Ofo language

The Ofo language is a language formerly spoken by the Ofo people, also called the Mosopelea, in what is now Ohio, along the Ohio River, until about 1673. The tribe moved south along the Mississippi River to Mississippi, near the Natchez people, and then to Louisiana, settling near the Tunica.

Ofo
Native to	United States
Region	Mississippi
Ethnicity	Ofo people
Extinct	early 20th century
Language family	Siouan Western Siouan Ohio Valley Siouan Ofo–Biloxi Ofo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ofo
Glottolog	ofoo1242
Distribution of Ofo language

In the 18th century, the Mosopelea were known under the names Oufé and Offogoula. On the basis of the presence of the phoneme /f/ in these names, early linguists once suspected that Ofo was a Muskogean language. However, anthropologist John R. Swanton met an elder Ofo speaker, Rosa Pierrette, in 1908 while he was conducting fieldwork among the Tunica. From her information, he was then able to confirm that the language was Siouan and was similar to Biloxi. Pierrette had spoken Ofo as a child, but Swanton says she told him that the rest of her tribe "had killed each other off" when she was 17.

Phonology

Ofo follows a process similar to Grassmann's Law, with /h/ counting as an aspirated consonant: /oskʰa/ 'crane' + /afʰã/ 'white' > /oskəfʰa/ 'white egret' and /apʰeti/ 'fire' + either /təsʰihi/ 'to burn' or /təsʰihi/ 'to breathe' > /apesʰihi/ 'smoke'.

The inventory is as follows:

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	tenuis	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	t͡ʃʰ	kʰ
Fricative	tenuis	f	s	ʃ	x	h
	aspirated	fʰ	sʰ
Sonorant		w	l	j
		b	d
Nasal		m	n

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i, iː ĩ, ĩː		u, uː ũ, ũː
Mid	e, eː	ə	o, oː
Low		a, aː ã, ãː

All vowels, including /ə/, may bear stress.

Morphology

Ofo is considered to be a mildly polysynthetic language.

Possession

Ofo distinguishes between alienable and inalienable possession by the use of a prefix for first-, second-, and third-person singular as well as first-person dual. That can be abbreviated to 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, and 1du, respectively. The alienable possessions include the following: 1sg {ba-, aba-}, 2sg {č-, ača-}, 3sg {}, 1du {ã-}. The inalienable possessions include the following: 1sg {mi-}, 2sg {čĩ-}, 3sg {ĩ-}, 1du {ã-}.

Negation

Ofo uses the enclitic suffix -ni, to demonstrate negation. That enclitic is usually after the predicate.

Pluralization

Ofo uses the enclitic suffix -tu to pluralize the subject, the object, or both.

Instrumental prefixes

Instrumental prefixes describe the manner in which an action is carried out. Some instrumental prefixes are below:

• atə- 'by extreme temperature'
• tu-, du- 'by pulling/hand'
• ta- 'by mouth'
• pa- 'by pushing'
• la- 'by foot'
• ka- 'by striking'
• pú- 'by pressure'
• po- 'by blowing/shooting'

Person

Ofo pronouns

"mí̃ti, mí̃*te" 'I, me'	"čí̃*ti" 'you'
"í̃*ti" 'he'	"á̃ti, á̃*ti" 'we'

Gender

Ofo appears to have no grammatical gender.

Space, time, and modality

Irrealis mood consists of the suffix -abe. It is the equivalent to the future in English:

• óktat-,abe, 'he will kill you'
• tcóktat-abĕ, 'you will work'
• atcikthé-be, 'I will kill you'

Continuative aspect is formed using the word nóñki.

Iterative aspect is created by reduplication:

• è-te-te, 'sick, keep on suffering'
• šni-šni-we, 'itch, keep on itching'
• tó-fku-fku-pi, 'wink, blink, keep on winking or blinking'

Syntax

The documentation of Ofo does not provide enough information to develop a complete syntax of the language. However, structures also found in related languages have been found.

Ofo appears to have a head-dependent ordering in sentences, which gives it an object-verb word order. The order of verbs may be described as being clause-final. Many cases appear to support that. An example can be seen below:

b-aphú̂ska

my-fist

a-tci-tp-ábe

I-you-hit-IRR

b-aphú̂ska a-tci-tp-ábe

my-fist I-you-hit-IRR

'I will hit you with my fist'

Case

Only some forms are known because of a lack of documentation.

Dative case appears in Ofo and can be interpreted as resembling an accusative pronoun in English.

tcilétci

your.tongue

ó̃tcĭku

me.you.give

tcilétci ó̃tcĭku

your.tongue me.you.give

'hold your tongue!'

athé

dress

ãtcókpe

me.you.put on

athé ãtcókpe

dress {me.you.put on}

'you help me dress'

Complements and causatives

There is no information in the Ofo data to support Ofo having explicit complement clauses. However, it is apparent that embedded clauses precede the main clause.

détõ-ni

(he).go-COND

á-kiu-bĕ

I-come-IRR

détõ-ni á-kiu-bĕ

(he).go-COND I-come-IRR

'if he goes, I will come'

The causative is marked by the enclitic -we.

ifphé-we

teach-CAUS

ifphé-we

teach-CAUS

'to teach'

Sources

A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages

• Hodge, Frederick Webb (1911). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
• Holmer, Nils, M., "An Ofo Phonetic Law," International Journal of American Linguistics, 1, no. 1, 1947.
• Moseley, Christopher and R. E. Asher, ed. Atlas of the Worlds Languages (New York:Routelege, 1994) Map 5
• Dorsey, J. Owen, and John R. Swanton. 1912. "A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages." Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 47. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
• Swanton, John R., ca. 1908. Ofo-English dictionary, Typed and Autographed Document, 613 cards. National Anthropological Archives, 2455-OFO, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
• Swanton, John R. 1909. A New Siouan Dialect. "Putnam Anniversary Volume: Anthropological Essays Presented to Prederic Ward Putnam in Honor of His Seventieth Birthday," pp. 477–86. New York: G. E. Stechert.

External links

• Ofo on Native Languages