Let's Learn Choctaw - Starter Deck

This deck is a first step to learning the Choctaw language through a fun card game alone or with friends. You do not need to know Choctaw to begin playing this game. The cards will help you learn the vocabulary, identify parts of speech, and introduce you to how Choctaw creates noun phrases and sentences. Each card has tags that show you which types of words can come before or after any particular card. The instructions book explains how basic sentences are created, and I’ve included a download that outlines many of the basic sentence patterns that one will learn when beginning to learn the language.

But the Basic deck is BASIC. It includes between 1 and 5 words from each word type. Nouns for example include 5 People, 5 animals, 5 places, 5 foods, 5 things. This same careful review of words was used in choosing the Verbs, Pronouns, and other word category cards necessary to begin to learn Choctaw. There are 162 cards which includes every type of word necessary to begin learning Choctaw phrase construction and to create complete sentences. I also plan to offer add-on decks so more vocabulary will be available in the future.

As I began investigating what I needed to actually produce the deck, I was dismayed by how much it cost to print things professionally. In an effort to keep costs low, I have not included a box. While having a box is nice, producing one is expensive and I have worked hard to try to make this game available for as little cost as possible. I may create one eventually, but it will be a separate purchase from the Basic Game deck.

Languages hold secrets. They carry culture, and for many of us, we are pulled to learn this language even as we learn of how the system has worked so hard to make it disappear. We have been dispersed throughout the country. Separated from our people. Washed into a new and foreign way of thinking. Now, every day, our Native languages are going extinct. The system is on the edge of success. Let’s Learn Choctaw is my effort to create a fun way to learn and practice the Choctaw language. I really hope it helps.

A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language, by Cyrus Byington is the basis of the vocabulary in this game. The Dictionary can be purchased or found free online. Thank you to Jack Martin for converting the dictionary to an online website and making it available to us:

Choctaw Dictionary -