Oʼodham language
Template:Short description Template:Infobox language
Oʼodham: (Template:IPA, Template:Small Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) or Papago-Pima is a Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, where the Tohono Oʼodham (formerly called the Papago) and Akimel Oʼodham (traditionally called Pima) reside.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2000 there were estimated to be approximately 9,750 speakers in the United States and Mexico combined, although there may be more due to underreporting.
It is the 10th most-spoken indigenous language in the United States, and the 3rd most-spoken indigenous language in Arizona (after Western Apache and Navajo). It is the third-most spoken language in Pinal County, Arizona, and the fourth-most spoken language in Pima County, Arizona.
Approximately 8% of Oʼodham speakers in the US speak English "not well" or "not at all", according to results of the 2000 Census. Approximately 13% of Oʼodham speakers in the US were between the ages of 5 and 17, and among the younger Oʼodham speakers, approximately 4% were reported as speaking English "not well" or "not at all".
Native names for the language, depending on the dialect and orthography, include Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang.
Dialects
The Oʼodham language has a number of dialects.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Oʼodham
- Tohono Oʼodham
- Cukuḍ Kuk
- Gigimai
- Huhuʼula (Huhuwoṣ)
- Totoguanh
- Akimel Oʼodham
- Eastern Gila
- Kohadk
- Salt River
- Western Gila
- Hia C-ed Oʼodham
- ?
- Tohono Oʼodham
Due to the paucity of data on the linguistic varieties of the Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham, this section currently focuses on the Tohono Oʼodham and Akimel Oʼodham dialects only.
The greatest lexical and grammatical dialectal differences are between the Tohono Oʼodham (or Papago) and the Akimel Oʼodham (or Pima) dialect groupings. Some examples:
| Tohono Oʼodham | Akimel Oʼodham | English |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to send |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to wait for |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to be cool |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang (but Template:Lang, stapler) | to fasten |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to be absent |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | hunt tr. |
There are other major dialectal differences between northern and southern dialects, for example:
| Early Oʼodham | Southern | Northern | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| *ʼa꞉phi꞉m | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | you (plural) |
| *cu꞉khug | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | flesh |
| *ʼe꞉kheg | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to be shaded |
| *ʼu꞉pham | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | (go) back |
The Cukuḍ Kuk dialect has null in certain positions where other Tohono Oʼodham dialects have a bilabial:
| Other TO dialects | Chukuḍ Kuk | English |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to arrive |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | bird |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | only |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | but |
Morphology
Oʼodham is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.
Phonology
Oʼodham phonology has a typical Uto-Aztecan inventory distinguishing 19 consonants and 5 vowels.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Consonants
The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink |
| Mid | Template:IPAlink | Template:IPAlink | |
| Low | Template:IPAlink |
Most vowels distinguish two degrees of length: long and short, and some vowels also show extra-short duration (voicelessness).
- Template:Lang Template:IPA "Seri"
- Template:Lang Template:IPA "permission"
- Template:Lang Template:IPA "you"
- Template:Lang Template:IPA "I don't know", "who knows?"
Papago Template:IPA is pronounced Template:IPA in Pima.
Additionally, in common with many northern Uto-Aztecan languages, vowels and nasals at end of words are devoiced. Also, a short schwa sound, either voiced or unvoiced depending on position, is often interpolated between consonants and at the ends of words.
Allophony and distribution
- Extra short Template:Angle bracket is realized as voiceless Template:IPA and devoices preceding obstruents: Template:Lang Template:IPA → Template:IPA "jackrabbit".
- Template:IPA is a fricative Template:IPA before unrounded vowels: Template:Lang Template:IPA.
- Template:IPA appears before Template:IPA and Template:IPA in Spanish loanwords, but native words do not have nasal assimilation: Template:Lang Template:IPA "hill", Template:Lang Template:IPA "meet", Template:Lang Template:IPA "monkey". Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA rarely occur initially in native words, and Template:IPA does not occur before Template:IPA.
- Template:IPA and Template:IPA are largely in complementary distribution, Template:IPA appearing before high vowels Template:IPA, Template:IPA appearing before low vowels Template:IPA: Template:Lang "sing". They contrast finally (Template:Lang (1st imperfective auxiliary) vs. Template:Lang "next to speaker"), though Saxton analyzes these as Template:IPA and Template:IPA, respectively, and final Template:IPA as in Template:Lang as Template:IPA. However, there are several Spanish loanwords where Template:IPA occurs: Template:Lang "number". Similarly, for the most part Template:IPA and Template:IPA appear before low vowels while Template:IPA and Template:IPA before high vowels, but there are exceptions to both, often in Spanish loanwords: Template:Lang "wine", TO weco / AO veco ("[de]bajo") "under".
Orthography
There are two orthographies commonly used for the Oʼodham language: Alvarez–Hale and Saxton. The Alvarez–Hale orthography is officially used by the Tohono Oʼodham Nation and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, and is used in this article, but the Saxton orthography is also common and is official in the Gila River Indian Community. It is relatively easy to convert between the two, the differences between them being largely no more than different graphemes for the same phoneme, but there are distinctions made by Alvarez–Hale not made by Saxton.
The Saxton orthography does not mark word-initial Template:IPA or extra-short vowels. Final Template:Angle bracket generally corresponds to Hale–Alvarez Template:Angle bracket and final Template:Angle bracket to Hale–Alvarez Template:Angle bracket:
- Hale–Alvarez Template:Lang vs. Saxton Template:Lang Template:IPA "cottontail rabbit"
- Hale–Alvarez Template:Lang vs. Saxton Template:Lang Template:IPA "I"
Disputed spellings
There is some disagreement among speakers as to whether the spelling of words should be only phonetic or whether etymological principles should be considered as well.
For instance, Template:Lang vs. Template:Lang ("frybread"; the spellings Template:Lang and Template:Lang are also seen) derives from Template:Lang (a warm color roughly equivalent to yellow or brown). Some believe it should be spelled phonetically as Template:Lang, reflecting the fact that it begins with Template:IPA, while others think its spelling should reflect the fact that it is derived from Template:Lang (Template:Lang is itself a form of Template:Lang, so while it could be spelled Template:Lang, it is not since it is just a different declension of the same word).Template:Citation needed
Grammar
Syntax
Oʼodham has relatively free word order within clauses; for example, all of the following sentences mean "the boy brands the pig":<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In principle, these could also mean "the pig brands the boy", but such an interpretation would require an unusual context.
Despite the general freedom of sentence word order, Oʼodham is fairly strictly verb-second in its placement of the auxiliary verb (in the above sentences, it is Template:Lang):
- Template:Lang "I am working"
- but Template:Lang "I am not working", not **pi cipkan ʼañ
Verbs
Verbs are inflected for aspect (imperfective Template:Lang, perfective Template:Lang), tense (future imperfective Template:Lang), and number (plural Template:Lang). Number agreement displays absolutive behavior: verbs agree with the number of the subject in intransitive sentences, but with that of the object in transitive sentences:
- Template:Lang "the boy is working"
- Template:Lang "the boys are working"
- Template:Lang "the boy is branding the pig"
- Template:Lang "the boys are branding the pig"
- Template:Lang "the boy is branding the pigs"
The main verb agrees with the object for person (Template:Lang in the above example), but the auxiliary agrees with the subject: Template:Lang "I am branding the pigs".
Nouns
Three numbers are distinguished in nouns: singular, plural, and distributive, though not all nouns have distinct forms for each. Most distinct plurals are formed by reduplication and often vowel loss plus other occasional morphophonemic changes, and distributives are formed from these by gemination of the reduplicated consonant:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Lang "dog", Template:Lang "dogs", Template:Lang "dogs (all over)"
- Template:Lang "car", Template:Lang "cars", Template:Lang "cars (all over)"
- Template:Lang "cat", Template:Lang "cats"
Adjectives
Oʼodham adjectives can act both attributively modifying nouns and predicatively as verbs, with no change in form.
- Template:Lang "This water is cold"
- Template:Lang "I like cold water"
Sample text
The following is an excerpt from Oʼodham Piipaash Language Program: Template:Lang ("Roadrunner").<ref>Oʼodham Piipaash Language Program. Taḏai. Salt River, AZ: Oʼodham Piipaash Language Program</ref> It exemplifies the Salt River dialect.
In Saxton orthography:
The following is a song from Oʼodham Hohoʼok Aʼagida (Oʼodham Legends and Lore) by Susanne Ignacio Enos, and Dean and Lucille Saxton.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It exemplifies the "Storyteller dialect".
In Saxton orthography:
English:
See also
References
External links
- Oʼodham Swadesh vocabulary list (Wiktionary)
- Papago – English Dictionary
- Template:Webarchive – Includes stories with phonetic transcription, audio, and translation created by linguist Madeleine Mathiot with Jose Pancho and others.
- Oʼodham Hohoʼok Aʼagida – Oʼodham legends with side-by-side English translations by Susanne Ignacio Enos and Dean and Lucille Saxton.
Template:Uto-Aztecan languages
Template:Languages of Arizona
Template:Languages of Mexico