Re:Choktaw (Score 1)

That's a great question - I don't know of any linguistic studies on that. The "degree of belief" particle is actually common to many Indian languages that I've studied - from Haida (the people who carve totem poles in the Queen Charlotte Islands near Alaska) to Quechua the language of the Incans. Both languages are still living. If you find a Haida, or Quechhua or any Native Indian in between ... ask them. Most Native Indian lanugages of the mid west and west coast have a common "mother"(s) - and I increasingly suspect, a degree of belief particle.