Osage is a Siouan language spoken by the Osage people of Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. The last native speaker, Lucille Roubedeaux, died ca. 2005.

Osage has an inventory of sounds very similar to that of Dakota

Dakota language

Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...

, plus vowel length, preaspirated obstruent

Obstruent

An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....

s, and an interdental fricative (like "th" in English "then"). In contrast to Dakota, phonemically

Phoneme

In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....

 aspirated

Aspiration (phonetics)

In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...

 obstruents appear phonetically

Allophone

In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...

 as affricates, and the high back vowel *u has been fronted to [y].

Recently, a distinctive Latin-based alphabet for Osage

Osage alphabet

In 2006, a distinctive script was promulgated for the Osage language. Unlike previous means of transcribing Osage, which were based on the letter forms of the Latin script, the new Osage script has distinct letter shapes, though its derivation from the Latin script is apparent...

 has been promulgated.

Phonology

Osage phonology is quite similar to that of Kansa

Kansa language

Kansa is a Siouan language once spoken by the Kaw people of Oklahoma. The last mother-tongue speaker, Walter Kekahbah, died in 1983.-Scholarship and Resources:...

. However, it preserves many historical alternations that have been leveled out in Kansa; for example, Kansa *u has merged with *i, whereas it's still largely distinct in Osage.

Basic Vowels

Osage has five plain vowels:
These are written as [i] [u] [e] [o] [a].

• [i] is a high front vowel: like English i in ski.
• [u] is a high non-back rounded vowel: like English u in tuna.
• [e] is a half-open front vowel: like English e in get.
• [o] is a mid-back rounded vowel: like English o in bolt.
• [a] is an open back vowel: like English a in brother.

/u/ varies between central and front, [ʉ ~ y], and frequently unrounds to /i/. It is especially far front [y] following a velar obstruent and when it is near a front vowel with no intervening obstruent. It most commonly conflates with /i/ following ð and n.

Usually in fast speech, the /a/ is heard as an [ə]. This assimilation occurs after a stressed syllable, or at the end of a word. For example: céska [tsɛ́skə] ‘cow’, tóa [tóe] ‘this one’.

Nasalized Vowels

There are three vowels that carry this feature: [ɑ̃] [ĩ] [õ]. It is quite common for nasalized [ɑ̃] to become a nasal [õ] and vice versa. Non-nasalized vowels can be heard as nasalized, too. 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: [ʃímĩʒɛ] ‘girl’ and [pa·ɣõ] ‘mountain’

Vowel Clusters and Long Vowels

According to Hans Wolff (65), common Osage vowel clusters are:

• iu [iü] for example: niuʒõ ‘Neosho River’
• íe [íɛ]~[íi] for example: wíe ‘I’
• íĩ [íĩ] for example: kasíĩte ‘tomorrow’
• iuĩ [üĩ] for example: ékiuĩka ‘don’t’
• éa [ɛ́a]~[ɛ́ə] for example: cʼéaðe ‘I killed him’
• aĩ [ɛ̃] for eample: hówaĩke ‘where?’
• óa [óə] 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. 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.

Example: ʃkó̃ʃta ‘you want’ becomes ʃkó̃õʃta?

Long vowels also arise when ð is omitted between identical vowels.

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)

Example: océ 'look for, hunt for' becomes otá 'look for it!'

Diphthongs

The vowel sequences [aĩ] [eĩ] [oĩ] and [ai] are almost certainly diphthongs. The Osage alphabet has letters to represent each of the diphthongs (See the Osage Alphabet)

Osage alphabet

In 2006, a distinctive script was promulgated for the Osage language. Unlike previous means of transcribing Osage, which were based on the letter forms of the Latin script, the new Osage script has distinct letter shapes, though its derivation from the Latin script is apparent...

. Seeing that these four sounds have single unique letters in the orthography system of the language emphasizes how frequent and important they are in the phonology.

Consonants

There are in Osage seventeen consonant phonemes, nine of which are voiceless and eight are voiced. However, Osage has a unique system of sounds, which to English speakers might seem very similar but are actually quite distinctive to an Osage native speaker or listener. This system is known as the stop series, or the stop sequence. (See below)

Stop Series

The stop series is a vital part of Osage phonology. The 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.
• Glottalized: which include p’, c’ and k’. They cannot appear as the second member of a consonant cluster. [t] cannot occur as *[t’] in Osage, where it has become c’.
• Voiced: with b being the only member in this category. The only environment this sound may appear in is in the cluster [br]. The cluster itself generally appears in the first verb form, otherwise it is somewhat infrequent.(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:

• [*pʰ], [*tʰ], [*kʰ] are only underlying forms; they cannot appear as surface forms. Instead, we have [px], [tx] and [kx] before back vowels, and [pʃ], [tsʰ], [kʃ] (usually) before the other vowels.
• The voiceless unaspirated affricate c or [ts] has two variants, [tʃ] after [ʃ] and elsewhere it is heard as [ts].

/ts/→[tʃ] / __ [ʃ]

Examples:

íðotse 'be open'

ihtṍtse 'son-in-law'

ðekṍõce 'now'

mɑ̃ʃtʃĩ́kɛ 'rabbit'

ʃtʃɛ́ 'you went'

• The glottal stop [ʔ] 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.

• X has two allophones [x] and [ɣ]. [x] becomes [ɣ] between vowels, and elsewhere it remains [x].

/x/ → [ɣ] / v__v

Examples:

hóxpe 'cough'

hpéɣe 'gourd'

nɑ̃́ɑ̃ɣe 'spirit'

hkáɣe 'crow'

• The phoneme h is always voiceless.

• [ð] This sound is usually considered a phoneme with a single allophone [ð], but in the hominy dialect it has two allphones: [d] (initial before a) and [ð] elsewhere.

/ð/ → [d] / #__a

Examples:

ðɑ̃lĩ [dɑ̃dlĩ] 'good'

ðɑ̃brĩ [dɑ̃bəðĩ] 'three'

ðĩe [ðĩɛ] 'you'

cʼéðe [tsʼɛˑðɛ] 'he killed it'

• The [br] cluster also depends on dialect. It is sometimes heard as [bəl] or [bər].
• In some instances, due to morphologically complex formations, r is an allophone of ð

Examples:

brĩiʃtɑ̃ 'I'm finished'

abrĩ 'I have'

waabrṍ '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 /i ĩ e u/. 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). 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 [br].
The initial clusters are [pʃ] [kʃ] [ts’] [st] [sts] [sk] [ʃt] [ʃk] [br], excluding aspirated stops.

Examples:

pʃĩta 'I'll come (to your house)'

kʃí 'he reached home'

ʰtséka 'crazy'

stúʒa 'you wash it'

stséce '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 of Osage

The historically aspirated series *pʰ *tʰ *kʰ is seldom realized with aspiration today. Before back vowels they are [px tx kx], and before front vowels [pʃ tsʰ kʃ] (written pš ch kš). Some speakers from Hominy assimilate tx to [tkx] or [kx].

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 /l, n/ are now separate phonemes. Nonetheless, intervocalic ð is optionally pronounced [n] in many words. It is also sometimes strongly palatalized intervocalically, to the point of becoming [j].

In words with l, this is sometimes pronounced [hl] or [dl]. 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 [ɹ]. Br is most common in first-person forms of verbs beginning with ð, where the 1sg agent prefix w(a)- assimilates to [b] before the ð, and indeed this was written bth in the 1930s. However, in rarer cases the origin of br is opaque.

External links

• Audio clips of Osage phrases
• Ryan Red Corn on revitalizing Osage