User:Jspruill/sandbox

(Note: I was not certain if we were to exclude the original citation superscript in the original, copied text, since they will not be able to be linked to, here. But, also seeing as it would be misleading to not include them when the original page did, in fact, have them, I am hoping it is clear that the underlined citations were included in the original text, and that the superscript citations that are included in the underlined, original text, are not related to my sandbox's own citations.)

Osage is a language of the Siouan language family, which have been spoken in North America from the Northern part of the Arkansas River, to westward across the great plains to the Black Hills. Other Siouan languages were also spread out among the Southern United States, such as Virginia, Alabama, and the Mississippi River, where Osage was mainly concentrated. The language, part of the Dhegiha subgroup of the Siouan language family, experienced contact with the French beginning during the late seventeenth century. The tribe has since moved several times in the nineteenth century, into a regional dominion that gradually lessened into Osage County, Oklahoma.

During the seventeenth century, the average number of speakers was estimated to be between 4500 to 6000, though, nearly two centuries later, that number had decreased to approximately 3700. The latter number, decreased to a mere five to ten speakers by the end of the twentieth century. Today, there are no known native speakers of the language, and thus, the language, ranked a nine on the language endangerment scale, is nearly extinct.

Osage is written primarily using the Latin script with diacritics. In 2006, a derived Osage script, with diacritics reflecting the Latin, was created for it; the final 2014 revision was included in Unicode version 9.0 in June 2016 in the Osage block.[3]

Language Revitalization
Recovery of the language was a great interest for the few elders and adults able to speak the language, even though it had been rarely spoken colloquially, other than intertwining the language into the conversation of English, and/or a few tribal ceremonies. This recovery, however, has been difficult, due to the lack of much grammatical documentation, and "highly politicized" due to the sentiments of the different factions of the language, though there has been no notable regional and lexical variation of the language.

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.[4] The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Osage, Kaw, Quapaw, Ponca and Omoha speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization.[5] In early 2015, Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear announced he would make Osage language immersion a priority.[6]

Phonology
Osage has an inventory of sounds very similar to that of Dakota, 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 [y].

Osage phonology is [also] quite similar to that of Kansa. However, 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
Osage has five plain vowels:

The five plain vowels are written ⟨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 California or New Zealand English u in dude.
 * /e/ is a half-open front vowel: like English e in get.
 * /o/ is a mid-back rounded vowel: like English o in bolt.
 * /ɑ/ is an open back vowel: like English a in bra.

/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 pronounced [ə].[7] 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 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. [citation needed]

Examples: [ʃímĩʒɛ] 'girl' and [paˑɣõ] 'mountain'

Vowel clusters and long vowels
According to Hans Wolff [8] (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 example: 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.[9] Quintero took long vowels to be the underlying form in such situations.[citation needed] 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.[9]


 * Example: /ʃkó̃ʃta/ 'you want' becomes [ʃkó̃õʃta]?

Long vowels also arise when ð is omitted between identical vowels.[9]


 * 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)[10]


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

Diphthongs
The vowel sequences /aĩ/ /eĩ/ /oĩ/ and /ai/ are almost certainly diphthongs.[citation needed] The Osage script has letters to represent each of the diphthongs.

Consonants
There are thirty-one consonant phonemes in Osage,[11] twenty-two of which are voiceless and nine 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). Osage also has four manners of articulation, and five places of articulation.

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.[12]
 * Ejective /pʼ/, /cʼ/, /kʼ/. They cannot appear as the second member of a consonant cluster. Historical *tʼ is /cʼ/ in Osage.[13]
 * 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.[12](see historical phonology section).

The ejective, fortis, and lenis series of the alphabet are not distinguished in Osage orthography.[citation needed]

(Note: I chose not to add more original information here because it is extensive information I will not be adding to.)

Consonant clusters
Osage has a simple expanded CV syllabic template: (C(C)) V (V).[15] 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].[8] The initial clusters are [pʃ] [kʃ] [tsʼ] [st] [sts] [sk] [ʃt] [ʃk] [br], excluding aspirated stops.

(Note: I chose not to copy more original information/examples here into the sandbox, because it is extensive information I will not be adding to.)

Historical phonology
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].[citation needed]

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].[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

No words are allowed to end with a consonant.

Accent
Osage has a Pitch Accent System, in which at least one syllable within each word is emphasized more compared to the others, and by means of pitch change, rather than tone. The accent is found on either the first or second syllable, depending on whether these two syllables are of a noun or verbal nature.

Generally, accent is produced in the first syllable of, "nouns, modifiers, and other non-verb elements," while accent is produced in the second syllable of verbs, including prefixes, in which the accent will "fall one syllable leftward of where it would have fallen without the added [prefixed syllable]." Accent is also produced in the first syllable when the first syllable is followed by vowel syncope of agent simplification, which simply refers to the aforementioned contraction within morphemes, that is also determined by the agent, or pronoun, of the word and/or sentence.

Morphology
Derivational and inflectional affixation and markers usually precede the root in the Osage language. This includes indicators of person, number, subject, and/or the instrumental means or role in the context of the sentence of discussion.

Iterational and durational markers, temporal markers that convey repetition and continuation, will follow the root, alongside other markers that are indicators of tense, aspect, and role, and auxiliary markers, as well. The majority of the time, inflectional affixes will follow derivational. The Patient and Agent inflection charts below contain specific information about pre-root affixation.

Inflectional Affixes
It is to be noted that the basic order of inflectional elements is [Patient Agent Ki,] Ki referring to the derivational aspects below, of the three /ki/ forms of dative, suus, and the reflexive reciprocal. These forms are discussed in more depth and detail below. (See Morpheme Order).

Derivational Affixes
Instrumental (Instru) affixation in Osage, like other Siouan languages, refers to the means in which an action is accomplished, i.e, "by mouth (ðɑɑ)," or, "by hand (ðii)."

Locatives (Loc) may be stacked upon one another, but they must occur before the instrumental marker, which must occur before patent and agent inflection itself.

It should also be noted that when not followed by pluralizer /ɑpi/, /ɑ̜k~ɑ̜/ should be interpreted to be a dual affix, meaning, "I and one other person." When followed by the pluralizer, this meaning changes to, "I and two other people."

Morpheme Order
Other than a few exceptions, the order of morphemes follows Patient, Agent, and KI, KI referring to three forms of elements whose status lies at the border between inflectional and derivational. These three forms are known as /kik/, the suus, reflexive possessive, /hkik/, the reflexive-reciprocal, and /ki/, the dative, inceptive.

Dative /ki/ "to another, for another, in another's place . . . involving another."

Suus /ki/ "subject's own persons or things" adds depth of meaning to direct and indirect objects.

Reflexive /hkik/ like suus: "characterizes theme or recipient objects," otherwise meaning "oneself, subject's own, for subject's own," and if reciprocal, "for each other."

Subject Markers and Positional Articles
Subject markers are elements that follow a noun or pronoun to indicate if said noun or pronoun is the subject of the sentence. Positional articles classify nouns, by means of appearing after nouns that are not "the subject of active verbs," and/or, "the subject of a stative verb." Positional articles do not, however, mark the subjects of active verbs, in Osage. Instead, subject markers would suffice for this purpose.

Ex.)

tówa pa (Note: There is no morpheme by morpheme gloss to provide here from my grammar)

"that group of people, sitting/standing/moving"

The Osage equivalent to the English indefinite article, /wi̜/, is optional. The meanings of "bare" nouns may only be distinguished by the context of each sentence. An example with the indefinite article is given below.

Ex.)

[htóozu tɑ́ɑhkɑce wi̜]

/htóozu tɑ́ɑhkɑce wi̜/

meat.pie hot a

‘a hot meat pie’

Reduplication
Osage has a process, which emphasizes repetition of events and movements, or continuation of a state of abstract action or concepts.

Compounding
Osage makes extensive use of compounding to create nouns. It can make compound nouns by combining nouns and nouns, nouns and adjectives, nouns and verbs, and even verbs and verbs.

SOV
The basic word order of Osage is Subject Object Verb, or, SOV.

The leftmost in a clause is the subject and is followed by a subject marker. Both, normally precede the verb.

Likewise, “theme and recipient” objects (terms that loosely refer to the “direct object” and “indirect object” of the sentence) also before the verb. Both orders of recipient and theme are possible.

SOV  Orders           [O (Theme and Recipient)]

Subject Theme Recipient Verb

Subject Recipient Theme Verb

Ex.

Mɑry ɑkxɑ  htó̜ožu toɑ kɑ́ɑɣɑpe

Mɑry ɑkxɑ htó̜ožu  toɑ kɑ́ɑɣe-ɑpi-ðe

Mɑry SUBJ meat.pie some make-PL-DECL

Mary made some meat pies.Expressions and indicators of time, as well as location (LOC), will usually appear at the beginning of the sentences in the respective order stated (Expressions, Indicators of Time, and then Location).

Male and Female Speech
Osage speakers believe there to be differences between male and female speech, however, due to how much of the language has been lost over time, these differences have been difficult to, both, identify and articulate by Osage speakers.

In Osage, there are relatively few lexical and semantic terms reserved for each sex: the word "yes" (hówe is masculine; ɑ̜hɑ̜́ is feminine), and a few kinship nouns.

Quintero (2004) finds little evidence that speech differs widely via gender. One of the few cases in a which a difference has been noted is the male tendency to completely omit "declarative /ðe/ after continuatives, producing surface final forms such as ɑkxɑ́, ɑpɑ́ instead of ɑkxɑ́i, ɑpɑ́i, and the second person emphatic pronoun is ðí instead of ðíe." These forms, however, are not particularly distinctive to female speech, though it is suggested that the contrast between male and female speech may have been larger in the past. The other possible distinction between male and female speech may be the male tendency of double inflection, particularly on motion verbs.

For example, whereas the "expected" form of inflection would be "mɑ̜brí̜" and "mɑ̜šcí̜" for "I walk," and "You walk," a characteristic of male speech involves double inflection that thus changes these forms to, "ɑmɑ̜brí̜" and "ðɑmɑ̜šcí̜," respectively. Single inflection may also occur during speech, but it is considered less emphatic.

(Note: For the weird text going on with 'Osage Grammar' below in the citations, I am unsure why it appears abnormally when printed, vs when in online text. I am unsure how to fix this difference.)