Biloxi/Ofo

[Alan H. Hartley]

Pamela Munro wrote:

> However, there is a final [e] that's very important, and that I think is
> a real problem for phonemics. This is the last sound in the Ct (rarely
> also Cs) verb ending often written "hoke" [ho:ke:], which does something
> like affirm the truth of the preceding (and is thought by some to be the
> source for English okay -- this is really in some dictionaries of
> English!).

That's an attractive idea, but it's unsupported in the record of
English, at least in the OED, where there's no hint of a southeastern
provenance for the word. In fact, the several earliest examples the OED
(draft entry in new edition on line) quots are all from the northeast:

1839 C. G. GREENE in Boston Morning Post 23 Mar. 2/2 He..would have the
'contribution box', et ceteras, o.k. all correct and cause the corks to
fly, like sparks, upward.
1839 Salem Gaz. 12 Apr. 2/3 The house was O.K. at the last concert, and
did credit to the musical taste of the young ladies and gents.
1839 Boston Evening Transcript 11 Oct. 2/3 Our Bank Directors have not
thought it worth their while to call a meeting, even for consultation,
on the subject. It is O.K. (all correct) in this quarter.
1840 Atlas (Boston) 19 Aug. 2/4 These initials, according to Jack
Downing, were first used by Gen. Jackson. ‘Those papers, Amos [Kendall],
are all correct. I have marked them O.K.’ (oll korrect). The Gen. was
never good at spelling.
1840 Morning Herald (N.Y.) 21 Apr. 2/4 The Brigadier..reviewed his
Brigade..and pronounced every thing O.K.

The OED etymology espouses the "oll korrect" hypothesis and goes on to
say "Other suggestions, e.g. that O.K. represents an alleged Choctaw
word oke 'it is' (actually the affirmative verbal suffix -okii ‘indeed,
contrary to your supposition’), or French au quai, or Scottish English
och aye, or that it derives from a word in the West African language
Wolof via slaves in the southern States of America, all lack any form of
acceptable documentation." And then "In form okeh (as used by Dr.
Woodrow Wilson: see quots. 1919, 1939 at sense 1 of adjective) on the
understanding that the word represents an alleged Choctaw word oke (see
above)." The 1919 Wilson quot is:

1919 H. L. MENCKEN Amer. Lang. 161 Dr. Woodrow Wilson is said..to use
okeh in endorsing government papers.

(I can't find the mentioned 1939 quot anywhere in the entry.)

With Pam's permission, I'll send Oxford her Choctaw ho:ke:. Pam, is it,
as OED says, a suffix? Can it be, as OED has it, h-less?

Alan H.