In a message dated 7/26/2002 1:34:41 AM Central Daylight Time, seanps@george.net writes: > > The use of number words as articles is the same as in English. When we > say "one house" or "two houses" in English, we are using the numbers > "one" and "two" as articles, instead of a word like "the" or "a." > Likewise, in Choctaw, number words can be used as articles, as in > "chukka achvfa" (one house) or "chukka tuklo" (two houses). > > Hope that helps. > > --Sean > > Hello Sean, this helps a great deal, I think. Now when we see Choctaw names we may be able to divide the names up into their nouns and articles and adjectives or at least get a good sense of what the noun in the name is by knowing where to find and how to see the "article". Have you ever run across abbreviations of "number words or articles" in a name or phrase as with the other articles you mentioned "-ma" or '-pa"? On a related note I guess, it's my understanding that before the creation of a written Choctaw language which we have been discussing, the Choctaw used picture words. Were there any similarities between these picture words and the heiroglyphic languages of the Aztecs and Mayans and others? If so this may give us a better clue as to where the Choctaw originally emigrated from. John Craven New Orleans