The Ho-Chunk language (), also known as Winnebago, is the language of the Ho-Chunk people of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The language is part of the Siouan language family and is closely related to other Chiwere Siouan dialects, including those of the Iowa, Missouria, and Otoe.

"Winnebago", a name now used for the Ho-Chunk who were forcibly removed to Nebraska, is an exonym, an Anglicization of the Sauk and Fox word Oinepegi. The anglicized form of the endonym is "Ho-Chunk".

Language revitalization

Although the language is highly endangered, there are currently vigorous efforts underway to keep it alive in Ho-Chunk communities. In Wisconsin, the Hocąk Waziija Haci Language Division runs several language classes, an immersion daycare, and a language apprentice program. Some schools teach the language, or have elements of the language in cultural education. In Nebraska, the Ho-Chunk Renaissance program teaches the language in local and reservation schools. Both tribal governments recognize the importance of technology in language learning, and are active in Facebook and YouTube to reach the younger generation of learners. A "Ho-Chunk (Hoocąk) Native American Language app" is available for iPhone, iPad, and other iOS devices. Language is a crucial aspect of Ho-Chunk culture:

<blockquote>"Within a lot of Native American cultures, language and culture go together," Lewis St. Cyr, language program director for the Ho-Chunk, said. "You can't have culture without language and you can't have language without culture. The importance of it is of who we are."

</blockquote>

Phonology

Phonemic inventory

Vowels

Ho-Chunk's vowel sounds are distinguished by nasality and length. That is to say, the use of a nasal vowel or a long vowel affects a word's meaning. This is evident in examples such as compared to , and compared to . All of Ho-Chunk's vowels show a length distinction, but only have nasal counterparts.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" | Front

! colspan="2" | Central

! colspan="2" | Back

|-

! <small>oral</small> || <small>nasal</small>

! <small>oral</small> || <small>nasal</small>

! <small>oral</small> || <small>nasal</small>

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! High

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! Mid

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! Low

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|}

Consonants

Ho-Chunk's consonants are listed in the following table:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Alveolar

! Postalveolar

! Palatal

! Velar

! Glottal

|-

! colspan="2" | Nasal

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! rowspan="3" | Plosive/<br/>Affricate

!

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!

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!

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! rowspan="3" | Fricative

!

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!

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!

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! colspan="2" | Trill

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! colspan="2" | Approximant

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| ()

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|}

Typical of Mississippi Valley Siouan languages, Ho-Chunk has aspirated and phonemes but no aspirated .

Nasalization patterns

In Ho-Chunk, vowels always occur as nasalized when they follow nasal consonants . Nasality spreads to an adjacent vowel if that vowel is nasalizable as well.

  • pVnV
  • pVrV
  • kVnV
  • kVrV
  • kVwV
  • sVnV
  • sVrV
  • sVwV
  • šVnV
  • šVrV
  • šVwV
  • cVwV
  • xVnV
  • xVrV
  • xVwV

Multiple sources advocate that Dorsey's law is a synchronic process in the language because of the way that other processes like stress assignment and the morphological process of reduplication are affected by it.

Dorsey's law can apply within a single morpheme, as in /pra/ becoming [para] in the word paras '(be) wide, flat', or across morpheme boundaries, as in /šra/ becoming [šara] in the word šaraše 'you go there', where š is the second person pronominal prefixing to the verb rahe 'to be going there'.

Metrical structure

Ho-Chunk is a mora counting, but syllable accenting language. The stress placement of words spoken in isolation is extremely regular. Single-syllable words always have a long vowel (two moras), and stress falls on the first mora (e.g. áa 'arm'). Two-syllable words have two moras, and primary stress falls on the second mora (e.g. wajé 'dress'). In words longer than two syllables, primary stress most often falls on the third syllable, with secondary stress on each even numbered vowel after the point of primary stress (e.g. waǧįǧį́ 'ball', or hocįcį́k 'boy'). A few rare examples of words with primary stress not on the third syllable include booráxux 'you break something into pieces' and gikąnąhé 'to invite somebody'. These and other exceptions are a result of syllable weight affecting stress location.

Orthography comparison

Source:

Person prefixes

Ho-Chunk verbs are inflected with eight pronominal categories marked for person and clusivity. while others recognize a ninth nąą- 'by internal force' (phonologically identical to nąą- 'by foot'). These prefixes are listed first with their English translation, then paired with a stem wax 'to break, cut or sever a string-like object':

{| class="wikitable"

|+Instrumental prefixes

!

!Instrumental prefix

!English translation

|-

! rowspan="4" |Inner

|gi-

|'by striking'

|-

|ra-

|'with the mouth, with the teeth'

|-

|ru-

|'by hand'

|-

|wa-

|'by pressure, by pushing'

|-

! rowspan="5" |Outer

|boo-

|'by shooting, by blowing, by force'

|-

|mąą-

|'by cutting'

|-

|nąą(1)-

|'by foot'

|-

|nąą(2)-

|'by internal force'

|-

|taa-

|'by extreme temperature'

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Instrumental prefixes paired with stem wax

!Ho-Chunk verb

!English translation

|-

|giwax

|'break string in two by striking'

|-

|rawax

|'bite string in two'

|-

|ruwax

|'break string in two by pulling'

|-

|wawax

|'break string by downward pressure'

|-

|boowax

|'shoot string in two'

|-

|mąąwax

|'cut string in two'

|-

|nąąwax

|'break string in two by foot'

|-

|nąąwax

|'string breaks of own accord'

|-

|taawax

|'string is burned in two'

|}

The instrumental prefixes are identified as 'Inner' or 'Outer' due to their position relative to other prefixes attaching to the verb stem. Inner prefixes are closer to the verb stem, while outer prefixes are farther away on the left edge of the word. Instrumental prefixes are found in all Siouan languages, and it is theorized that outer instrumentals originated as nouns or nominalized stems.

Suffix field

Ho-Chunk's suffixes mark number, tense, mood, negation, and aspect.

Syntax

Basic word order

Like other Siouan languages, Ho-Chunk's basic word order is Subject–Object–Verb (SOV).An example of a typical sentence is 'The woman bought a car.' In a sentence with two objects, such as 'A girl gave a boy a pencil', the canonical word order is Subject-Indirect Object-Direct Object-Verb. Word order is relatively free in Ho-Chunk; however, while a word order such as 'The woman bought a car' is permissible, the change from the basic neutral word order of SOV requires a prosodic pause indicated by a comma. Without this pause, an interpretation 'A car bought the woman' is possible, though highly unlikely.

Negation

Negative phrases are expressed with a particle, such as hąąke 'not' or hąkaga 'never' paired with the suffix/enclitic -nį 'not'. Both elements are required in such phrases: the particle precedes the verb phrase, while -nį is suffixed to the verb. The following examples demonstrate this construction: