Osage language
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Osage (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:OED</ref> Osage: Template:Script Wažáže ie) is a Siouan language spoken by the people of the Osage Nation in northern Oklahoma. Their original territory was in the present-day Ohio River Valley, which they shared with other Siouan language nations. Slowly they migrated to present-day Missouri and Kansas areas (see Dhegihan migration), but they were gradually pushed west by pressure from invading colonial forces and settlement by other displaced Native American nations.
Osage has an inventory of sounds very similar to that of Dakota, also a Siouan language, plus vowel length, preaspirated obstruents and an interdental fricative (like "th" in English "then"). In contrast to Dakota, phonemically aspirated obstruents appear phonetically as affricates, and the high back vowel *u has been fronted to Template:IPA.
Osage is written primarily with two systems: one using the Latin script with diacritics, and another derived Osage script created in 2006.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Osage is among the few indigenous languages in the United States that has developed its own writing system.
Language revitalization
As of 2009, about 15–20 elders were second-language speakers of Osage. The Osage Language Program, created in 2003, provides audio and video learning materials on its website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Osage, Kaw, Quapaw, Ponca and Omaha speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In early 2015, Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear announced he would make Osage language immersion a priority.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Phonology
Osage phonology is quite similar to that of Kansa. But, it preserves many historical alternations that have been leveled out in Kansa; for example, Kansa *u has merged with *i, whereas it is still largely distinct in Osage.
Vowels
Basic vowels
Osage has five plain vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA link | ||
| Mid | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | ||
| Open | Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA link | |||
These are written Template:Angle bracket.
Template:IPA varies between central and front, Template:IPA, and frequently unrounds to Template:IPA. It is especially far front Template:IPA following a velar obstruent and when it is near a front vowel with no intervening obstruent. It most commonly conflates with Template:IPA following ð and n.
Usually in fast speech, unstressed /a/ is pronounced Template:IPA.<ref>Quintero, 2009, p.xv</ref> This occurs after a stressed syllable, or at the end of a word. For example: Template:IPA 'cow', Template:IPA 'this one'.
Nasalized vowels
There are three vowels that carry this feature: Template:IPA. It is quite common for nasalized Template:IPA to become a nasal Template:IPA and vice versa. Non-nasalized vowels can be heard as nasalized as well. In general, vowels tend to become nasalized adjacent to another nasal vowel or consonant when there is no intervening obstruent. On the other hand, final nasal vowels tend to become oral. However, nasal vowels are always short, regardless of their position. Examples: Template:IPA 'girl' and Template:IPA 'mountain'
Vowel clusters and long vowels
According to Hans Wolff<ref name=article>Template:Cite journal</ref> (65), common Osage vowel clusters are:
- iu Template:IPA for example: niuʒõ 'Neosho River'
- íe Template:IPA for example: wíe 'I'
- íĩ Template:IPA for example: kasíĩte 'tomorrow'
- iuĩ Template:IPA for example: ékiuĩka 'don't'
- éa Template:IPA for example: cʼéaðe 'I killed him'
- aĩ Template:IPA for example: hówaĩke 'where?'
- óa Template:IPA for example: tóa 'this one'
Vowel length is important in Osage, but it is hard to perceive and has a good deal of variation. For example, long vowels are often reduced to short ones when they are not accented.<ref name="Quintero, 2009, p.xvi">Quintero, 2009, p.xvi</ref> Quintero took long vowels to be the underlying form in such situations. There is not enough information to specify exactly how the accent system works in Osage, and there is still uncertainty about Osage vowel length.
Oral vowels are long before non-stop consonants and in final stressed position. When they are unstressed in final position, they are always short.
Lengthening of short vowels often occurs in questions.<ref name="Quintero, 2009, p.xvi">Quintero, 2009, p.xvi</ref>
- Example: Template:IPA 'you want' becomes Template:IPA?
Long vowels also arise when ð is omitted between identical vowels.<ref name="Quintero, 2009, p.xvi"/>
- Example: ðakʼéwaða 'be kind to them' may become ðakʼéwaa.
When e(e) changes to a(a), an immediately preceding c is often replaced by t (thought not always)<ref>Quintero, 2009, p.xvii</ref>
- Example: océ 'look for, hunt for' becomes otá 'look for it!'
Diphthongs
The vowel sequences Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA and Template:IPA are almost certainlyTemplate:According to whom diphthongs.Template:Citation needed The Osage script has letters to represent each of the diphthongs.
Consonants
There are thirty-one consonant phonemes in Osage,<ref name=":0" /> twenty-two of which are voiceless and nine are voiced. However, Osage has a rich system of stop sounds, known as the stop series, or the stop sequence. (See below)
Stop series
The stop series can be grouped according to five categories:
- Voiceless preaspirated or fortis: which may be pronounced as geminates or preaspirated. As in other Siouan languages they sometimes derive from h-C sequences, but not always.
- Voiceless plain or lenis: which are tenuis, and often lightly voiced.
- Postaspirated: which never appear as a surface form.<ref name="Quintero, 2004, p.19">Quintero, 2004, p.19</ref>
- Ejective Template:IPA. They cannot appear as the second member of a consonant cluster. Historical *tʼ is Template:IPA in Osage.<ref>Quintero, 2004, p.24</ref>
- Voiced: with b being the only member in this category. The only environment this sound may appear in is in the cluster Template:IPA. The cluster itself generally appears in the first verb form, otherwise it is somewhat infrequent.<ref name="Quintero, 2004, p.19"/>(see historical phonology section).
The ejective, fortis, and lenis series of the alphabet are not distinguished in Osage orthography.
Listed below is some features and phonological alternations of Osage:
- Template:IPA occur before back vowels, Template:IPA (usually) before the other vowels.<ref name=":0">Quintero, 2004, p.16</ref>
- The voiceless unaspirated affricate Template:IPA has two allophones: Template:IPA after Template:IPA; elsewhere it is Template:IPA.<ref name="article"/>
- Examples:
- íðotse 'be open'
- ihtṍtse 'son-in-law'
- ðekṍõce 'now'
- Template:IPA 'rabbit'
- Template:IPA 'you went'
- The glottal stop Template:IPA appears in clusters only after p, c, k, and it is not considered a true consonant of Osage. It is best thought of as a phonetic device used occasionally at utterance level, and it is typically to separate vowels that would otherwise contract.<ref>Quintero, 2009, p.xviii</ref>
- Template:IPA has two allophones, Template:IPA and Template:IPA. Template:IPA occurs between vowels, elsewhere it is Template:IPA.
- Examples:
- Template:IPA 'cough'
- Template:IPA 'gourd'
- Template:IPA 'spirit'
- Template:IPA 'crow'
- The phoneme Template:IPA is always voiceless.
- Template:IPA usually has a single allophone Template:IPA, but in the Hominy dialect it has two allophones: Template:IPA initially before Template:IPA and Template:IPA elsewhere.<ref name="article"/>
- Examples:
- ðɑ̃lĩ Template:IPA 'good'
- ðɑ̃brĩ Template:IPA 'three'
- ðĩe Template:IPA 'you'
- cʼéðe Template:IPA 'he killed it'
- The Template:IPA cluster also depends on dialect. It is sometimes pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA.<ref name="article"/>
- In some instances, due to morphologically complex formations, Template:IPA is an allophone of Template:IPA<ref name="Quintero, 2004, p.19"/>
- Examples:
- Template:IPA 'I'm finished'
- Template:IPA 'I have'
- Template:IPA 'I am unable'
The dentalveolar obstruents are often fricated: the ejective always (though it has other sources as well), and the other series before the front vowels Template:IPA. Exceptions occur due to compounding and other derivational processes. For example, from hką́ą́ce 'fruit' and oolá 'put in' is hkąącóla 'pie'. (The fricated allophone is written c.)
Č, hč are rare, and only found in diminutives: č only in two words, čóopa 'a little', čáahpa 'squat', and hč for hc in endearment forms of kin terms like wihčóšpa 'my grandchild'. In Hominy, šc is pronounced šč.
Consonant clusters
Osage has a simple expanded CV syllabic template: (C(C)) V (V).<ref>Quintero, 2004, p.4</ref> All consonants occur initially and medially; they never occur in final position. Consonant clusters of the type CC only occur in initial and medial positions. Furthermore, only voiceless consonants form clusters, with the exception of Template:IPA.<ref name="article"/> The initial clusters are Template:IPA, excluding aspirated stops.
- Examples:
- pʃĩta 'I'll come (to your house)'
- kʃí 'he reached home'
- ʰtséka 'crazy'
- stúʒa 'you wash it'
- stsétse 'long'
- skɑ̃ 'white'
- ʃtátɑ̃ 'you drank it'
- ʃkṍʃta 'you wanted it'
- bráze 'torn'
Medial clusters may be divided into two groups:
- Cluster whose first C is p, t, c, or k
- Examples:
- tapʼõkʼe 'he hit it'
- wécʼa 'snake'
- nɑ̃ḱṍ 'he heard it'
- aṍpha 'I understand it'
- áthɑ̃ 'he kicked it'
- áððikhɑ̃ 'he lay down'
- épʃe 'I spoke'
- ðacpé 'to eat'
- nĩ́kʃe 'you are here'
- nã́kwĩ 'both, we two'
- Cluster whose first C is s, ʃ, x, or h
- Examples:
- ĩ́spe 'ax'
- laská 'flower'
- ókisce 'half'
- ðaʃtú 'to bite'
- paʃpú 'to chip'
- iʃtá 'eyes'
- walúʃks 'bug'
- mɑ̃ʃcĩ́ke 'rabbit'
- mɑ̃xpú 'clouds'
- ðaxtáke 'to bite'
- mõĩ́xka 'soil/dirt'
- wĩ́xci 'one'
Historical phonology
Template:Unreferenced section The historically aspirated series *pʰ *tʰ *kʰ is seldom realized with aspiration today. Before back vowels they are Template:IPA, and before front vowels Template:IPA (written pš ch kš). Some speakers from Hominy assimilate tx to Template:IPA or Template:IPA.
Đ, n, r all derive from historic *r, and l from *kr and *xr. The latter is a recent phenomenon; in the 1930s words with modern l were transcribed xth and gth. Historically *r became ð before oral vowels and n before nasal vowels, but since the nasalization has often been lost, there are minimal pairs and Template:IPA are now separate phonemes. Nonetheless, intervocalic ð is optionally pronounced Template:IPA in many words. It is also sometimes strongly palatalized intervocalically, to the point of becoming Template:IPA.
In words with l, this is sometimes pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA. The former derives from historic *xl, the latter from *kð and *gð; these sequences have largely merged with simple *l. This is productive; ð in verbs may become l when prefixed with k.
The r is apparently an approximant like English Template:IPA. Br is most common in first-person forms of verbs beginning with ð, where the Template:Gcl agent prefix w(a)- assimilates to Template:IPA before the ð, and indeed this was written bth in the 1930s. However, in rarer cases the origin of br is opaque.
In popular culture
The Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and the Nation's language department have consulted Martin Scorsese during the production of his movie Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), which featured Osage dialogue. The movie, which was based on the Osage Indian murders, also featured Osage traditional clothing and the Osage script. Osage and non-Osage actors, including Robert De Niro, spoke lines in the language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
Sources
- Quintero, Carolyn. The Osage Language. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2004. Template:ISBN.
- Quintero, Carolyn. Osage Dictionary. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. Template:ISBN.
- Wolff, Hans. "Osage I: Phonemes and Historical Phonology". International Journal of American Linguistics 18.2 (1952): 63–68.
External links
- The Osage Nation's language homepage
- Audio clips of Osage phrases
- Template:Cite book (may require log-in access)
Template:Languages of Oklahoma Template:Siouan languages Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control