Blackfoot language

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Blackfoot
Siksiká (ᓱᖽᐧᖿ)
Spoken in: United States, Canada 
Region: Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana and Piikani, Siksika, and Kainai Reserves in southern Alberta
Total speakers: 5,100[1] /
5,000 to <8,000[2]
Language family: Algic
 Algonquian
  Plains Algonquian
   Blackfoot
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: bla
ISO 639-3: bla
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Blackfoot (also known as Siksika [ISO 639-3], Pikanii, Blackfeet) is the name of any of the Algonquian languages spoken by the Blackfoot tribe of Native Americans, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North America. Like the other Plains Algonquian languages, Blackfoot is often said to have diverged a great deal from Proto-Algonquian. It is significantly different both phonologically and, especially, lexically from the other languages in the family.[3]

Like the other Algonquian languages, Blackfoot is typologically polysynthetic. Whorf hypothesized that it was oligosynthetic, but mainstream linguistics has rejected this.

Contents

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

Blackfoot has ten consonants, of which all but /ʔ/ and /x/ can be phonemically long:[4][5]

Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Stop p pː t tː k kː ʔ
Fricative s sː x
Nasal m mː n nː
Semivowel w j

Blackfoot also has two affricates, /ts͡/, /ts͡ː/. The velar consonants become palatals [ç] and [c] when preceded by front vowels.

[edit] Vowels

Blackfoot has a vowel system with three monophthongs, /i o a/. Length is distinctive (áakokaawa, "s/he will rope" vs. áakookaawa, "s/he will sponsor a sundance"):[6][4][5]

Front Central Back
Close i iː
Close-Mid o oː
Open a aː

There are three additional vowels, called "diphthongs" in Frantz (1997). The first is pronounced [ɛ] before a long consonant, [ei] (or [ai], in the dialect of the Blackfoot Reserve) before /i/ or /ʔ/, and [æ] elsewhere (in the Blood Reserve dialect; [ei] in the Blackfoot Reserve dialect).[7] The second is pronounced [au] before /ʔ/ and [ɔ] elsewhere. The third is /oi/.[8] The short monophthongs exhibit allophonic changes as well. /a/ and /o/ are raised to [ʌ] and [ʊ] respectively when followed by a long consonant, /i/ becomes [ɪ] in closed syllables.[6]

Blackfoot has a pitch accent system, meaning that every word has at least one high-pitched vowel, and high pitch is contrastive with non-high pitch (e.g., ápssiwa, "it's an arrow" vs. apssíwa, "it's a fig").[9] At the end of a word, non-high pitched vowels are devoiced.[5][10]

[edit] Writing System

Main article: Canadian Aboriginal syllabics

A script for Blackfoot was created by John William Tims in the 19th century. The script uses a symbol for each consonant+vowel combination. There is only one symbol for each consonant, but it is rotated to face different directions to indicate the vowel which goes with it. The consonant symbols appear to be loosely based on the Latin alphabet, only made less symmetrical. Symbols for consonants without any vowels are based on the consonant symbol minus the stem.

[edit] Unicode table for Blackfoot

Syllabics Unicode Blackfoot
= 003D -w-
ᐟ 141F +i
ᐠ 1420 +u(o)
ᐡ 1421 N
ᐢ 1422 M
ᐤ 1424 P
ᐦ 1426 KH
ᐧ 1427 -s-
ᐨ 1428 T
ᑉ 1449 -y-
ᑊ 144A H
ᑫ 146B Pa
ᑭ 146D Pe
ᑯ 146F Pi
ᑲ 1472 Po
ᒉ 1489 Ma
ᒋ 148B Me
ᒍ 148D Mi
ᒐ 1490 Mo
ᒣ 14A3 Ta
ᒥ 14A5 Te
ᒧ 14A7 Ti
ᒪ 14AA To
ᓭ 14ED Sa
ᓯ 14EF Se
ᓱ 14F1 Si
ᓴ 14F4 So
ᔈ 1508 S
ᔦ 1526 Ya
ᔨ 1528 Ye
ᔪ 152A Yi
ᔭ 152D Yo
ᖰ 15B0 E
ᖱ 15B1 I
ᖲ 15B2 O
ᖳ 15B3 A
ᖴ 15B4 We
ᖵ 15B5 Wi
ᖶ 15B6 Wo
ᖷ 15B7 Wa
ᖸ 15B8 Ne
ᖹ 15B9 Ni
ᖺ 15BA No
ᖻ 15BB Na
ᖼ 15BC Ke
ᖽ 15BD Ki
ᖾ 15BE Ko
ᖿ 15BF Ka
ᘁ 1601 K

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Ethnologue's estimate
  2. ^ Martin Heavyhead and Don Frantz' estimate
  3. ^ Mithun (1999:335)
  4. ^ a b Blackfoot Pronunciation and Spelling Guide. Native-Languages.org. Retrieved 2007-04-10
  5. ^ a b c Frantz, Don. The Sounds of Blackfoot. Retrieved 2007-04-11
  6. ^ a b Frantz (1997:1-2)
  7. ^ Frantz (1997:2)
  8. ^ Frantz (1997:2-3)
  9. ^ Frantz (1997:3)
  10. ^ Frantz (1997:5)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

v • d • e
Blackfoot Confederacy