Oʼodham language

Oʼodham: or Papago-Pima is a Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, where the Tohono Oʼodham and Akimel Oʼodham reside. In 2000 there were estimated to be approximately 9,750 speakers in the United States and Mexico combined, although there may be more due to underreporting.
It is the 10th most-spoken indigenous language in the United States, and the 3rd most-spoken indigenous language in Arizona. It is the third-most spoken language in Pinal County, Arizona, and the fourth-most spoken language in Pima County, Arizona.
Approximately 8% of Oʼodham speakers in the US speak English "not well" or "not at all", according to results of the 2000 Census. Approximately 13% of Oʼodham speakers in the US were between the ages of 5 and 17, and among the younger Oʼodham speakers, approximately 4% were reported as speaking English "not well" or "not at all".
Native names for the language, depending on the dialect and orthography, include Oʼodham ha-ñeʼokĭ, Oʼottham ha-neoki, and Oʼodham ñiok.

Dialects

The Oʼodham language has a number of dialects.

Oʼodham
* Tohono Oʼodham
** Cukuḍ Kuk
** Gigimai
** Huhuʼula
** Totoguanh
* Akimel Oʼodham
** Eastern Gila
** Kohadk
** Salt River
** Western Gila
* Hia C-ed Oʼodham
** ?

Due to the paucity of data on the linguistic varieties of the Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham, this section currently focuses on the Tohono Oʼodham and Akimel Oʼodham dialects only.
The greatest lexical and grammatical dialectal differences are between the Tohono Oʼodham and the Akimel Oʼodham dialect groupings. Some examples:

Tohono Oʼodham	Akimel Oʼodham	English
ʼaʼad	hotṣ	to send
nhenhida	tamiam	to wait for
s-hewhogĭ	s-heubagĭ	to be cool
sisiṣ	hoʼiumi	to fasten
pi꞉ haʼicug	pi ʼac	to be absent
wia	ʼoʼoid	hunt tr.

There are other major dialectal differences between northern and southern dialects, for example:

Early Oʼodham	Southern	Northern	English
*ʼa꞉phi꞉m	ʼa꞉ham	ʼa꞉pim	you
*cu꞉khug	cu꞉hug	cu꞉kug	flesh
*ʼe꞉kheg	ʼe꞉heg	ʼe꞉keg	to be shaded
*ʼu꞉pham	ʼu꞉hum	ʼu꞉pam	back

The Cukuḍ Kuk dialect has null in certain positions where other Tohono Oʼodham dialects have a bilabial:

Other TO dialects	Chukuḍ Kuk	English
jiwia, jiwa	jiia	to arrive
ʼuʼuwhig	ʼuʼuhig	bird
wabṣ	haṣ	only
wabṣaba, ṣaba	haṣaba	but

Morphology

Oʼodham is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

Phonology

Oʼodham phonology has a typical Uto-Aztecan inventory distinguishing 19 consonants and 5 vowels.

Consonants

The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid
Low

Most vowels distinguish two degrees of length: long and short, and some vowels also show extra-short duration.

ṣe꞉l "Seri"
ṣel "permission"
ʼa꞉pi "you"
da꞉pĭ "I don't know", "who knows?"

Papago is pronounced in Pima.
Additionally, in common with many northern Uto-Aztecan languages, vowels and nasals at end of words are devoiced. Also, a short schwa sound, either voiced or unvoiced depending on position, is often interpolated between consonants and at the ends of words.

Allophony and distribution

Extra short is realized as voiceless and devoices preceding obstruents: cuwĭ → "jackrabbit".
is a fricative before unrounded vowels: wisilo.
appears before and in Spanish loanwords, such as ca꞉ŋgo "monkey". However, native words do not have nasal assimilation: to꞉nk "hill", namk "meet".,, and rarely occur initially in native words, and does not occur before.
and are largely in complementary distribution, appearing before high vowels, appearing before low vowels : ñeʼe "sing". They contrast finally, though Saxton analyzes these as and, respectively, and final as in ʼa꞉ñi as. However, there are several Spanish loanwords where occurs: nu꞉milo "number". Similarly, for the most part and appear before low vowels while and before high vowels, but there are exceptions to both, often in Spanish loanwords: tiki꞉la "wine", TO weco / AO veco "under".
Orthography

There are two orthographies commonly used for the Oʼodham language: Alvarez–Hale and Saxton. The Alvarez–Hale orthography is officially used by the Tohono Oʼodham Nation and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, and is used in this article, but the Saxton orthography is also common and is official in the Gila River Indian Community. It is relatively easy to convert between the two, the differences between them being largely no more than different graphemes for the same phoneme, but there are distinctions made by Alvarez–Hale not made by Saxton.

Phoneme	Alvarez–Hale	Saxton	Meaning
	a ʼaʼal	a aʼal	baby
	b ban	b ban	coyote
	c cehia	ch chehia	girl
	d daak	th thahk	nose
	ḍ meḍ	d med	run
	ḏ juḏum	d judum	bear
TO, AO	e ʼeʼeb	e eʼeb	stop crying
	g gogs	g gogs	dog
	h haʼicu	h haʼichu	something
TO, AO	i ʼiibhai	i ihbhai	prickly pear cactus
	j juukĭ	j juhki	rain
	k keek	k kehk	stand
	l luulsi	l luhlsi	candy
	m muunh	m muhni	bean
	n naak	n nahk	ear
	nh nheʼe, mu꞉nh	n, ni neʼe, muhni	sing, bean
	ng anghil, wa꞉nggo	ng, n anghil, wahngo	angel, bank
	o ʼoʼohan	o oʼohan	write
	p pi	p pi	not
	s sitol	s sitol	syrup
	ṣ ṣoiga	sh shoiga	pet
	t toobĭ	t tohbi	cottontail '
	u''' ʼuus	u uhs	tree, wood
	v vainom	v vainom	knife
	w wuai	w wuai	male deer
	y payaso	y pa-yaso	clown
	ʼ ʼaʼan	ʼ aʼan	feather
	doubled vowel juukĭ	h juhki	rain

The Saxton orthography does not mark word-initial or extra-short vowels. Final generally corresponds to Hale–Alvarez and final to Hale–Alvarez :

Hale–Alvarez toobĭ vs. Saxton tohbi "cottontail rabbit"
Hale–Alvarez ʼaapi vs. Saxton ahpih "I"
Disputed spellings

There is some disagreement among speakers as to whether the spelling of words should be only phonetic or whether etymological principles should be considered as well.
For instance, oamajda vs. wuamajda derives from oam. Some believe it should be spelled phonetically as wuamajda, reflecting the fact that it begins with, while others think its spelling should reflect the fact that it is derived from oam.

Grammar

Syntax

Oʼodham has relatively free word order within clauses; for example, all of the following sentences mean "the boy brands the pig":

ceoj ʼo g ko꞉jĭ ceposid
ko꞉jĭ ʼo g ceoj ceposid
ceoj ʼo ceposid g ko꞉jĭ
ko꞉jĭ ʼo ceposid g ceoj
ceposid ʼo g ceoj g ko꞉jĭ
ceposid ʼo g ko꞉jĭ g ceoj

In principle, these could also mean "the pig brands the boy", but such an interpretation would require an unusual context.
Despite the general freedom of sentence word order, Oʼodham is fairly strictly verb-second in its placement of the auxiliary verb :

cipkan ʼañ "I am working"
but pi ʼañ cipkan "I am not working", not **''pi cipkan ʼañ''
Verbs

Verbs are inflected for aspect, tense, and number. Number agreement displays absolutive behavior: verbs agree with the number of the subject in intransitive sentences, but with that of the object in transitive sentences:

ceoj ʼo cipkan "the boy is working"
cecoj ʼo cicpkan "the boys are working"
ceoj ʼo g ko꞉ji ceposid "the boy is branding the pig"
cecoj ʼo g ko꞉ji ceposid "the boys are branding the pig"
ceoj ʼo g kokji ha-cecposid "the boy is branding the pigs"

The main verb agrees with the object for person, but the auxiliary agrees with the subject: ʼa꞉ñi ʼañ g kokji ha-cecposid "I am branding the pigs".