O'Odham language

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O'odham /ɔʔɔdham/ (often referred to by the names of its two nearly-identical main dialect groupings, Papago (Tohono O'odham) and Pima (Akimel O'othham)) is an Uto-Aztecan language of Southern Arizona and northern Sonora where the Tohono O'odham and Pima reside. It is the second most widely-spoken Native American language in the United States of America, with over 12,000 speakers in the US, including over 180 monolinguals, and many more in Mexico. A reasonable estimate of the total number of O'odham speakers is 30,000, but if everybody with the most basic level of fluency were counted, the number would probably be over 45,000. (The term Papago is generally deprecated by O'odham people, it being a perjorative word applied by non-O'odham.)

O'odham ñiok (sometimes written O'odham ñeok) is the native name for the language, ñiok meaning speech or language.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Consonants

The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar.

In Papago, the two sounds /v/ and /w/ have merged completely into /w/, whereas in Pima, the distinction is still made. For example, Pima cu:vĭ /ʧʊːvĭ/ (jackrabbit) is written and pronounced cu:wĭ /ʧʊːwĭ/ in Papago, but Pima wuai /wʊai/ (deer) is pronounced identically in Papago, although it is written huawĭ. Pima wiyoṣa (face) is written wuhioṣa in Papago; Pima wi (eye) is written wuhĭ in Papago. Thus, the letter "v" is not used to write Papago, but it is used to write Pima.

[edit] Vowels

All vowels distinguish three degrees of length: long, short, and extra-short.

• ṣe:l /ʂɨːɭ/ "Seri"
• ṣel /ʂɨɭ/ "permission"

• 'a:pi /aːpi/ "you"
• da:pĭ /daːpĭ/ "I don't know", "who knows?"

[edit] Allophony and distribution

• /ĭ/ is realized as [i̥], and devoices preceding obstruents: cuwĭ /tʃʊwĭ/ [tʃʊʍi̥]~[tʃʊʍʲ] "jackrabbit".

• /w/ is a fricative [β] before unrounded vowels: wisilo [βisiɭɔ].

• [ŋ] appears before /k g/ in Spanish loans, but native words do not have nasal assimilation: to:nk /to:nk/ "hill", namk /namk/ "meet", ca:ŋgo /tʃaːŋgo/ "monkey". /p ɭ ɖ/ rarely occur initially in native words, and /ɖ/ does not occur before /i/.

• [ɲ] and [n] are largely in complementary distribution, [ɲ] appearing before high vowels /i ɨ ʊ/, [n] appearing before low vowels /a ɔ/: ñe'e "sing". They contrast finally ('añ (1s imperfective auxiliary) vs. 'an' "next to speaker"), though Saxton analyzes these as /ani/ and /an/, respectively, and final [ɲi] as in 'a:ñi as /niː/. However, there are several Spanish loans where [nu] occurs: nu:milo "number". Similarly, for the most part [t d] appear before low vowels and [tʃ dʒ] before high vowels, but there are exceptions to both, often in Spanish loans: tiki:la "wine", weco "under".

[edit] Orthography

There are two orthographies commonly used for the O'odham language, Alvarez-Hale and Saxton. The Alvarez-Hale orthography is officially used by the Tohono O'odham Nation, and is used in this article, but the Saxton orthography is also common. It is relatively easy to convert between the two, the differences between them being largely no more than different graphemes for the same phoneme, but there are distinctions made by Alvarez-Hale not made by Saxton.

The Saxton orthography does not mark word-initial /ʔ/ or extra-short vowels. Final i generally corresponds to Hale-Alvarez ĭ and final ih to Hale-Alvarez i:

• Hale-Alvarez 'woːpĭ vs. Saxton wohpi /woːpĭ/ "I"
• Hale-Alvarez 'aːpi vs. Saxton ahpih /ʔaːpi/ "I"

[edit] Etymological vs. Phonetic spelling

There is some disagreement among speakers as to whether the spelling of words should be only phonetic, or whether etymology should be concerned.

For example: oamajda vs. wuamajda ("frybread"; some people may also use a c instead of a j), oam means "yellow/brown/orange" and thus this is a compound word of sorts. Some people believe it should begin like any word that starts with a /ʊa/, wua, while others think its spelling should match that of the word oam (oam is in fact a form of s-oam, so while it could be spelt wuam itself, it is not because it is just a different declension of the same word) to reflect its etymology.

According to the regulatory bodies, "oamajda" is better, but they are always careful not to make any definitive rules on grammar, pronunciation, or minor orthographic issues because people are often very proud of their dialect or may feel very strongly about such issues.

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Syntax

O'odham is notable for being non-configurational; for example, all of the following sentences mean "the boy brands the cow":

• ceoj 'o g haiwañ ceposid
• haiwañ 'o g ceoj ceposid
• ceoj 'o ceposid g haiwañ
• haiwañ 'o ceposid g ceoj
• ceposid 'o g ceoj g haiwañ
• ceposid 'o g haiwañ g ceoj

In principle, these could also mean "the cow brands the boy", but such an interpretation would require an unusual context.

Despite the general freedom of sentence word order, O'odham is fairly strictly verb-second in its placement of the auxiliary verb (in the above sentences, it is 'o):

• cipkan 'añ "I am working"
• but pi 'añ cipkan "I am not working", not *pi cipkan 'añ

[edit] Verbs

Verbs are inflected for aspect (imperfective cipkan, perfective cipk), tense (future imperfective cipkanad), and number (plural cicpkan). Number agreement displays ergative behavior: verbs agree with the number of the subject in intransitive sentences, but with that of the object in transitive sentences:

• ceoj 'o cipkan "the boy is working"
• cecoj 'o cicpkan "the boys are working"
• ceoj 'o g haiwañ ceposid "the boy is branding the cow"
• cecoj 'o g haiwañ ceposid "the boys are branding the cow"
• ceoj 'o g hahaiwañ ha-cecposid "the boy is branding the cows"

The main verb agrees with the object for person (ha- in the above example), but the auxiliary agrees with the subject: 'a:ñi 'añ g hahaiwañ ha-cecposid "I am branding the cows".

[edit] Nouns

Three numbers are distinguished in nouns: singular, plural, and distributive, though not all nouns have distinct forms for each. Most distinct plurals are formed by reduplication and often vowel loss, plus other occasional morphophonemic changes, and distributives are formed from these by gemination of the reduplicated consonant:

• gogs "dog", gogogs "dogs", goggogs "dogs (all over)"
• ma:gina "car", mamgina "cars", mammagina "cars (all over)"
• wisilo "calf", wipsilo "calves"

[edit] Adjectives

O'odham adjectives can act both attributively modifying nouns and predicatively as verbs, with no change in form.

• 'i:da ṣu:dagĭ 'o s-he:pid "This water is cold"
• 's-he:pid ṣu:dagĭ 'añ hoho'id "I like cold water"

[edit] See also

• Tohono O'odham

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue Report for O'odham
• Papago - English Dictionary

[edit] References

• Zepeda, O. (1983). A Tohono O'odham Grammar. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.
• Saxton, D., Saxton, L., & Enos, S. (1983). Dictionary: Tohono O'odham/Pima to English, English to Tohono O'odham/Pima. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.
• Saxton, D. (1963). Papago Phonemes. International Journal of American Linguistics, 29, 29-35.br:Odameg

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