Contents

Osage script

Alphabet invented for writing the Osage language

Osage
Script type	Alphabet
Time period	2006–present
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Osage
Related scripts
Parent systems	(Proto-writing) Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet Old Italic script Latin alphabet English alphabet Osage
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Osge (219), ​Osage
Unicode
Unicode alias	Osage
Unicode range	U+104B0–U+104FF

The Osage script is a new script promulgated in 2006 and revised 2012–2014 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]

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]

Letters[edit]

Vowels[edit]

The 2014 vowel letters are as follows:

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 ⟨𐒰̄ 𐓘̄⟩ Ā ā, ⟨𐒰́ 𐓘́⟩ Á á, ⟨𐒰̋ 𐓘̋⟩ Ā́ ā́, nasal ⟨𐒰̄͘ 𐓘̄͘⟩ Ą̄ ą̄, ⟨𐒰́͘ 𐓘́͘⟩ Ą́ ą́, ⟨𐒰̋͘ 𐓘̋͘⟩ Ą̄́ ą̄́.

Ə and Ə̨ are not phonemic, but unstressed allophones of A and Ą.

The a comes from Latin ⟨A⟩ (without the crossbar, as in the NASA insignia "worm" logo), e from Latin cursive ⟨Ɑ⟩ (the 'long' sound of the English letter a is rather like Osage e). The source for i is obscure, though Latin ⟨I⟩ does appear inside ⟨Λ⟩ 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.

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

The source of 𐓄 is Latin ⟨P⟩, that of t is Latin ⟨D⟩ (an alternative transcription of Osage t), č is from ⟨Ch⟩, k from ⟨K⟩. C is from ⟨T⟩ with the Osage s. S and z are the top halves of ⟨S⟩ and ⟨Z⟩; š and ž are derived from adding a tail to the full letters, much like Latin ⟨ʒ⟩. Br is a ligatures of the letters br. M, n and l appear to be from their cursive Latin forms, and ð is a ligature of ⟨Th⟩, which is how it is often transcribed. W is a partial ⟨w⟩. X is from cursive ⟨x⟩; it was originally at a 45-degree (x-like) angle before it was split into x and inverted gh. H is obscure, but hy may be from the ⟨s⟩of⟨sh⟩, and h from hy. 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 ʰC) for the pre-aspirate consonants were replaced with dedicated letters, Ꞓ.
• Ligatures for sc (sts) and sk were retired.
• The nasal marks (ˆ following the letter for monophthongs, an underscore for diphthongs) were replaced by a dot (above-right for monophthongs, internally for diphthongs)
• The letter x, originally set at a 45-degree angle, was made two letters, upright x and inverted 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+104B0–U+104FF:

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 2014 Language Presentation at Osage Nation, includes non-native sound files for some letters
• Presentation at Native-languages.org, along with various romanizations
• "Saving a language, a people". College of Design, University of Minnesota. October 30, 2013. Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
• Interview with Herman Mongrain Lookout on invention of the scriptonInvisible Nations, KOSU