Basic vowels

Osage has five plain vowels:

These 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 bet.
• /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, unstressed /a/ is pronounced [ə].^[6] This assimilation occurs after a stressed syllable, or at the end of a word. For example: céska [tsɛ́skə] 'cow', tóa [tóə] '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. Examples: [ʃímĩʒɛ] 'girl' and [paˑɣõ] 'mountain'

Vowel clusters and long vowels

According to Hans Wolff ^[7] (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.^[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]

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

Long vowels also arise when ð is omitted between identical vowels.^[8]

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)^[9]

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

Diphthongs

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

Stop series

The stop 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.^[11]
• Ejective /pʼ/, /t͡sʼ/, /kʼ/. They cannot appear as the second member of a consonant cluster. Historical *tʼ is /cʼ/ in Osage.^[12]
• 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.^[11](see historical phonology section).

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:

• [px], [tx], [kx] occur before back vowels, [pʃ], [tsʰ], [kʃ] (usually) before the other vowels.^[10]
• The voiceless unaspirated affricate /ts/ has two allophones: [tʃ] after [ʃ]; elsewhere it is [ts].^[7]

/ts/ → [tʃ]/_[ʃ]

Examples:

íðotse 'be open'

ihtṍtse 'son-in-law'

ðekṍõce 'now'

[mɑ̃ʃtʃĩ́kɛ] 'rabbit'

[ʃtʃɛ́] 'you went'

• The glottal stop [ʔ] appears in clusters only after p, c, k, and it is not considered a true consonant of Osage. It is best thought of as a phonetic device used occasionally at utterance level, and it is typically to separate vowels that would otherwise contract.^[13]
• /x/ has two allophones, [x] and [ɣ]. [ɣ] occurs between vowels, elsewhere it is [x].

/x/ → [ɣ]/V__V

Examples:

[hóxpe] 'cough'

[hpéɣe] 'gourd'

[nɑ̃́ɑ̃ɣe] 'spirit'

[hkáɣe] 'crow'

• The phoneme /h/ is always voiceless.
• /ð/ usually has a single allophone [ð], but in the Hominy dialect it has two allophones: [d] initially before /a/ and [ð] elsewhere.^[7]

/ð/ → [d]/#__a

Examples:

ðɑ̃lĩ [dɑ̃dlĩ] 'good'

ðɑ̃brĩ [dɑ̃bəðĩ] 'three'

ðĩe [ðĩɛ] 'you'

cʼéðe [tsʼɛˑðɛ] 'he killed it'

• The /br/ cluster also depends on dialect. It is sometimes pronounced [bəl] or [bər].^[7]
• In some instances, due to morphologically complex formations, [r] is an allophone of /ð/^[11]

Examples:

brĩiʃtɑ̃ 'I'm finished'

abrĩ 'I have'

waabrṍ 'I am unable'

The dentalveolar obstruents are often fricated: the ejective always (though it has other sources as well), and the other series before the front vowels /i ĩ e u/. Exceptions occur due to compounding and other derivational processes. For example, from hką́ą́ce 'fruit' and oolá 'put in' is hkąącóla 'pie'. (The fricated allophone is written c.)

Č, hč are rare, and only found in diminutives: č only in two words, čóopa 'a little', čáahpa 'squat', and hč for hc in endearment forms of kin terms like wihčóšpa 'my grandchild'. In Hominy, šc is pronounced šč.

Consonant clusters

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.

Examples:

pʃĩta 'I'll come (to your house)'

kʃí 'he reached home'

ʰtséka 'crazy'

stúʒa 'you wash it'

stsétse 'long'

skɑ̃ 'white'

ʃtátɑ̃ 'you drank it'

ʃkṍʃta 'you wanted it'

bráze 'torn'

Medial clusters may be divided into two groups:

• Cluster whose first C is p, t, c, or k

Examples:

tapʼõkʼe 'he hit it'

wécʼa 'snake'

nɑ̃ḱṍ 'he heard it'

aṍpha 'I understand it'

áthɑ̃ 'he kicked it'

áððikhɑ̃ 'he lay down'

épʃe 'I spoke'

ðacpé 'to eat'

nĩ́kʃe 'you are here'

nã́kwĩ 'both, we two'

• Cluster whose first C is s, ʃ, x, or h

Examples:

ĩ́spe 'ax'

laská 'flower'

ókisce 'half'

ðaʃtú 'to bite'

paʃpú 'to chip'

iʃtá 'eyes'

walúʃks 'bug'

mɑ̃ʃcĩ́ke 'rabbit'

mɑ̃xpú 'clouds'

ðaxtáke 'to bite'

mõĩ́xka 'soil/dirt'

wĩ́xci 'one'