O'odham language

O'odham
ʼOʼodham ha-ñeʼokĭ, ʼOʼodham ñiʼokĭ, Oʼodham ñiok
Native to United States, Mexico
Region Primarily south-central Arizona and northern Sonora
Ethnicity Tohono O'odham, Pima
Native speakers
 15,000 (2007)[1]
180 monolinguals (1990 census)
Official status
Official language in
 One of the national languages of Mexico[2]
Regulated by Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico; various tribal agencies in the USA
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ood
Glottolog toho1245[3]

O'odham (pronounced [ˈʔɔʔɔðɦam]) or Papago-Pima is a Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, where the Tohono O'odham (formerly called the Papago) and Pima reside. In 2000 there were estimated to be approximately 9,750 speakers in the United States and Mexico combined, although there may be more due to underreporting.

It is the 10th most-spoken indigenous language in the United States, the 3rd most-spoken indigenous language in Arizona after Western Apache and Navajo. It is the third-most spoken language in Pinal County, Arizona and the fourth-most spoken language in Pima County, Arizona.

Approximately 8% of O'odham speakers in the US speak English "not well" or "not at all", according to results of the 2000 Census. Approximately 13% of O'odham speakers in the US were between the ages of 5 and 17, and among the younger O'odham speakers, approximately 4% were reported as speaking English "not well" or "not at all".

Native names for the language, depending on the dialect and orthography, include Oʼodham ha-ñeʼokĭ, Oʼottham ha-neoki, and Oʼodham ñiok.

Dialects

The O'dham language has a number of dialects.[4]

Due to the paucity of data on the linguistic varieties of the Hia C-eḍ O'odham, this section currently focuses on the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham dialects only.

The greatest lexical and grammatical dialectal differences are between the Tohono O'odham (or Papago) and the Akimel O'odham (or Pima) dialect groupings. Some examples:

Tohono O'odham Akimel O'odham English
ʼaʼad hotṣ to send
ñeñida tamiam to wait for
s-hewhogĭ s-heubagĭ to be cool
sisiṣ hoʼiumi (but si:ṣpakuḍ, stapler) to fasten
pi: haʼicug pi ʼac to be absent
wia ʼoʼoid hunt tr.

There are other major dialectal differences between northern and southern dialects, for example:

Early O'odham Southern Northern English
*ʼa:phi:m ʼa:ham ʼa:pim you
*cu:khug cu:hug cu:kug flesh
*ʼe:kheg ʼe:heg ʼe:keg to be shaded
*ʼu:pham ʼu:hum ʼu:pam (go) back

The Cukuḍ Kuk dialect has null in certain positions where other Tohono O'odham dialects have a bilabial:

Other TO dialects Chukuḍ Kuk English
jiwia, jiwa jiia to arrive
ʼuʼuwhig ʼuʼuhig bird
wabṣ haṣ only
wabṣaba, ṣaba haṣaba but

Morphology

O'odham is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

Phonology

For clarity, note that the terms Tohono O'odham and Papago refer to the same language; likewise for Akimel O'odham and Pima. O'odham phonology has a typical Uto-Aztecan inventory distinguishing 21 consonants and 5 vowels.[5]

Consonants

Labial Dental Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t t͡ʃ k ʔ
voiced b d ɖ d͡ʒ g
Fricative (v) s ʂ h
Approximant w j
Flap ɺ̢ 

The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar.

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i ɨ ʊ
Mid ə ɔ
Low a

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

Papago /ɨ/ is pronounced /ʌ/ in Pima.

Additionally, in common with many northern Uto-Aztecan languages, vowels and nasals at end of words are devoiced. Also, a short schwa sound, either voiced or unvoiced depending on position, is often interpolated between consonants and at the ends of words.

Allophony and distribution

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 the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, and is used in this article, but the Saxton orthography is also common and is official in the Gila River Indian Community. 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.

Phoneme Alvarez–Hale Saxton Meaning
/ɡ/ a ʼaʼal a a'al baby
/b/ b ban b ban coyote
/tʃ/ c cehia ch chehia girl
/ð/ d da:k th thahk nose
/ɖ/ ḍ meḍ d med run
/d/ ḏ juḏum d judum bear
TO /ɨ/, AO /ʌ/ e ʼeʼeb e e'eb stop crying
/ɡ/ g gogs g gogs dog
/ɨ/ h haʼicu h ha'ichu something
TO /i/, AO /ɨ/ i ʼi:bhai i ihbhai prickly pear cactus
/dʒ/ j ju:kĭ j juhki rain
/k/ k ke:k k kehk stand
/ɭ/ l lu:lsi l luhlsi candy
/ɭ/ m mu:ñ m muhni bean(s)
/n/ n na:k n nahk ear
/ɲ/ ñ ñeʼe, mu:ñ n, ni ne'e, muhni sing, bean(s)
/ŋ/ ŋ aŋhil, wa:ŋgo ng, n anghil, wahngo angel, bank
/ɔ/ o ʼoʼohan o o'ohan write
/p/ p pi p pi not
/s/ s sitol s sitol honey
/ʂ/ ṣ ṣoiga sh shoiga pet
/t/ t to:bĭ t tohbi cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)
/u/ u ʼu:s u uhs tree, wood
/v/ v vainom v vainom knife
/w/ w wuai w wuai male deer
/j/ y payaso y pa-yaso clown
/ʔ/ ʼ ʼaʼan ' a'an feather
/ː/ : ju:kĭ h juhki rain

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⟩:

Etymological or phonetic spelling?

There is some disagreement among speakers as to whether the spelling of words should be only phonetic or whether etymological principles should be considered as well.

For example, oamajda vs. wuamajda ("frybread"; some people may also use a c instead of a j), oam means "yellow/brown/orange" and thus 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 spelled wuam itself, it is not since it is just a different declension of the same word) to reflect its etymology.

Grammar

Syntax

O'odham has relatively free word order within clauses; for example, all of the following sentences mean "the boy brands the pig":[6]

In principle, these could also mean "the pig 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 ʼo):

Verbs

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

The main verb agrees with the object for person (ha- in the above example), but the auxiliary agrees with the subject: ʼa:ñi ʼañ g kokji ha-cecposid "I am branding the pigs".

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:

Adjectives

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

Sample text

The following is an excerpt from.[7] It exemplifies the Salt River dialect.

Na:nse ʼe:da, mo: hek jeweḍ ʼu:d si we:coc, ma:ṣ hek Taḏai siskeg ʼu:d ʼuʼuhig. Hek ʼaʼanac c wopo:c si wo skegac c ʼep si cecwac. Kuṣ ʼam hebai hai ki g ʼOʼodham ṣam ʼoʼoidam k ʼam ʼupam da:da k ʼam ce: ma:ṣ he:kai cu hek ha na:da. ʼI:dam ʼOʼodham ṣam ʼeh he:mapa k ʼam aʼaga ma:ṣ has ma:sma vo bei hek na:da ʼab ʼamjeḍ hek Tatañki Jioṣ. Ṣa biʼi ʼa ma:ṣ mo ka:ke hek Taḏai ma:ṣ mo me:tk ʼamo ta:i hek na:da ha we:hejeḍ ʼi:dam ʼOʼodham. Taḏai ṣa: ma so:hi ma:ṣ mo me:ḍk ʼamo ta:i g na:da hek Tatañki Jioṣ. Tho ṣud me:tkam, ʼam “si ʼi nai:ṣ hek wo:gk” k gau mel ma:ṣ ʼam ki g Tatañki Jioṣ.

In Saxton orthography:

Nahnse ehtha, moh hek jeved uhth sih vehchoch, mahsh hek Tadai siskeg uhth u'uhig. Hek a'anach ch vopohch sih vo skegach ch ep sih chechvach. Kush am hebai hai kih g O'ottham sham o'oitham k am upam thahtha k am cheh mahsh hehkai chu hek ha nahtha. Ihtham O'othham sham eh hehmapa k am a'aga mahsh has mahsma vo bei hek nahtha ab amjeth hek Tatanigi Jiosh. Sha bi'ih a mahsh mo kahke hek Tadai mahsh mo mehtk amo tah'ih hek nahtha ha vehhejed ihtham O'ottham. Tadai shah ma sohhih mahsh mo mehdk amo tah'ih g nahtha hek Tatanigi Jiosh. Tho shuth mehtkam, am “sih ih naihsh hek vohgk” k gau mel mahsh am kih g Tatanigi Jiosh.

See also

For a list of words relating to O'odham language, see the O'odham language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ↑ O'odham at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Webuilder
  3. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Tohono O'odham". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. ↑ Saxton, Dean, Saxton, Lucille, & Enos, Susie. (1983). Dictionary: Tohono O'odham/Pima to English, English to Tohono O'odham/Pima. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press
  5. ↑ Saxton, Dean. (1963). Papago Phonemes. International Journal of American Linguistics, 29, 29–35
  6. ↑ Zepeda, Ofelia. (1983). A Tohono O'odham Grammar. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.
  7. ↑ Oʼodham Piipaash Language Program. Taḏai. Salt River, AZ: Oʼodham Piipaash Language Program

External links

O'odham language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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