Oʼodham (Oʼodham ñiok)

Oʼodham is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken in southern Arizona in the USA and in northern Sonora in Mexico. In 2007 there were about 15,000 speakers of Oʼodham, which is also known as Papago-Pima. There are two main Oʼodham dialects: Tohono Oʼodham (Papago), and Akimel Oʼodham (Pima), which are largely mutually intelligilble. Each has a number of sub-dialects. There is also a Hia C-ed Oʼodham dialect.

Oʼodham is officially recognised as a national language in Mexico.

Written Oʼodham

There are two main ways to write Oʼodham: the Alvarez-Hale orthography and the Saxton orthography, both were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. The former is used officially by the Tohono Oʼodham Nation and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community. The latter is used officially by the Gila River Indian Community.

Alvarez-Hale orthography

Note

• The symbol ː is used to indicate long vowels.

Saxton orthography

Notes

• The sounds /ɲ/ and /ŋ/ are also written n
• An h after a vowel indicates it is long.

Download an alphabet chart for Oʼodham (Excel)

Sample text in Oʼodham

Ce:daghim 'o 'ab wu:sañhim.
To:tahim 'o 'ab wu:sañhim.
Cuckuhim 'o 'ab him.
Wepeghim 'o 'abai him.

Translation

Greenly they emerge.
In colors of blue they emerge
Whitely they emerge.
In colors of black they are coming.
Reddening, they are right here.

Na:nko Ma:s Cewagi/Cloud Song, by Ofelia Zepeda
Source: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/stabilize/iii-families/zepeda.htm

Sample videos in Oʼodham

Information about O'odham | Numbers

Links

Information about the Oʼodham people and language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oʼodham_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ood
http://www.native-languages.org/papago.htm
http://oodhamstuff.org/site/language/language.html

The Tohono Oʼodham Creation Story
http://www.hanksville.org/voyage/poems/Papagocreation.html

Uto-Aztecan languages

Comanche, Cora, Hopi, Huarijio, Huichol, Ivilyuat / Cahuilla, Kawaiisu, Luiseño, Mayo, Mono, O'odham, Nahuatl, Northern Paiute, Pipil, Serrano, Shoshone, Tarahumara, Tepehuán, Timbisha, Tongva, Yaqui

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

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