Wikipedia

Osage script

โ€นย The template Infobox writing system is being considered for merging.ย โ€บ

The Osage script is a script promulgated in 2006 and revised 2012โ€“2014 for the Osage language. Because Latin orthographies were subject to interference from English conventions among Osage students who were more familiar with English than with Osage, in 2006 the director of the Osage Language Program, Herman Mongrain Lookout, decided to create a distinct script by modifying or fusing Latin letters. This Osage script has been in regular use on the Osage Nation ever since.[1]

Osage
๐“๐“˜๐“ป๐“˜๐“ป๐“Ÿ ๐’ป๐“Ÿโ€Ž
Script type
CreatorHerman Mongrain Lookout
Period
2006โ€“present
DirectionLeft-to-rightย Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesOsage
Related scripts
Parent systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Osge (219), โ€‹Osage
Unicode
Unicode alias
Osage
U+104B0โ€“U+104FF

In 2012, while in the process of submitting the script to Unicode, a more precise representation of the sounds of Osage was formulated, and by the following year had been adequately tested. In February 2014, a conference on standardizing the reforms was held by Lookout and the staff at the Osage Nation Language Department along with UCS expert Michael Everson. The result included the introduction of case, the abolition of two letters, and the creation of several more.[2]

The Osage script was included in Unicode version 9.0 in June 2016 in the Osage block.[3] It featured on the 2023 USA quarter dollar commemorating Maria Tallchief.[4]

Letters

edit

Vowels

edit

The 2014 vowel letters are as follows:

Osage vowels
OralNasal
OsageLatinOsageLatin
๐’ฐ ๐“˜A a ๐’ฐอ˜ ๐“˜อ˜ฤ„ ฤ…
๐’ฑ ๐“™Ai ai ๐’ฒ ๐“šAฤฏ aฤฏ
๐’ณ ๐“›ฦ ษ™ ๐’ณอ˜ ๐“›อ˜ฦฬจ ษ™ฬจ
๐’ท ๐“ŸE e ๐’ธ ๐“ Eฤฏ eฤฏ
๐’ป ๐“ฃI i ๐’ปอ˜ ๐“ฃอ˜ฤฎ ฤฏ
๐“‚ ๐“ชO o ๐“‚อ˜ ๐“ชอ˜วช วซ
๐“ƒ ๐“ซOฤฏ oฤฏ
๐“Ž ๐“ถ U u

Long vowels are indicated with a macron, high tone by an acute accent, and a long vowel with high tone by a double acute accent: e.g. oral โŸจ๐’ฐฬ„ ๐“˜ฬ„โŸฉ ฤ€ ฤ, โŸจ๐’ฐฬ ๐“˜ฬโŸฉ ร รก, โŸจ๐’ฐฬ‹ ๐“˜ฬ‹โŸฉ ฤ€ฬ ฤฬ, nasal โŸจ๐’ฐอ˜ฬ„ ๐“˜อ˜ฬ„โŸฉ ฤ„ฬ„ ฤ…ฬ„, โŸจ๐’ฐอ˜ฬ ๐“˜อ˜ฬโŸฉ ฤ„ฬ ฤ…ฬ, โŸจ๐’ฐอ˜ฬ‹ ๐“˜อ˜ฬ‹โŸฉ ฤ„ฬ„ฬ ฤ…ฬ„ฬ.

All vowel letters can take the nasal dot, but โŸจ๐’ท ๐“ŸโŸฉ and โŸจ๐“Ž ๐“ถโŸฉ almost never do (although โŸจ๐’ท ๐“ŸโŸฉ is nasalised in โŸจ๐’ธ ๐“ โŸฉ).[5] All inflected forms are:

Osage Vowel Characters
๐’ฐ [ษ‘] ๐’ฑ [aiฬฏ] ๐’ณ [ษ™] ๐’ท [ษ›], [ษ›iฬฏ] ๐’ป [i] ๐“‚ [ouฬฏ] ๐“ƒ [รตฤฉฬฏ] ๐“Ž [สŠฬˆส‰ฬฏ]
short long short long short long short long short long short long short long short long
oral base ๐’ฐ ๐“˜ ๐’ฐฬ„ ๐“˜ฬ„ ๐’ฑ ๐“™ ๐’ฑฬ„ ๐“™ฬ„ ๐’ณ ๐“› ๐’ณฬ„ ๐“›ฬ„ ๐’ท ๐“Ÿ ๐’ทฬ„ ๐“Ÿฬ„ ๐’ป ๐“ฃ ๐’ปฬ„ ๐“ฃฬ„ ๐“‚ ๐“ช ๐“‚ฬ„ ๐“ชฬ„ ๐“Ž ๐“ถ ๐“Žฬ„ ๐“ถฬ„
high tone ๐’ฐฬ ๐“˜ฬ ๐’ฐฬ‹ ๐“˜ฬ‹ ๐’ฑฬ ๐“™ฬ ๐’ฑฬ‹ ๐“™ฬ‹ ๐’ณฬ ๐“›ฬ ๐’ณฬ‹ ๐“›ฬ‹ ๐’ทฬ ๐“Ÿฬ ๐’ทฬ‹ ๐“Ÿฬ‹ ๐’ปฬ ๐“ฃฬ ๐’ปฬ‹ ๐“ฃฬ‹ ๐“‚ฬ ๐“ชฬ ๐“‚ฬ‹ ๐“ชฬ‹ ๐“Žฬ ๐“ถฬ ๐“Žฬ‹ ๐“ถฬ‹
nasal base ๐’ฐอ˜ ๐“˜อ˜ ๐’ฐฬ„อ˜ ๐“˜ฬ„อ˜ ๐’ฒ ๐“š ๐’ฒฬ„ ๐“šฬ„ ๐’ณอ˜ ๐“›อ˜ ๐’ณฬ„อ˜ ๐“›ฬ„อ˜ ๐’ธ ๐“  ๐’ธฬ„ ๐“ ฬ„ ๐’ปอ˜ ๐“ฃอ˜ ๐’ปฬ„อ˜ ๐“ฃฬ„อ˜ ๐“‚อ˜ ๐“ชอ˜ ๐“‚ฬ„อ˜ ๐“ชฬ„อ˜ ๐“ƒ ๐“ซ ๐“ƒฬ„ ๐“ซฬ„
high tone ๐’ฐฬอ˜ ๐“˜ฬอ˜ ๐’ฐฬ‹อ˜ ๐“˜ฬ‹อ˜ ๐’ฒฬ ๐“šฬ ๐’ฒฬ‹ ๐“šฬ‹ ๐’ณฬอ˜ ๐“›ฬอ˜ ๐’ณฬ‹อ˜ ๐“›ฬ‹อ˜ ๐’ธฬ ๐“ ฬ ๐’ธฬ‹ ๐“ ฬ‹ ๐’ปฬอ˜ ๐“ฃฬอ˜ ๐’ปฬ‹อ˜ ๐“ฃฬ‹อ˜ ๐“‚ฬอ˜ ๐“ชฬอ˜ ๐“‚ฬ‹อ˜ ๐“ชฬ‹อ˜ ๐“ƒฬ ๐“ซฬ ๐“ƒฬ‹ ๐“ซฬ‹

ฦ and ฦฬจ are not phonemic, but unstressed allophones of A and ฤ„.

The a comes from Latin โŸจAโŸฉ (without the crossbar, as in the NASA insignia "worm" logo), e from Latin cursive โŸจโฑญโŸฉ (the 'long' sound of the English letter a is rather like Osage e). The source for i is obscure, though Latin โŸจIโŸฉ does appear inside โŸจฮ›โŸฉ for the diphthong ai.

Consonants

edit

The 2014 consonant letters and digraphs are as follows. As in Latin orthography, the ejective consonants are written with a diacritic, and the strongly aspirated stops with digraphs. The pre-aspirated stops were originally written as digraphs with h, but since they vary by dialect with geminates, the 2014 revision included new letters for them derived by adding a cross-bar.

Osage consonants
TenuisEjectiveAspiratedPre-aspirated
/geminate
OsageLatinOsageLatinOsageLatinOsageLatin
๐’ด ๐“œBr
๐’ต ๐“ฤŒ๐’ถ ๐“žHฤ
๐’น ๐“กH
๐’บ ๐“ขHy
๐’ผ ๐“คK๐’ผสผ ๐“คสผKสผ๐’ผ๐“ ๐“ค๐“ธ
๐’ผ๐“‡ ๐“ค๐“ฏ		Kx
Kลก		๐’ฝ ๐“ฅHk
๐’พ ๐“ฆKy
๐’ฟ ๐“งL
๐“€ ๐“จM
๐“ ๐“ฉN
๐“„ ๐“ฌP๐“„สผ ๐“ฌสผPสผ๐“„๐“ ๐“ฌ๐“ธ
๐“„๐“‡ ๐“ฌ๐“ฏ		Px
Pลก		๐“… ๐“ญHp
๐“† ๐“ฎS
๐“‡ ๐“ฏล 
๐“ˆ ๐“ฐT๐“ˆ๐“ ๐“ฐ๐“ธ
๐“Œ ๐“ด		Tx
Ch		๐“‰ ๐“ฑHt
๐“Š ๐“ฒC (Ts)๐“Šสผ ๐“ฒสผCสผ๐“‹ ๐“ณHc
๐“ ๐“ตร
๐“ ๐“ทW
๐“ ๐“ธX
๐“‘ ๐“นฦ” (gh)
๐“’ ๐“บZ
๐““ ๐“ปลฝ

Px and pลก are allophones, as are kx ~ kลก and tx ~ ch (tsh). Hy and ky are sequences rather than single consonants.

The source of ๐“„ is Latin โŸจPโŸฉ + โŸจbโŸฉ, that of ๐“ˆ is Latin โŸจTโŸฉ + โŸจDโŸฉ, ๐’ผ from โŸจKโŸฉ + โŸจgโŸฉ, ๐’ด from โŸจbโŸฉ + โŸจRโŸฉ. ๐“† and ๐“’ are the top halves of โŸจSโŸฉ and โŸจZโŸฉ. ๐“Š is from Osage โŸจ๐“ˆโŸฉ + โŸจ๐“†โŸฉ. ๐’ต, ๐“, ๐“‡ and ๐““ are derived from Latin โŸจCโŸฉ, โŸจTโŸฉ, โŸจSโŸฉ, and โŸจZโŸฉ respectively, + โŸจhโŸฉ. ๐“€, ๐“ and ๐’ฟ appear to be from their cursive Latin forms. ๐“ is a partial โŸจWโŸฉ. ๐“ is from cursive โŸจXโŸฉ; it was originally at a 45-degree (x-like) angle before it was split into ๐“ and inverted ๐“‘. ๐’น is possibly from the Spanish use of โŸจJโŸฉ as /x/; alternatively ๐’บ may be from the โŸจSโŸฉ of โŸจ๐“‡โŸฉ, and ๐’น from ๐’บ. Ligatures for sc (sts) and sk were retired when the alphabet was reformed for Unicode encoding.

Punctuation

edit

Words are separated by a space. Syllables were originally separated by a full stop, but that practice has ceased with increasing literacy.

2014 reforms

edit

A meeting to reform the script in 2014 in preparation for Unicode encoding agreed on five changes:

  • Casing pairs were introduced.
  • Digraphs hC (or superscript สฐC) for the pre-aspirate consonants were replaced with dedicated letters, ๊ž’.
  • Ligatures for sc (sts) and sk were retired.
  • The nasal marks (ห† following the letter for monophthongs, an underscore for diphthongs) were replaced by a dot (above-right for monophthongs, internally for diphthongs)
  • The ambiguous letter x, originally set at a 45-degree angle, was split into two letters, upright ๐“ธ x and inverted ๐“น gh.

Unicode

edit

The Osage alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2016 with the release of version 9.0.

The Unicode block for Osage is U+104B0โ€“U+104FF:

Osage[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
ย 0123456789ABCDEF
U+104Bx ๐’ฐ ๐’ฑ ๐’ฒ ๐’ณ ๐’ด ๐’ต ๐’ถ ๐’ท ๐’ธ ๐’น ๐’บ ๐’ป ๐’ผ ๐’ฝ ๐’พ ๐’ฟ
U+104Cx ๐“€ ๐“ ๐“‚ ๐“ƒ ๐“„ ๐“… ๐“† ๐“‡ ๐“ˆ ๐“‰ ๐“Š ๐“‹ ๐“Œ ๐“ ๐“Ž ๐“
U+104Dx ๐“ ๐“‘ ๐“’ ๐““ ๐“˜ ๐“™ ๐“š ๐“› ๐“œ ๐“ ๐“ž ๐“Ÿ
U+104Ex ๐“  ๐“ก ๐“ข ๐“ฃ ๐“ค ๐“ฅ ๐“ฆ ๐“ง ๐“จ ๐“ฉ ๐“ช ๐“ซ ๐“ฌ ๐“ญ ๐“ฎ ๐“ฏ
U+104Fx ๐“ฐ ๐“ฑ ๐“ฒ ๐“ณ ๐“ด ๐“ต ๐“ถ ๐“ท ๐“ธ ๐“น ๐“บ ๐“ป
Notes
1.^As of Unicode version 17.0
2.^Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References

edit
  1. โ†‘ "Osage Nation Language Department". Archived from the original on November 20, 2011.
  2. โ†‘ Everson, Michael; Lookout, Herman Mongrain; Pratt, Cameron (September 21, 2014). "Final proposal to encode the Osage script in the UCS: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2, Document N4619" (PDF). The Unicode Consortium. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  3. โ†‘ "Unicode version 9.0.0". The Unicode Consortium. June 21, 2016.
  4. โ†‘ Kuta, Sarah (November 3, 2023). "New U.S. Quarter Honors Maria Tallchief, America's First Prima Ballerina". Smithsonian Magazine.
  5. โ†‘ Pratt, Cameron; Rapp, Stephanie; Haag, Marcia; Herrick, Dylan (2025). ๐“๐“˜๐“ป๐“˜ฬ๐“ป๐“Ÿ ๐’ปฬ๐“Ÿโ€”Osage Language and Lifeways (1stย ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p.ย 11. ISBNย 978-0-8061-9529-2.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Osage_script&oldid=1354201497"