Pawnee Language

Náwah Oklahoma!

[ˈnawah oklahoma]          (NAH-wahh Oklahoma!)

 

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©2006 Benjamin Bruce. Some Rights Reserved.

 

• PawneeNation.org – Official website of the Pawnee Nation
• Pawnee Language Program at the AISRI
• LanguageGeek.com – Free downloadable keyboards for typing in Pawnee

 

Keeci ahriirikataa’iiwaatiusuuku cahrikspakuhtu tiruksuriiwaawikuuki rawa rihuksu atkuksu raku’u.  Rawa tiraturaa’iiwaatistarit cuski’it werikuciksuruuwaahac keeci ruraahe istu cuski’it tiratiiraciksuwitaksu.

The old people, those who were living before, they used to tell stories—now (it is) to be only a listener. Now this story I'm going to tell, I've forgotten a little (of it), but it's good again a little what I remember of it.

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Source: Parks, Douglas R. 1976. A Grammar of Pawnee. New York/London: Garland Publishing. Accessed at the Rosetta Project.

Pawnee alphabet

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p	t	k	(’)
Affricate		c
Fricative		s		h
Tap		r
Approximant	w

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Open-mid	e	a

Notes

• Although not phonemic, the glottal stop (’) is included in the standard orthography.
• Stress is indicated by an acute accent (´), e.g. útkasis [ˈutkʌsis], "quail".
• Vocalic length is indicated by doubling the vowel, e.g. aáwit [ˈaːwi̘t], "east".
• c is phonetically apico-alveaolar or lamino-palatal, and is always voiceless and unaspirated.
• i, e, and u vary between tense and lax forms.
• a is open-mid to low, back to central, and unrounded.

 

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Sources:

• Parks, Douglas R. 1976. A Grammar of Pawnee. New York/London: Garland Publishing. Accessed at the Rosetta Project.
• Parks, Douglas R. 2001. Pawnee Alphabet Book. Internet: <http://www.indiana.edu/~aisri/projects/pawnee/pawnee_alphabet.pdf>.