Omaha–Ponca language

Omaha–Ponca
Spoken in	United States
Region	Nebraska and Oklahoma
Native speakers	85  (date missing)
Language family	Siouan Western Siouan Mississippi Valley Dhegiha (Cegiha) Omaha–Ponca
Language codes
ISO 639-3	oma
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Omaha–Ponca is a Siouan language spoken by the Omaha (Umoⁿhoⁿ) people of Nebraska and the Ponca (Paⁿka) people of Oklahoma and Nebraska. There are today only 60 speakers of Omaha, and 25 fluent speakers, all over 60; and a handful of semi-fluent speakers of Ponca. The two dialects differ minimally but are considered distinct languages by their speakers.^[1]

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveopalatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal stop	m	n
Voiced stop	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Tenuis stop	p	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
Aspirated stop	pʰ	tʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
Ejective stop	pʼ	tʼ
Voiced fricative		z	ʒ	ɣ
Tenuis fricative		s	ʃ	x
Glottalized fricative		sʼ	ʃʼ	xʼ
Approximant	w	lᶞ			h

Consonants are written as in the IPA in school programs, apart from the alveopalatals j, ch, chʰ, zh, sh, shʼ, the glottal stop ’, the voiced velar fricative gh, and the dental approximant th. Historically, this th has also been written dh, ð, ¢, and the sh and x as c and q; the tenuis stops p t ch k have either been written upside-down or double (pp, kk, etc.). These latter unusual conventions serve to distinguish these sounds from the p t ch k of other Siouan languages, which are not specified for voicing and so may sound like either Omaha–Ponca p t ch k or b d j g.

One consonant, sometimes written l or th, is a velarized lateral approximant with interdental release, [ɫᶞ], found for example in ní btháska [ˌnĩ ˈbɫᶞaska] "flat water" (Platte River), the source of the name Nebraska. It varies freely from [ɫ] to a light [ð̞], and derives historically from Siouan *r.

Consonants not used in the Ponca Language are: F, L, Q, R, and V Initial consonant clusters include approximates, as in /blᶞ/ and /ɡlᶞ/.

Vowels

Vowels
[2]	front	back
High Oral	i	u
High Nasal	iⁿ
Mid Oral	e
Low Oral	a	o
Low Nasal	aⁿ

The simple vowels are /a, e, i, u/, plus a few words with /o/ in men's speech. Nasal vowels are /ĩ/ and /õ/; the latter ranges across [ã] ~ [õ] ~ [ũ] and is written ⟨oⁿ⟩ in Omaha and ⟨aⁿ⟩ in Ponca.

Nasalized vowels are fairly new to the Ponca language. Assimilation has taken place leftward, as opposed to right to left, from nasalized consonants overtime. "Originally when the vowel was oral, it nasalized the consonant and a nasalized vowel never followed siut, instead, the nasalized vowel came to preceded it"; though this is not true for the Omaha, or its 'mother' language." ^[3]

Omaha/Ponca is a tonal language that utilizes downstep (accent) or a lowering process that applies to the second of two high-tone syllables. A downstepped high tone would be slightly lower than the preceding high tone.”: wathátʰe /walᶞaꜜtʰe/ "food", wáthatʰe /waꜜlᶞatʰe/ "table". Vowel length is distinctive in accented syllables, though it is often not written: [nãːꜜde] "heart", [nãꜜde] "(inside) wall". ^[4] Common Siouan vowels may be either long or short. The nasal subset has either two or three members with the rounded vowel being phonetically either high or mid, depending on the language: i u ĩ (ũ or õ) e o a ã

In the Omaha and Ponca Dhegiha dialects *õ and *ã have merged unconditionally as [õ], transcribed ã.

The letter ‘o’ is phonemically /au/, and phonetically [əw] Initial consonant clusters include approximates, as in /blᶞ/ and /ɡlᶞ/.

Allophones

Allophones are alternative pronunciations for a phoneme. Omaha-Ponca is a daughter language to the Siouan mother language, but has created some of its own rules for nazalizing and aspriration. What were once allphones in the Souian, mother language have turned into their own phonemes in the Omaha-Ponca language. They However, in the Omaha/Ponca language there are many letters that could be considered allophones in English but are not in the Omaha/ Ponca language. Examples of /p/,/pʰ/, /i/, /iⁿ/ and /t/,/t’/,/tʰ/. Each of these in English would be considered allophones of the same phoneme, but since Omaha/Ponca is a tonal language, these slight differences carry different meanings. ^[5]

Below are examples of letters which in English would be considered allophones, but in Omaha/ Ponca examples of minimal pairs, the phonemes are contrastive to one another.

[p] [pʰ], [i] [iⁿ], [t] [t']

Omaha/Ponca	Gloss
/pa/	head/nose
/pʰa/	bitter
/nazhíⁿ/	to stand
/nazhi/	to go out
/tóⁿde/	the ground
/t’óⁿde/	During future early autumns

Why aren't they allophones?

-/p/ and /pʰ/are found in the above minimal pairs, or words that have only on difference in spelling, but as noted, they create different words. Both letters have the same point of articulation; the only difference is the aspiration in the pronunciation of the letter. In this case the letters are contrastive, meaning the aspiration changes the meaning of the word.

-In the case of /i/ and /iⁿ/ these letters are also contrastive, or create new meaning for a word that is otherwise spelled the same. Vowels do not have points of articulation; in this case it’s a matter of nasalizing the vowel. In many languages nasalizing the vowels would be part of assimilating to the next consonant, but Omaha/Ponca is different because it is always assimilating. For example: iⁿdáthiⁿga, meaning mysterious, moves from a nasalized /i/ to an alveolar, stop. Same thing happens with the word iⁿshte, meaning, for example, has the nasalized /i/ which does not assimilate to another nasal. It changes completely to an alveolar fricative.

-In the /t/ vs /t'/ case, there is a minimal pair between the words, tóⁿde and t’óⁿde and the words have different meanings, so in this case they are also contrastive. The tone of the glottalized stop for the /t/ in t’ónde creates different meaning.

Morphology

Omaha Ponca language adds endings to its definite articles to indicate inanimate, number, position and number. Ponca definite articles indicate inanimate, number, position and number^[6]

morphological ending	gloss meaning
-kʰ	for inanimate horizontal object
-tʰe	for inanimate standing object
-ða	for inanimate round object
akʰá	for singular animate agent
-amá	for singular animate agent in motion or plural
-tʰa	for animate singular patient in standing position
ði	for animate singular patient in motion
-ma	for animate plural patient in motion
-ðikʰé	for animate singular patient in sitting position
-ðikʰá	for animate plural patient in sitting position

References

1. ^ Rudin & Shea (2006) "Omaha–Ponca", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
2. ^ Bruce, Benjamin. "Ponca Alphabet." The Hello Oklahoma! Project. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://hello-oklahoma.benjaminbruce.com/index.php>.
3. ^ Michaud, Alexis. "Historical Transfer of Nasality between Consonantal Onset and Vowel." Diachronica 2012th ser. 29.2 (2011): 1-34. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://docs.exdat.com/docs/index-73578.html>.
4. ^ Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics. 5th ed. Blackwell, 2003. Print.
5. ^ http://omahaponca.unl.edu/
6. ^ Finegan, Edward, and John R. Rickford. Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print. (page 171)

• Franz Boas, "Notes on the Ponka grammar", Congrès international des américanistes
• Dorsey, James Owen. Omaha and Ponka Letters. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891
• Dorsey, James Owen. The Cegiha Language. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1890
• Dorsey, Rev. J. Owen Omaha Sociology. Washington: Smithsonian, Bureau of American Ethnology, Report No. 3, 1892–1893

External links

• Omaha–Ponca grammar