Editing Osage language (section)

====Basic vowels====
Osage has five plain [[vowel]]s:

{|class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |[[Front vowel|Front]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Central vowel|Central]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[Unrounded vowel|<small>Unrounded</small>]]!![[Rounded vowel|<small>Rounded</small>]]
|- align="center"
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|{{IPA link|i}} || colspan="2" |{{IPA link|y}} ~ {{IPA link|ʉ}}||
|- align="center"
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| colspan="2" |{{IPA link|ɛ}}|| ||{{IPA link|o}}
|- align="center"
![[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan="2" | || colspan="2" |{{IPA link|ə}} ~ {{IPA link|ɑ}}
|}
These are written {{angle bracket|i u e o a}}. 

{{IPA|/u/}} varies between central and front, {{IPA|[ʉ ~ y]}}, and frequently unrounds to {{IPA|/i/}}. It is especially far front {{IPA|[y]}} following a velar obstruent and when it is near a front vowel with no intervening obstruent. It most commonly conflates with {{IPA|/i/}} following ''ð'' and ''n''.

Usually in fast speech, unstressed /a/ is pronounced {{IPA|[ə]}}.<ref>Quintero, 2009, p.xv</ref> This occurs after a stressed syllable, or at the end of a word. For example: {{IPA|céska [tsɛ́skə]}} 'cow', {{IPA|tóa [tóə]}} 'this one'.