User:Linglenglang/sandbox

Classification
The Ho-Chunk language (Hoocąk, Hocąk) is the traditional language of the Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) tribe of Native Americans in the United States. The language is part of the Siouan language family, and is closely related to the languages of the Iowa, Missouri, and Oto.

Phonology
Ho-Chunk's vowels are distinguished by nasality and length. That is to say, the use of a nasal vowel or a long vowel affects a word's meaning. This is evident in examples such as pąą ’bag’ compared to paa ’nose,’ and waruc 'to eat' compared to waaruc 'table.' Ho-Chunk's oral and ejective consonant s are described in the following tables:

Typical of Mississippi Valley Siouan languages, Ho-Chunk has aspirated /p/ and /k/ phonemes, but no aspirated /t/. [8]

There is a notable sound law in Ho-Chunk called Dorsey's Law[9] which dictates the following: where O is a voiceless obstruent, R is a non-syllabic sonorant, and S a syllabic sound. Dorsey's Law can apply word internally, as in /pra/ becoming [para] in the word paras 'wide, flat', or across morpheme boundaries, as in /šra/ becoming [šara] in the word šaraše ’you go there,’ where š is the second person pronominal prefixing to the verb rahe ’to be going there.’
 * /ORS/ ~ [OSRS]

Nasalization Rules
In Ho-Chunk, nasalizable vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ are always nasalized when they occur after nasal consonants /m/ and /n/. This nasality spreads to an adjacent vowel if that vowel is nasalizable as well. This spread operates across syllable or word boundaries, and can move across consonants /h/ and /w/, but is blocked by all other consonants. Examples include nąįžą ’a tree’ and ha’ųwį ’we (exclusive) do’:

nąą-hižą

tree-one

nąįžą ’a tree’

ha-ųų-wi

1.E.A-do-PL

ha’ųwį ’we (exclusive) do’

Another frequently occurring nasalization rule is /r/ to [n] alternation. In this rule, the /r/ consonant is pronounced as [n] when it immediately follows a nasal vowel. This is shown in the sentence Mąąhį haanįną juujuxšąną ’My knife is dull’:

Mąąhį  hanį=ra              juujux-šąną

knife       <1E.A>have=DEF   dull-DECL

Mąąhį haanįną juujuxšąną ’My knife is dull’

Metrical Structure
Ho-Chunk is a mora counting, but syllable accenting language. The stress placement of words spoken in isolation is extremely regular. Single-syllable words always have a long vowel (two moras), and stress falls on the first mora (e.g. áa 'arm'). Two-syllable words have two moras, and primary stress falls on the second mora (e.g. wajé 'dress'). In words longer than two syllables, primary stress falls on the third syllable, with secondary stress on each even numbered vowel after the point of primary stress (e.g. waǧiǧí 'ball,' or hocįcįįk 'boy').

Orthography
The official Ho-Chunk orthography derives from an Americanist version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). As such, its graphemes broadly resemble those of IPA, and there is a close one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. The orthography differs from IPA in that the nasal vowels are indicated using an ogonek. Thus, /ĩ/, /ũ/, and /ã/ are written as į, ų, and ą, respectively. In addition, the postalveolar and palatal consonants are written as c, j, š, ž, and y (in IPA: /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/ and /j/), the velar fricative /ɣ/ is written as ǧ, and the glottal stop is written as ʼ . Unlike in English, the /t/ sound of Ho-Chunk is always unaspirated.

The diacritic marks can be referred to in Ho-Chunk with the following terms: sįįc ’tail’ for the ogonek, wookanak ’hat’ for the haček, and hiyuša jikere 'sudden start/stop' for the glottal stop.

For a short period of time in the mid to late 1800's, Ho-Chunk was written with an adaptation of the "Ba-Be-Bi-Bo" syllabics system. As of 1994, however, the official alphabet of the Ho-Chunk Nation is an adaptation of the Latin script. The Ho-Chunk Nations of Wisconsin and Nebraska represent some sounds differently in the alphabets that they use, as the Wisconsin tribe write a double vowel to mark longer length, and the Nebraska tribe uses a macron over the vowel (for example: oo compared to ō). These differences, shown with example words, are demonstrated in the chart below. In total, the Ho-Chunk writing system consists of 26 consonant and 16 vowel graphs/digraphs.

Verb Structure
Ho-Chunk is an agglutinating and somewhat fusional language. Verbs contain several affixes to indicate things like person, number, tense, and mood.

Person marking
Ho-Chunk verbs are inflected with eight pronominal categories marked for person and clusivity. Ho-Chunk is a pro-drop language; pronouns are used very infrequently, and information on grammatical person is found on the verb in the form of one or more prefixes.
 * 1) First person singular (abbreviated 1SG)
 * 2) Second person singular (abbreviated 2SG)
 * 3) Third person singular (abbreviated 3SG)
 * 4) First person dual inclusive (abbreviated 1I.DU)
 * 5) First person inclusive plural (abbreviated 1I.PL)
 * 6) First person exclusive plural (abbreviated 1E.PL)
 * 7) Second person plural (abbreviated 2PL)
 * 8) Third person plural (abbreviated 3PL)

Person marking in transitive verbs
Ho-Chunk's transitive verbs are inflected with agent (actor) and patient (undergoer) pronominals. The generic paradigm of the pronominal prefixes in transitive verbs is outlined below. The letter V stands in the place of the verb stem.: In this table, the null symbol (∅) is used to represent all third person singular actor and patient pronominals. It indicates that there is no overt prefix for those pronominals (in other words, that they are null morphemes). Some cells are left blank because there are no pronominal affixes associated with that particular person/number combination. In cases like these, the action is reflexive (i.e. I do something to myself, or you (plural) do something to yourselves). Reflexivity in Ho-Chunk is indicated with another prefix, kii-.

The sounds in the prefixes run together in casual speech, often leading to the deletion of the /h/ consonant and thus a long vowel or dipthong. This is evident in the example waakere ’I put them (standing),’ in which the third person plural patient prefix wa- merges with the first person actor prefix ha-, producing waa-.

Person marking in intransitive verbs
Ho-Chunk’s intransitive verbs fall into three main types: intransitive active verbs, intransitive stative verbs, and intransitive ’third person-only’ verbs.

Intransitive active verbs are those which involve only human or animate agent(s). An example is šgaac ’play,’ which is inflected for person and number as follows: Intransitive stativeverbs involve an action affecting a patient. This is characteristic of the verb š’aak ’to be old’: Intransitive third-person-only verbs designate states and properties of mostly inanimate things, such as "(to) be delicious" or "(to) be expensive." They can only be inflected for third person singular or third person plural subjects (e.g. ceexi (∅-ceexi) ’it is expensive’ or ceexire (ceexi-ire) ’they are expensive’).

Locative Prefixes
Ho-Chunk has two locative prefixes, ha- ’on’ or ’onto,’ and ho- ’in’ or ’into.’ These prefixes were first described by William Lipkind in his 1928 grammar of the language[11]. The prefixes are added to a verb stem as seen in the examples below:

mįįk → hamįk

to lie (somewhere) → to lie on top of

mįįk → homįk

to lie (somewhere) → to lie in

A locative prefix may derive a noun, a verb, or both. This is true for homįk, which can refer to a verb ’to lie in’ or a noun ’bed.’ More recent learning materials refer to the ha- prefix as a superessive applicative marker, and the ho- prefix as an inessive applicative marker.

Instrumental Prefixes
Ho-Chunk has a set of instrumental prefixes which indicate that an action is accomplished by means of some instrument, force, or special type of instrumental movement. These prefixes are translated into English with such phrases as ‘by foot,' ‘by hand,' or ‘by striking.' Some sources list eight instrumental prefixes in Ho-Chunk, while others recognize a ninth nąą- ’by internal force’ (phonologically identical to nąą- ’by foot’). These prefixes are listed first with their English translation, then paired with a stem wax ’string’: The instrumental prefixes are identified as ’Inner’ or ’Outer’ due to their position relative to other prefixes attaching to the verb stem. Inner prefixes are closer to the verb stem, while outer prefixes are farther away on the left edge of the word. Instrumental prefixes are found in all Siouan languages, and it is theorized that outer instrumentals originated as nouns or nominalized stems.

Language Revitalization
Although the language is highly endangered, there are currently vigorous efforts underway to keep it alive in Ho-Chunk communities. In Wisconsin, the Hocąk Wazija Haci Language Division runs several language classes, an immersion daycare, and a language apprentice program. In Nebraska, the Ho-Chunk Renaissance program teaches the language in local and reservation schools. Both tribal governments recognize the importance of technology in language learning, and are active in Facebook and Youtube to reach the younger generation of learners. A "Ho-Chunk (Hoocąk) Native American Language app" is available for iPhone, iPad, and other iOS devices. Language is a crucial aspect of Ho-Chunk culture: “Within a lot of Native American cultures, language and culture go together,” Lewis St. Cyr, language program director for the Ho-Chunk, said. “You can’t have culture without language and you can’t have language without culture. The importance of it is of who we are.”