 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2014) |
| Ofo | |
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Mississippi |
| Ethnicity | Ofo people |
| Extinct | early 20th century |
Siouan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ofo |
| Glottolog | ofoo1242 |
 Distribution of 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.
In the 18th century, the Mosopelea were known under the names Oufé and Offogoula.[1] 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.[2]
- ^ Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, p. 109.
- ^ Swanton, John Reed (1909). A new Siouan dialect. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press. p. 483.