Osage orthography notes

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𐒻𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓷𐓣͘ 𐓘𐓵𐓟 𐓘𐓬𐓘—𐓤𐓘𐓸𐓘 𐓤𐓯𐓣 𐓘𐓵𐓟 𐓘𐓬𐓘, 𐓪𐓬𐓸𐓘. 𐓏𐓟𐓲’𐓘 𐓷𐓣͘ 𐓣𐓵𐓘𐓬𐓟. 𐓏𐓘𐓲’𐓘 𐓘𐓤𐓸𐓘 “𐒼𐓪𐓰𐓘𐓡𐓘 𐓨𐓘𐓵𐓣͘,” 𐓘𐓤𐓸𐓘. 𐒻𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓘𐓬𐓘, “𐓍𐓣𐓟 𐓵𐓣𐓟 𐓤𐓪𐓰𐓘𐓡𐓘 𐓨𐓘𐓵𐓣͘ 𐓷𐓣𐓩𐓘͘𐓮𐓰𐓘 𐓰𐓛͘ 𐓨𐓣͘𐓤𐓯𐓟,” 𐒻𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓘𐓪𐓘 𐓟𐓤𐓣𐓟 𐓘𐓬𐓘.

𐓏𐓟𐓲’𐓘 𐓘𐓬𐓘, “𐒰͘𐓵𐓘𐓩𐓘͘𐓮𐓰𐓘 𐓘𐓡𐓘 𐓷𐓣𐓜𐓘𐓹𐓰𐓘𐓤𐓟 𐓰𐓛͘ 𐓨𐓣𐓤𐓯𐓟.”

𐒻𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓘𐓬𐓘, “𐒰͘𐓵𐓘𐓹𐓰𐓘𐓤𐓟 𐓟𐓰𐓘͘ 𐓘𐓬𐓘 𐓰𐓘͘ 𐓩𐓘͘𐓮𐓰𐓘𐓬𐓟.” 𐓏𐓘𐓩𐓘͘𐓮𐓰𐓘𐓬𐓟 𐓘𐓡𐓘 𐓵𐓟, 𐓏𐓟𐓲’𐓘 𐓘𐓬𐓘 𐓵𐓘𐓹𐓰𐓘𐓤𐓘𐓬𐓟 𐓮𐓣𐓵𐓟𐓲𐓟. 𐓍𐓘𐓹𐓰𐓘𐓤𐓘𐓬𐓟 𐓘𐓡𐓘, 𐒻𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓘𐓬𐓘 𐓘𐓵𐓘𐓬𐓟 𐓰𐓘͘, 𐓻𐓘͘ 𐓣͘ 𐓟𐓲𐓣 𐓲𐓟 𐓟𐓲𐓣 𐓮𐓣𐓵𐓣͘𐓤𐓘𐓬𐓟. 𐒿𐓣͘ 𐓘𐓤𐓹𐓘 𐓰𐓘͘, 𐓮𐓣 𐓲𐓟 𐓜𐓪𐓤𐓘 𐓣𐓬𐓘 𐓘𐓤𐓹𐓘.

𐒻𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓘𐓤𐓹𐓘, “𐓂𐓪 𐓘͘𐓯𐓣͘ 𐓷𐓘𐓧𐓣 𐓨𐓣͘𐓤𐓯𐓟!” 𐓘𐓤𐓹𐓘. 𐒿𐓣͘ 𐓯𐓪͘ 𐓘𐓤𐓹𐓘 𐓲’𐓟 𐓡𐓣͘𐓤𐓯𐓟 𐓘𐓬𐓘 𐓰𐓘͘ 𐓲’𐓘𐓬𐓟 𐓣𐓲𐓣𐓤𐓪 𐓰𐓘͘𐓤𐓘 𐓘𐓬𐓘. 𐒴𐓪𐓤𐓘𐓻𐓶𐓣𐓤𐓘 𐓜𐓪𐓤𐓘 𐓣𐓬𐓘𐓬𐓟 𐓰𐓘͘ 𐓲’𐓘𐓬𐓟.

Source: Everson, p14

Usage & history

Origins of the Osage script, 1051 – today.

Phoenician

└ Greek

└ Old Italic

└ Latin

└ Osage

Historically Osage was spoken in parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas. The Osage tribe was moved to Oklahoma in 1872. Ethnologue reports no first language speakers since the last died in 2005, but second language speakers are emerging due to a concerted effort to re-introduce the language to an Osage community of around 11,000.

𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 𐓣𐓟 wɑʒɑʒɛ iɛ Osage

The Osage language has been written using Latin characters since the mid-1800s, but there was no standardised spelling. Writers simply used the Latin letters to represent the sounds as they felt fit.

Around 2006, a new orthography was developed, building on the Latin letters but creating a new set of glyphs for many sounds. This was enthusiastically received by students and teachers.

In 2014 further rationalisation of the script took place, partly driven by the aim of standardising a permanent form for encoding in the Unicode Standard. For details, see variants.

More information: Everson

Basic features

The Osage script is an alphabet. Both consonants and vowels are indicated by letters. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the Osage language.

Osage text runs left-to-right in horizontal lines. Words are separated by spaces. The script is bicameral. The shapes of the upper and lowercase forms are typically the same.

Osage pronunciation has a good deal of allophonic variation built into most sounds in its alphabet, influenced by surrounding sounds or by dialect.

❯ consonantSummary

Osage has 21 basic consonant letters. It also has letters to represent 5 pre-aspirated sounds but the language-learning curriculum of the Osage Nation doesn't use them, with aim of simplifying the learning experience. Another 3 ejective sounds are written using ʼ.

❯ basicV

This orthography is an alphabet where vowels are written using 10 vowel letters (20 in total), including some diphthongs. Nasalisation is very common and is marked using 0358.

Three other combining marks can be used to indicate vowel length or accent, although they are not commonly used. None of the marks combine with their base characters to form precomposed shapes.

Numbers use ASCII digits.

Character index

Letters

Show

Consonants

𐓬␣𐓜␣𐓰␣𐓤␣𐓦␣𐓲␣𐓴␣𐓝␣𐓵␣𐓮␣𐓺␣𐓯␣𐓻␣𐓸␣𐓹␣𐓡␣𐓢␣𐓨␣𐓩␣𐓷␣𐓧

𐓄␣𐒴␣𐓈␣𐒼␣𐒾␣𐓊␣𐓌␣𐒵␣𐓍␣𐓆␣𐓒␣𐓇␣𐓓␣𐓐␣𐓑␣𐒹␣𐒺␣𐓀␣𐓁␣𐓏␣𐒿

𐓭␣𐓱␣𐓥␣𐓳␣𐓞

𐓅␣𐓉␣𐒽␣𐓋␣𐒶

Vowels

𐓣␣𐓶␣𐓟␣𐓪␣𐓛␣𐓘␣𐓙␣𐓠␣𐓫␣𐓚

𐒻␣𐓎␣𐒷␣𐓂␣𐒳␣𐒰␣𐒱␣𐒸␣𐓃␣𐒲

Other

Combining marks

Show

Vowels

́␣̄␣̋

Punctuation

Show

“␣”␣‘␣’␣‐␣–␣—␣…

ASCII

(␣)␣,␣.␣:␣;␣?␣!

Symbols

Show

Other

Show

To be investigated

%␣-␣[␣]␣§␣‑␣†␣‡␣′␣″

Phonology

These are sounds for the Osage language.

Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.

Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source Wikipedia.

Vowel sounds

Plain vowels

u is variable, and may be realised as ʉ or y following a velar plosive or near a front vowel with no intervening plosive. It may also conflate with i after ð or n.wl

ɛ can sometimes sound like e.

In fast speech, ɑ is often pronounced ə after a stressed syllable or at the end of a word.wl The orthography has a separate letter for the sound ə, although Qintero doesn't classify it as phonemic.wl An ə sound may also be added to the end of English words, so that they don't end with a consonant. She gives the example of her own name, which may be pronounced carolinə.

õ and ɑ̃ can often be interchangeable.q

For more details, see Wikipedia and Quintero.

Diphthongs

There are a number of permutations of adjacent vowels without intervening consonants. The items shown here are those for which there are separate letters in Osage.

For more details, see Wikipedia and Quintero.

Consonant sounds

	labial	dental	alveolar	post- alveolar	velar	glottal
stop	p pˀ ʰp px pʃ br		t ʰt		k kˀ ʰk kx kʃ kʲ	ʔ
affricate			t͡s t͡sˀ ʰt͡s t͡sʰ tx	t͡ʃ ʰt͡ʃ
fricative		ð	s z	ʃ ʒ	x ɣ	h hʲ
nasal	m		n
approximant	w		l
trill/flap			r

Many sounds are described in terms of voiced and unvoiced, however Quintero says "The feature distinguishing s and š from z and ž is probably tenseness vs. laxness more than voicelessness vs. voicing." The sounds represented here as p, t, and k, are realised as an unaspirated sound that is halfway between voiced and unvoiced. In some words the sound may be more like one than the other.

The br sequence contains the only clearly voiced plosive phone. It appears infrequently, except in verb forms.wl,#Stop_series

As well as ejectives, the table lists pre-aspirated stops and affricates, and the sound sequences that now represent historical post-aspiration, ie. consonants followed by x or ʃ. The pre-aspirated consonants are pronounced as geminates in some dialects.

For more details, see Wikipedia and Quintero.

Tone

tbd

Structure

Osage is based on syllables of the form:wl,#Consonant_clusters

(C)(C)V(V)

Consonant clusters never appear in word-final position; only word-initial or word-medial.wl,#Consonant_clusters

Vowels

Vowel summary table

The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.

Precise spelling may use additional combining marks to indicate vowel length and tone (not shown here). The left column shows lowercase, the right uppercase.

Plain	𐓣␣𐓣͘␣ ␣𐓶	𐒻␣𐒻͘␣ ␣𐓎
	𐓟␣ ␣𐓪␣𐓪͘	𐒷␣ ␣𐓂␣𐓂͘
	𐓛␣𐓛͘	𐒳␣𐒳͘
	𐓟	𐒷
	𐓘␣𐓘͘	𐒰␣𐒰͘
Dipthongs	𐓠␣𐓫	𐒸␣𐓃
Dipthongs	𐓙␣𐓚	𐒱␣𐒲

For additional details see vowel_mappings.

The following is the set of characters needed to write vowels, as described in this section, grouped by general category.

𐒰␣𐒱␣𐒲␣𐒳␣𐒷␣𐒸␣𐒻␣𐓂␣𐓃␣𐓎␣𐓘␣𐓙␣𐓚␣𐓛␣𐓜␣𐓟␣𐓠␣𐓡␣𐓣␣𐓤␣𐓨␣𐓪␣𐓫␣𐓬␣𐓮␣𐓯␣𐓰␣𐓶␣𐓹␣𐓺

́␣̃␣̄␣̋␣͘

Post-consonant vowels

Vowels following consonants are written using 10 vowel letters (20 in total), including some diphthongs. Nasalisation is very common and is marked.

Three other combining marks can be used to indicate vowel length or accent, although they are not commonly used. None of the marks combine with their base characters to form precomposed shapes.

Vowel letters

The basic set of plain vowel letters is as follows.

𐓣␣𐓶␣𐓟␣𐓪␣𐓛␣𐓘

𐒻␣𐓎␣𐒷␣𐓂␣𐒳␣𐒰

These vowels can be lengthened, accented, or nasalised using diacritics.

There is also a set of single-letter diphthongs, most of which are nasalised.

𐓙␣𐓠␣𐓫␣𐓚

𐒱␣𐒸␣𐓃␣𐒲

Combining marks used with vowels

̄␣̋␣́␣͘

Osage vowels can be followed by 4 combining marks, although only the one used for nasalisation is in common use. These are described in the sections that follow.

Vowel length

̄␣̋

Although vowel length can occasionally produce contrasting pairs in Osage, it is generally difficult to perceive, can vary in application, and the rules are not clearly established. Long vowels may be shortened in unstressed positions, however short vowels can be lengthened in questions. Vowels at the end of a word are normally short.wl,#Vowel_clusters_and_long_vowels

As with the accent marks, length is not indicated in the text of the Osage Nation language-learning curricula, and these characters are only likely to be used for precise phonetic labelling of words.

Long vowels can be indicated using 0304 above the vowel, eg. 𐓬𐓘̄𐓹𐓪́

If the vowel is long and also accented, use 030B, eg. 𐓰𐓘̋𐓜𐓘͘

This list shows the set of long vowels.e

𐓣̄␣𐓣̄͘␣𐓣̋␣𐓣̋͘␣𐓶̄␣𐓶̋␣𐓟̄␣𐓟̋␣𐓪̄␣𐓪̄͘␣𐓪̋␣𐓪̋͘␣𐓘̄␣𐓘̄͘␣𐓘̋␣𐓘̋͘

Nasalisation

Nasalisation is very common in Osage words. Normally it is indicated using 0358 after the vowel, eg. 𐓯𐓪͘𐓤𐓟 However, 3 diphthongs place the dot inside the letter, and so are represented using precomposed characters.wl,#Phonology

This list shows the set of nasalised vowels.

𐓣͘␣𐓪͘␣𐓛͘␣𐓘͘␣𐓠␣𐓫␣𐓚

It is easy to find words still written in the older style orthography, where nasalisation is indicated using 005E, eg. 𐓨𐓘͘𐓺𐓟𐓮𐓤𐓘 was formerly written 𐓨𐓘^𐓺𐓟𐓮𐓤𐓘

Pitch accents

To signal pitch accents use 0301, eg. 𐓡𐓘́𐓬𐓘

This list shows the set of non-lengthened vowels with pitch accents.

𐓣́␣𐓣́͘␣𐓶́␣𐓟́␣𐓠́␣𐓪́␣𐓫́␣𐓘́␣𐓘́͘␣𐓚́␣𐓙́

The Osage Nation does not use these accent marks in their online language courses. They are likely to be used only for precise phonetic labelling of words, such as one might find in a dictionary.

Vowel sounds to characters

This section maps Osage vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Osage orthography, grouped by lowercase ( l ) and uppercase ( u ). Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.

Plain vowels

𐓣

𐓣𐓡𐓘

𐒻

𐓣͘

𐓡𐓣͘

𐒻͘

ʉ~y

𐓶

𐓶𐓝𐓘𐓬𐓘

𐓎

ε~e

𐓟

𐓟𐓤𐓪͘

𐒷

𐓪

𐓪𐓡𐓪

𐓂

𐓪͘

𐓪𐓡𐓪͘

𐓂͘

𐓛

𐓧𐓟𐓜𐓛

𐒳

ə̃

𐓛͘

𐓻𐓶𐓟𐓰𐓛͘

𐒳͘

𐓘

𐓘𐓰𐓛͘𐓤𐓘

𐒰

ɑ̃

𐓘͘

𐓻𐓘͘

𐒰͘

Diphthongs

eɪ̃

𐓠

𐓯𐓟𐓵𐓪͘𐓨𐓠

𐒸

oɪ̃

𐓫

𐓷𐓘𐓡𐓫

𐓃

aɪ

𐓙

𐓤𐓙𐓡𐓣𐓤𐓘

𐒱

aɪ̃

𐓚

𐓡𐓚

𐒲

Consonants

Consonant summary table

The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.

The left column is lowercase, and the right uppercase.

Stops	𐓬␣𐓬ʼ␣𐓜␣𐓰␣𐓤␣𐓤ʼ␣𐓦␣ʼ	𐓄␣𐓄ʼ␣𐒴␣𐓈␣𐒼␣𐒼ʼ␣𐒾
Stops	𐓭␣𐓱␣𐓥␣𐓳␣𐓞	𐓅␣𐓉␣𐒽␣𐓋␣𐒶
Affricates	𐓲␣𐓲ʼ␣𐓝␣ ␣𐓴	𐓊␣𐓊ʼ␣𐒵␣ ␣𐓌
Fricatives	𐓵␣𐓮␣𐓺␣𐓯␣𐓻␣𐓸␣𐓹␣𐓡␣𐓢	𐓍␣𐓆␣𐓒␣𐓇␣𐓓␣𐓐␣𐓑␣𐒹␣𐒺
Nasals	𐓨␣𐓩	𐓀␣𐓁
Other	𐓷␣𐓧	𐓏␣𐒿

For additional details see consonant_mappings.

Basic consonants

𐓬␣𐓜␣𐓰␣𐓤␣𐓦␣𐓲␣𐓴␣𐓝␣𐓵␣𐓮␣𐓺␣𐓯␣𐓻␣𐓸␣𐓹␣𐓡␣𐓢␣𐓨␣𐓩␣𐓷␣𐓧

𐓄␣𐒴␣𐓈␣𐒼␣𐒾␣𐓊␣𐓌␣𐒵␣𐓍␣𐓆␣𐓒␣𐓇␣𐓓␣𐓐␣𐓑␣𐒹␣𐒺␣𐓀␣𐓁␣𐓏␣𐒿

Ejectives

Ejectives are written using ʼ, eg. compare 𐓲ʼ𐓟𐓤𐓘 𐓲𐓟𐓤𐓘 There are only 3 ejective sounds.

𐓬ʼ␣𐓤ʼ␣𐓲ʼ

Aspiration

Pre-aspiration

Osage words may contain pre-aspirated stops and affricates, however some dialects pronounce these instead as geminated consonants. For this reason, the orthography has a set of single letters that can be used to represent either a pre-aspirated or an equivalent geminated sound.

𐓅𐓭␣𐓉𐓱␣𐒽𐓥␣𐓋𐓳␣𐒶𐓞

The lessons offered by the Osage Nation website don't contain any of these letters, as part of the simplification of the orthography intended to help people learn to write Osage. Pre-aspirated sounds are not distinguished from normal sounds. For example, deer ʰtɑ́ː is written 𐓰𐓘 rather than 𐓱𐓘. These letters may be used, however, for dictionaries or other places where the orthography needs to be more precise.

Post-aspiration

Sounds that were formerly post-aspirated are mostly represented by digraphs ending in 𐓸 or 𐓯 , which are used in complementary fashion, eg. 𐓪𐓬𐓸𐓘 However, the single letter 𐓴 is an allograph of 𐓰𐓸.

𐓬𐓸␣𐓬𐓯␣𐓰𐓸␣𐓴␣𐓤𐓸␣𐓤𐓯

Consonant clusters

Consonant clusters do occur in the Osage script, per the conventions of the syllable structure (see structure), but are not indicated in any special way.

Consonant sounds to characters

This section maps Osage vowel sounds to common graphemes, grouped by lowercase ( l ) and uppercase ( u ). Click on the character names to see examples.

𐓬

𐓬𐓘̄𐓹𐓪́

𐓄

ʰp

pp in some dialects.

𐓬 currently used in Osage Nation curricula.

𐓬𐓘𐓺𐓟

𐓭 in dictionaries or other places where the orthography needs to be more precise.

𐓭𐓘𐓺𐓟

𐓄

𐓅

𐓬𐓸

𐓪𐓬𐓸𐓘͘

pʃ

𐓬𐓯

𐓪𐓤𐓣𐓬𐓯𐓟

pˀ

𐓬ʼ

𐓬ʼ𐓪𐓵𐓪͘

bɹ

𐓜

𐓜𐓟𐓥𐓘

𐒴

𐓰

𐓰𐓪͘𐓬𐓟

𐓈

xxx

ʰt

tt in some dialects.

𐓰 currently used in Osage Nation curricula.

𐓮𐓘𐓰𐓘

𐓱 in dictionaries or other places where the orthography needs to be more precise.

𐓮𐓘𐓱𐓘

𐓈

𐓉

t͡s

𐓲

𐓲𐓟

𐓊

tsˀ

𐓲ʼ

𐓲ʼ𐓟𐓤𐓘

ʰt͡s

𐓲 currently used in Osage Nation curricula.

𐓲𐓣

𐓳 in dictionaries or other places where the orthography needs to be more precise.

𐓳𐓣

𐓊

𐓋

t͡sʰ

𐓴

𐓷𐓘𐓴𐓣

𐓌

𐓰𐓸 (post-aspirated t)

𐓤𐓘𐓰𐓸𐓘

t͡ʃ

𐓝 (post-aspirated t)

𐓝𐓪𐓬𐓘

𐒵

ʰt͡ʃ

𐓝 currently used in Osage Nation curricula.

𐓷𐓣𐓝𐓪𐓯𐓬𐓘

𐓞 in dictionaries or other places where the orthography needs to be more precise.

𐓷𐓣𐓞𐓪𐓯𐓬𐓘

𐒵

𐒶

𐓤

𐓤𐓣𐓯𐓰𐓪𐓨𐓚

𐒼

ʰk

kk in some dialects.

𐓤 currently used in Osage Nation curricula.

𐓤𐓪𐓤𐓪𐓮𐓘

𐓥 in dictionaries or other places where the orthography needs to be more precise.

𐓥𐓪𐓥𐓪𐓮𐓘

𐒼

𐒽

kʲ

𐓦

𐓩𐓣𐓯𐓦𐓶𐓟

𐒾

kˀ

𐓤ʼ

𐓟𐓪𐓤ʼ𐓘

𐓤𐓸

𐓤𐓸𐓘𐓻𐓣͘

kʃ

𐓤𐓯

𐓤𐓯𐓪͘𐓤𐓘

𐓵

𐓵𐓘𐓷𐓘

𐓍

𐓮

𐓮𐓘𐓬𐓟

𐓆

𐓺

𐓺𐓘͘𐓬𐓟

𐓒

𐓯

𐓯𐓘𐓭𐓟

𐓇

𐓻

𐓻𐓘͘

𐓓

𐓸

𐓸𐓪̋͘𐓲𐓟

𐓐

𐓹

𐓹𐓘𐓤𐓟

𐓑

𐓡

𐓡𐓣

𐒹

hʲ

𐓢

𐓬𐓘𐓢𐓶

𐒺

𐓨

𐓨𐓣

𐓀

𐓩

𐓩𐓘͘𐓹𐓟

𐓁

𐓷

𐓷𐓘𐓴𐓣

𐓏

𐓧

𐓧𐓪͘

𐒿

Numbers

Digits

Osage uses ASCII digits.

Text direction

Osage text runs left to right in horizontal lines.

Show default bidi_class properties for characters in the Osage orthography described here.

Glyph shaping & positioning

Experiment with examples using the Osage character app.

Context-based shaping & positioning

Osage letters don't interact, so no special shaping is needed.

Base characters carry combining mark, which need to be positioned correctly.

Case & character transforms

Osage is bicameral, and applications may need to enable transforms to allow the user to switch between cases.

Typographic units

Word boundaries

Osage words are separated by spaces.

In the early stages of the use of the Osage script syllables within a word were separated by periods, eg. 𐓧𐓘.𐓬𐓸𐓘͘.𐓤𐓟. This is no longer the case. Syllable boundaries are, in any case, easily identified in Osage text.

Graphemes

Grapheme clusters

Osage graphemes are typically single characters, with an optional combining mark to indicate nasalisation. Up to 2 more combining marks can be added to indicate vowel length and accents.

Unicode grapheme clusters can be applied to Osage without problems. There are no special issues related to operations that use grapheme clusters as their basic unit of text.

Punctuation & inline features

Phrase & section boundaries

,␣;␣:␣.␣?␣!

Osage uses standard ASCII punctuation for phrase boundaries.

phrase	, ; :
sentence	. ? !

phrase

;

sentence

The following dashes are used.

‐␣–␣—

Bracketed text

(␣)

Osage commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.

	start	end
standard	(	)

Quotations & citations

“␣”␣‘␣’

Osage texts use quotation marks around quotations instead. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.

	start	end
initial	“	”
nested	‘	’

The default quote marks for Osage are “ at the start, and ” at the end.

When an additional quote is embedded within the first, the quote marks are ‘ and ’.

Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

…

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

tbd

Lines are primarily broken at word boundaries.

Line-edge rules

As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line. The Unicode line-break properties help applications decide whether a character should appear at the start or end of a line.

Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the modern Osage orthography.

The following list gives examples of typical behaviours for some of the characters used in Osage. Context may affect the behaviour of some of these and other characters.

Click/tap on the characters to show what they are.

“ ‘ ( should not be the last character on a line.
” ’ ) . , ; ! ? % should not begin a new line.

Baselines, line height, etc.

Osage uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.

Osage has ascenders and descenders, and diacritics that sit above and below the base letters. However, the metrics match those of the Latin script.

To give an approximate idea, fig_baselines compares Latin and Osage glyphs from the Noto Sans Osage font. All the metrics can be seen to be about the same.

Hhqx𐓛͘𐓝̋𐓜𐒴𐓤ʼ𐒾𐒺𐓢𐓟̄𐒸𐓓 — Font metrics for Latin text compared with Osage glyphs in the Noto Sans Osage font.

fig_baselines_other shows similar comparisons for the Barnsdall font.

Counters, lists, etc.

Osage uses a decimal numeric counter style with ASCII digits. The default separator is a full stop + space.

Page & book layout

Page layout for Osage follows the same practices as for US English text written in Latin script.

Historical information

Orthographic development & variants

Changes introduced in 2014 include the following:e

The introduction of case pairs.
'Pre-aspirate' consonants were changed from digraphs to single characters. eg. 𐓡𐓬 hp became 𐓭 pʰ
Two ligatures representing consonant clusters were abolished: st͡s became 𐓮𐓲; and sk became 𐓮𐓤.
Nasalisation was previously indicated in one of 2 ways: using ^ after a vowel or using _ below a diphthong, eg. 𐓘^ a^ ɑ̃ 𐓘̱ a̱ aĩThis was replaced by a dot, generally placed at the upper right side of the vowel using a combining character, or appearing within the letter for a diphthong, in which case a new letter was created, eg. 𐓘͘ a˜ ɑ̃
The sounds x and ɣ were previously both represented by a single character. The reform created a separate letter form for each, ie. 𐓸 x x 𐓹 ɣ ɣ

Another recent change in the orthography sees the discontinuation of the practice of separating syllables within a word by periods, eg. the formerly written 𐓷𐓘.𐓮𐓘.𐓬𐓟 is now written 𐓷𐓘𐓮𐓘𐓬𐓟

Online resources

Osage language tools word list
Osage Dictionary preview, Carolyn Quintero

Osage

Sample

Usage & history

Basic features

Character index

Letters

Consonants

Vowels

Other

Combining marks

Vowels

Punctuation

ASCII

Symbols

Other

To be investigated

Phonology

Vowel sounds

Plain vowels

Diphthongs

Consonant sounds

Tone

Structure

Vowels

Vowel summary table

Post-consonant vowels

Vowel letters

Combining marks used with vowels

Vowel length

Nasalisation

Pitch accents

Vowel sounds to characters

Plain vowels

Diphthongs

Consonants

Consonant summary table

Basic consonants

Ejectives

Aspiration

Pre-aspiration

Post-aspiration

Consonant clusters

Consonant sounds to characters

Numbers

Digits

Text direction

Glyph shaping & positioning

Context-based shaping & positioning

Case & character transforms

Typographic units

Word boundaries

Graphemes

Grapheme clusters

Punctuation & inline features

Phrase & section boundaries

Bracketed text

Quotations & citations

Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

Line-edge rules

Baselines, line height, etc.

Counters, lists, etc.

Page & book layout

Historical information

Orthographic development & variants

Online resources

References