The Winnebago language is the language of Winnebago and Ho Chunk Winnebago tribes of Native Americans in the United States. The language is part of the Siouan language family, and is closely related to the languages of the Iowa, Missouri, and Oto. The language can be written using the "Pa-Pe-Pi-Po" syllabics, although as of 1994 the official orthography of the Ho-Chunk Nation is an adaptation of the Roman alphabet. Although the language is highly endangered, there are currently vigorous efforts underway to keep it alive, primarily through the Hocąk Wazija Haci Language Division.

Phonology

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Oral vowels	Front	Central	Back
Close
Mid
Open
Nasal vowels	Front	Central	Back
Close
Open

Consonants	Bilabial	Labiovelar	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop
Affricate
Nasal
Fricative
Trill
Approximant

Orthography

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The current official orthography derives from an Americanist version of the International Phonetic Alphabet. As such its graphemes broadly resemble those of IPA, and there is a close one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes.

Winnebago orthography differs from IPA in that the nasal vowels are indicated using an ogonek, thus į, ų, ą (respectively IPA , , ). Furthermore, the postalveolar and palatal consonants are written as c, j, š, ž, and y (respectively IPA and ) – the last three being the norm in Americanist phonetic notation. More unusually, t represents , while represents IPA . Finally, the glottal stop is represented by ʼ (known in Winnebago as hiyuša jikere).

External links

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• Hocąk Wowagax: The Hocąk Alphabet
• The Hocąk People and Their Language

Languages of the United States | Siouan languages