Focus on Structure: Water Words

Choctaw has many words relating to water.  Several of these consist of the word for water, oka, combined with another word or phrase.  The examples in the following tables can be found in Jack B. Martin's digital edition of Cyrus Byington's Dictionary of the Choctaw Language. 

Other words that have to do with water appear to drop the 'a' from the end of oka and use ok as a prefix.  I believe that this is the case because, while there are other terms in Choctaw that begin with ok, these are both associated with water, and the part that ok is affixed to is an existing Choctaw word.  Words that may be formed like this include:

There are some exceptions to the formation pattern, such as oktushshi.  Its definition is related to water, particularly a substance found in water, but tushshi is not a word by itself.  It may still be derived from oka, but not in the same way as okhina or okaiya.  

It can be seen from these examples that it was important at some point for the Choctaw to be able to easily communicate where water was located (eg. the tap with the screw in it vs. the tap without the screw) and what the water tasted like (eg. bitter vs. sour).  The difference between a shore, a riverside, and the edge of a river is clearly delineated, whereas in English the terms are more-or-less interchangeable.  Concepts like oktushshi are impossible to find a one-word English translation for, but are easy to say in Choctaw.  All of these things make Choctaw a unique language.