besides a large number of tracts, almanacs, hymn books, and 

 educational works, the whole of the New Testament and most of the 

 Old Testament have been printed in the language, by the American 

 Bible Society, New York city, after faithful translations by the Rev, 

 Cyrus Byington and the Rev. A. Wright, assisted by educated natives, " 

 These can readily be obtained, and will be found of great service in 

 elucidating the grammatical structure of the language, as it is for 

 the first time explained in the present work by the hands of the Rev. 

 Cyrus Byington", 



This eminent scholar and missionary, whose name is inseparably 

 connected with the later history of the Choctaw nation, was born at 

 Stockbridge, Berkshire coimty, Massachusetts, March 11, 1793. He 



1 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for 1869, p. 37. » 



2 Sliea, History of Catholic Missions in the United States, p, 441. 



3 In comparing tlio translation of the Four Gospels, second edition, 1845 (Boston, printed for the 

 A. B. C. F. M.), with the second edition of the New Testament by tlie American Bible Society (New 

 York, 18.54), I find a number of slight differences, especially in the use of the neutral vowel v. 



A. P. S — VOL. XI. — 13e 



