Osage

The Osage language is one spoken by the entire populace of The Osage. It is extremely complicated to learn due to some things discussed below. It is written in hieroglyphics, usually, which also makes it somewhat difficult to learn fully, if not immersed into it as a child. Osage has no plurals, and in sound and tone might be compared to the natives of North America.

It is also unique in the complete lack of the word 'we' or 'us', so that there is 'I laugh' and 'you laugh' but not 'we laugh', instead 'we laugh' is traditionally denoted by saying the equivalent of 'you laugh' with a very slight change in tone on the word 'laugh'.

A few of the things that make it difficult: Intensive use of synonyms. As a verb the word 'da' means to freeze, to beg, to solicit, to ask, or to request. As a noun it means 'meat', and as an adjective it means 'great'. Despite the fact that to an outsider they would all simply sound like 'da', to an Osage native very slight tonal changes signal different words. Next, Osage word order is determined by importance in the mind of the speaker. The concept is explained this way, using the sentence 'Yesterday I learned Osage'. The words to be used are yesterday = ci'do'dsi, Osage, and bthi'u'pa'the = I learned.

To an Osage, ci'do'dsi simply means 'in the past', unless it takes precedence over 'Osage' in the sentence. 'Ci'do'dsi Osage bthi'u'pa'the' would mean that Osage was learned yesterday only. 'Osage bthi'u'pa'the ci'do'dsi' would mean Osage was learned in the past, including yesterday.

Word order is [Most important thought to the speaker] [Descriptive nouns] [Most Important Action] [Secondary Action].

As such, many different shades of meaning can be made by switching around different words. 'Do you want some ice tea?' would be translated into Osage as 'Tea ice some you want?' [Pe'zhe'monkon'ca'e non'xe do'ba shkon'shta?]

To compound this, a wide variety of regional dialects are sometimes used. Fortunately, Imperial Osage is used universally in the capital and in all major cities, and is the dialect taught in schools.

Basic Vocabulary

Here is some basic vocabulary -

Hawei - Hello

Da'han - Good

Da'ha ninksha - How are you?

Da'han ba'gi - How is your health?

Wei da'han - I'm good

____ i'ja je'le - I am ____ (name)

Kakona - Ready

E'wi'gon'ka'na - I want you to help me

Onca lipu - I'm leaving now, Bye