OSAGE OTHOGRAPHY

[Carolyn Quintero]

Jimm, 
Thanks for this interesting news.  I´m afraid I was not asked for input into the new Osage orthography being adopted by the tribe, so I don´t really know what they have decided to use.  I´m sorry to hear that it´s quite non-standard, and can only say I hope it works for them and that it captures all the sounds of Osage. 

I´m also happy to see that they did get rid of the hyphens between every syllable, and the use of a postnuclear ´h´ (hawe used to be written hah-way, and so forth).

In my dictionary, soon to be completed, there will be quite a bit of La Flesche incorporated and corrected or clarified, as well as a guide to reading La Flesche´s orthography.  In fact, I think I included a correspondence table in my Osage Grammar as well´as in my dissertation from U. Massachusetts.  One of the problems with reading forms in La Flesche is that the correspondences do not have a one-to-one match.  For example, LF u is sometimes u, sometimes i and sometimes o in Modern Osage.  The stops are a confusing set also, with under'dot sometimes signaling one thing, sometimes another, with aspiration sometimes marked but not always, and so on.

If I can help with clarifying certain forms, I´ll be happy to.  Traveling now, but with my dictionary along on the trusty laptop.
Carolyn Quintero

-----Original Message-----
From: Jimm GoodTracks <goodtracks at gbronline.com>
Sent: Jun 29, 2005 6:43 AM
To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
Subject: OSAGE OTHOGRAPHY

There is such a great deal of excitement and anticipation for the 
Comparative Grammar Workshop, I will apologize for this interruption of the 
mundane grassroots community information here.

Sunday evening, our family returned from the Osage Iroshka Dances at 
Pawhuska.  While there, I received a pamplet "Osage Government Reform 
Project", which outlined Public Law 108-431, The Osage Reform Act of Dec. 3, 
2004.  In short, it allows the Osage to choose their own form of government, 
set standards for membership, etc.  It seems, previously, only headright 
heirs had a vote in tribal business.

On the front of the leaflet was an Osage Language insciption and an English 
gloss:
"A new day's coming, let's go into it together."
However, it was the Osage script that caught my attention as I attempted to 
make out the words in Wazhazhe.  The orthography had what appeared to be 
Greek letters.  I noted an inverted "V" (lamda), an odd looking "p/b" (phi), 
an inverted "U" and an "a" that reminded me of those Christian fish symbols 
seen on individual cars and trucks around town.  Some smaller inverted "v" 
apparently was for a nasal.

I have no scanner to show here the exact script, but it looked something 
like this, keeping in mind the four symbols as described above:
HVvBV  Hu-a (fish symb)  THV-HV
ZHO-KU-La(fish)  Av-KV-TSE  Av-KU-Tha (fish).

I ashed Ryan Red Corn, who will be studing linguists at KU next year, just 
what sounds did those symbols represent.  He said he had taken a few class 
in Pawhuska under the Elder Mogree Look Out, Head Committeman and 
Grandfather to the Drum Keeper, C.Rumsey.  He told that there was confussion 
from the students over the sounds, so Mogree decided to clearify the sounds 
with this new set of symbols.  Carol Quintero is probably aware of these 
individual othographies, which may even be different in all of the three 
Osage communities, and so, she'll be able to help with this.

I was able to also get Mogree to say the sounds and he corrected the last 
word to be "Av-KV-Tha (fish)".
I made a note of the following:

Hanba hua thaha    (lit:  Day coming when)
Zhukinla angatsi ankatha/o   (lit:  Together we go  we go forth)

In a related matter of LaFlesche's dictionary which is now in reprint at the 
Tribal Museum, is there some guidelines as to how to determine where his 
native Omaha influenced the citations, and how one may read the correct 
Osage form back into those mis-citations?
Jimm