The Ho-Chunk language (Hoocąk, Hocąk), also known as Winnebago, is the traditional language of the Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) nation 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. "Winnebago" is an exonym, an Anglicization of the Sauk and Fox word Oinepegi. The anglicized form of the endonym is "Ho-Chunk". Phonology Phonemic inventory 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 pąą /pãː/ 'bag' compared to paa /paː/ 'nose', and waruc /ˈwaɾutʃ/ 'to eat' compared to waaruc /ˈwaːɾutʃ/ table.' All of Ho-Chunk's vowels show a length distinction, but only /i a u/ have nasal counterparts. Ho-Chunk's consonants are listed in the following table: Typical of Mississippi Valley Siouan languages, Ho-Chunk has aspirated /p/ and /k/ phonemes but no aspirated /t/. Nasalization patterns In Ho-Chunk, vowels /i a u/ always occur as nasalized when they follow nasal consonants /m n/. Nasality spreads to an adjacent vowel if that vowel is nasalizable as well. Nasality spreads across syllable or word boundaries and can move across consonants /h/ and /w/, but is blocked by all other consonants. Examples include nąįžą /nãĩʒã/ 'a tree' and ha'ųwį /haʔũwĩ/ 'we (exclusive) do': Another frequently occurring nasalization pattern is /r/ to [n] alternation: /r/ is pronounced as [n] when it immediately follows a nasal vowel. That is shown in the definite marker /ra/ on the verb 'have' -nį- , which occurs as [nã] in the sentence 'My knife is dull' below: Dorsey's Law (Vowel copying rule) There is a notable sound law in Ho-Chunk called Dorsey's Law[9] which dictates the following: /ORS/ → [OSRS] where O is a voiceless obstruent, R is a resonant, and S a syllabic sound. In other words, if there is an underlying voiceless obstruent (in Ho-Chunk, /p/, /c/, /k/, /s/, /š/, and /x/) followed by resonant (/r/, /n/, or /w/), the vowel following the resonant is copied into the proceeding consonant cluster. All Dorsey's Law sequences attested in the language are listed below, with V representing the copied vowel: 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