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| Osage | |
|---|---|
| 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒻𐒷Wažáže ie | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Oklahoma |
| Ethnicity | Osage |
| Extinct | 2005, with the death ofLucille Robedeaux |
| Revival | As of 2009, 15–20L2 speakers, ongoing revival program |
Siouan
| |
| Latin (Osage alphabet),Osage script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | osa |
| ISO 639-3 | osa |
qlc Kansa-Osage | |
| Glottolog | osag1243 |
| ELP | Osage |
 Map showing the distribution ofOklahomaIndian Languages | |
 Osage is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 (Wažaže) "Middle Waters" | |
|---|---|
| People | 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 (Wažaže) |
| Language | 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟𐓣𐓟 (Wažažeie) |
| Country | 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 𐓀𐓘͘𐓻𐓘͘ (Wažaže Mązhą) |
Osage (/oʊˈseɪdʒ,ˈoʊseɪdʒ/;[1] Osage:𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒻𐒷Wažáže ie) is aSiouan language spoken by the people of theOsage Nation in northernOklahoma. Their original territory was in the present-dayOhio River Valley, which they shared with other Siouan language nations. Slowly they migrated to present-dayMissouri andKansas areas (seeDhegihan 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 ofDakota, also a Siouan language, plus vowel length,preaspiratedobstruents and aninterdental fricative (like "th" in English "then"). In contrast to Dakota,phonemicallyaspirated obstruents appearphonetically asaffricates, and the high back vowel *u has been fronted to[y].
Osage is written primarily with two systems: one using theLatin script withdiacritics, and another derivedOsage script created in 2006.[2] Osage is among the few indigenous languages in the United States that has developed its own writing system.
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.[3] The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Osage,Kaw,Quapaw,Ponca andOmaha speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization.[4] In early 2015, Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear announced he would make Osage language immersion a priority.[5]
Osagephonology is quite similar to that ofKansa. 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.
Osage has five plainvowels:
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | i | y ~ʉ | ||
| Mid | ɛ | o | ||
| Open | ə ~ɑ | |||
These are written⟨i u e o a⟩.
/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/ followingð andn.
Usually in fast speech, unstressed /a/ is pronounced[ə].[6] This occurs after a stressed syllable, or at the end of a word. For example:céska[tsɛ́skə] 'cow',tóa[tóə] 'this one'.
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 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:[ʃímĩʒɛ] 'girl' and[paˑɣõ] 'mountain'
According to Hans Wolff[7] (65), common Osage vowel clusters are:
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.[8] 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.[8]
Long vowels also arise when ð is omitted between identical vowels.[8]
When e(e) changes to a(a), an immediately preceding c is often replaced by t (thought not always)[9]
The vowel sequences/aĩ//eĩ//oĩ/ and/ai/ are almost certainly[according to whom?] diphthongs.[citation needed] TheOsage script has letters to represent each of the diphthongs.
There are thirty-one consonant phonemes in Osage,[10] 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)
The stop series can be grouped according to five categories:
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:
The dentalveolar obstruents are often fricated: the ejective always (though it has other sources as well), and the other series before the front vowels/iĩeu/. Exceptions occur due to compounding and other derivational processes. For example, fromhką́ą́ce 'fruit' andoolá 'put in' ishkąącóla 'pie'. (The fricated allophone is writtenc.)
Č, hč are rare, and only found in diminutives:č only in two words,čóopa 'a little',čáahpa 'squat', andhč forhc in endearment forms of kin terms likewihčóšpa 'my grandchild'. In Hominy,šc is pronouncedšč.
Osage has a simple expanded CV syllabic template: (C(C)) V (V).[14] 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].[7] The initial clusters are[pʃ][kʃ][tsʼ][st][sts][sk][ʃt][ʃk][br], excluding aspirated stops.
Medial clusters may be divided into two groups:
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The historicallyaspirated series *pʰ *tʰ *kʰ is seldom realized with aspiration today. Before back vowels they are[pxtxkx], and before front vowels[pʃtsʰkʃ] (writtenpš ch kš). Some speakers from Hominy assimilatetx to[tkx] or[kx].
Đ, n, r all derive from historic *r, andl from *kr and *xr. The latter is a recent phenomenon; in the 1930s words with modernl were transcribedxth andgth. Historically *r becameð before oral vowels andn before nasal vowels, but since the nasalization has often been lost, there are minimal pairs and/l,n/ are now separate phonemes. Nonetheless, intervocalicð is optionally pronounced[n] in many words. It is also sometimes strongly palatalized intervocalically, to the point of becoming[j].
In words withl, 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 becomel when prefixed withk.
Ther is apparently an approximant like English[ɹ].Br is most common in first-person forms of verbs beginning withð, where the1sg agent prefixw(a)- assimilates to[b] before theð, and indeed this was writtenbth in the 1930s. However, in rarer cases the origin ofbr is opaque.
TheOsage Nation ChiefGeoffrey Standing Bear and the Nation's language department have consultedMartin Scorsese during the production of his movieKillers of the Flower Moon (2023), which featured Osage dialogue. The movie, which was based on theOsage Indian murders, also featured Osage traditional clothing and theOsage script. Osage and non-Osage actors, includingRobert De Niro, spoke lines in the language.[15][16]
Italics indicate extinct languages * indicates extinct language in Oklahoma but still spoken elsewhere | |||||||||||||||
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