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| Ofo | |
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Mississippi |
| Ethnicity | Ofo people |
| Extinct | early 20th century |
Siouan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ofo |
| Glottolog | ofoo1242 |
 Distribution of Ofo language | |
Ofo (/ˈoʊ.foʊ/OH-foh), also known asMosopelea, is a language formerly spoken by theOfo people, also called theMosopelea, in what is nowOhio, along theOhio River, until about 1673. The tribe moved south along theMississippi River toMississippi, near theNatchez people, and then toLouisiana, settling near theTunica.
In the 18th century, the Mosopelea were known under the namesOufé andOffogoula.[1] On the basis of the presence of the phoneme /f/ in these names, early linguists once suspected that Ofo was aMuskogean language. However, anthropologistJohn R. Swanton met an elder Ofo speaker, Rosa Pierrette, in 1908 while he was conducting fieldwork among the Tunica. From her information, he was then able to confirm that the language was Siouan and was similar toBiloxi. Pierrette had spoken Ofo as a child, but Swanton says she toldAlbert Gatschet that the rest of her tribe "had killed each other off" when she was 17.[2]
Ofo follows a process similar toGrassmann's law, with/h/ counting as an aspirated consonant:/oskʰa/ 'crane' +/afʰã/ 'white' >/oskəfʰa/ 'white egret' and/apʰeti/ 'fire' + either/təsʰihi/ 'to burn' or/təsʰihi/ 'to breathe' >/apesʰihi/ 'smoke'.[3]
The inventory is as follows:[4]
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | tenuis | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | t͡ʃʰ | kʰ | ||
| Fricative | tenuis | f | s | ʃ | x | h |
| aspirated | fʰ | sʰ | ||||
| Sonorant | w | l | j | |||
| b[clarification needed] | d[clarification needed] | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i,iː ĩ,ĩː | u,uː ũ,ũː | |
| Mid | e,eː | ə | o,oː |
| Low | a,aː ã,ãː |
All vowels, including/ə/, may bear stress.
Ofo is considered to be a mildlypolysynthetic language.[4]
Ofo distinguishes between alienable and inalienable possession by the use of a prefix for first-, second-, and third-person singular as well as first-person dual. That can be abbreviated to 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, and 1du, respectively. The alienable possessions include the following: 1sg {ba-, aba-}, 2sg {č-, ača-}, 3sg {}, 1du {ã-}. The inalienable possessions include the following: 1sg {mi-}, 2sg {čĩ-}, 3sg {ĩ-}, 1du {ã-}.
Ofo uses the enclitic suffix-ni, to demonstrate negation. That enclitic is usually after the predicate.
Ofo uses the enclitic suffix -tu to pluralize the subject, the object, or both.
Instrumental prefixes describe the manner in which an action is carried out. Some instrumental prefixes are below:
| "mí̃ti, mí̃*te" 'I, me' | "čí̃*ti" 'you' |
| "í̃*ti" 'he' | "á̃ti, á̃*ti" 'we' |
Ofo appears to have no grammatical gender.
Irrealis mood consists of the suffix-abe. It is the equivalent to the future in English:
Continuative aspect is formed using the wordnóñki.
Iterative aspect is created byreduplication:
The documentation of Ofo does not provide enough information to develop a complete syntax of the language. However, structures also found in related languages have been found.[4]
Ofo appears to have ahead-dependent ordering in sentences, which gives it anobject-verb word order. The order of verbs may be described as being clause-final. Many cases appear to support that. An example can be seen below:
b-aphú̂ska
my-fist
a-tci-tp-ábe
I-you-hit-IRR
b-aphú̂ska a-tci-tp-ábe
my-fist I-you-hit-IRR
'I will hit you with my fist'
Only some forms are known because of a lack of documentation.
Dative case appears in Ofo and can be interpreted as resembling anaccusativepronoun in English.
tcilétci
your.tongue
ó̃tcĭku
me.you.give
tcilétció̃tcĭku
your.tongueme.you.give
'hold your tongue!'
athé
dress
ãtcókpe
me.you.put on
athéãtcókpe
dress {me.you.put on}
'you help me dress'
There is no information in the Ofo data to support Ofo having explicit complement clauses. However, it is apparent that embedded clauses precede the main clause.
détõ-ni
(he).go-COND
á-kiu-bĕ
I-come-IRR
détõ-ni á-kiu-bĕ
(he).go-COND I-come-IRR
'if he goes, I will come'
The causative is marked by theenclitic-we.
