Osage Language
Osage is a Siouan language spoken by the Osage people of Oklahoma. The last native speaker, Lucille Roubedeaux, died ca. 2005.
Osage has an inventory of sounds very similar to that of Dakota, plus vowel length, preaspirated obstruents, and an interdental fricative (like "th" in English "then"). In contrast to Dakota, phonemically aspirated obstruents appear phonetically as affricates, and the high back vowel *u has been fronted to .
Recently, a distinctive Latin-based alphabet for Osage has been promulgated.
Read more about Osage Language: Language Revitalization, Phonology
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