Blackfoot language

Blackfoot
Siksiká (ᓱᖽᐧᖿ)
Spoken in United States, Canada
Region Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana and Piikani, Siksika, and Kainai Reserves in southern Alberta
Ethnicity See Blackfoot Confederacy
Native speakers 5,100[1] /
5,000 to <8,000[2]  (date missing)
Language family
Algic
Language codes
ISO 639-2 bla
ISO 639-3 bla
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Blackfoot, also known as Siksika (so called in ISO 639-3), Pikanii, and Blackfeet, is the Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot tribes of Native Americans, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North America. There are four dialects of Blackfoot, three of which are spoken in Alberta, Canada and one of which is spoken in the United States: Siksiká (Blackfoot), to the southeast of Calgary, AB; Kainai (Blood), spoken in Alberta between Cardston and Lethbridge; Aapátohsipikani (Northern Peigan), to the west of Fort MacLeod; and Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Peigan), in northwestern Montana.[3]

There is a distinct difference between Old Blackfoot (also called High Blackfoot), the dialect spoken by many older speakers; and New Blackfoot (also called Modern Blackfoot), the dialect spoken by younger speakers.[4] Among fellow members of the Algonquian languages, it is relatively divergent in phonology and lexicon.[5]

Like the other Algonquian languages, Blackfoot is typologically polysynthetic.

Contents

Sounds

Consonants

Blackfoot has ten consonants, of which all but /ʔ/ and /x/ can be phonemically long:[6][7]

Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive p pː t tː k kː ʔ
Fricative s sː x
Affricate t͡s t͡sː
Nasal m mː n nː
Approximant w j

The velar consonants become palatals [ç] and [c] when preceded by front vowels.

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][7][8]

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).[9] The second is pronounced [au] before /ʔ/ and [ɔ] elsewhere. The third is /oi/.[10] 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.[8]

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").[11] At the end of a word, non-high pitched vowels are devoiced.[7][12]

Writing system

A syllabics script, ᑯᖾᖹ ᖿᐟᖻ ᓱᖽᐧᖿ pikoni kayna siksika, was created by Anglican missionary John William Tims around 1888. Although conceptually nearly identical to Western Cree syllabics, the letter forms are innovative. Two series (s, y) were taken from Cree but given different vowel values; three more (p, t, m) were changed in consonant values as well, according to the Latin letter they resembled; and the others (k, n, w) were created from asymmetrical parts of Latin and Greek letters; or in the case of the zero consonant, possibly from the musical notation for quarter note.

Blackfoot Latin source
ᑭ pe P
ᒥ te T
ᖼ ke K
ᒋ me m
ᖸ ne N
ᖴ we digamma Ϝ

The direction for each vowel is different than in Cree, reflecting Latin alphabetic order. The e orientation is used for the diphthong /ai/. Symbols for consonants are taken from the consonant symbol minus the stem, except for diphthongs (Ca plus ᐠ for /Cau/, and Ca plus ᐟ for /Coi/, though there are also cases of writing subphonemic [ai, ei, eu] with these finals).

C -a -e -i -o final
(none) ᖳ ᖰ ᖱ ᖲ
 p- ᑫ ᑭ ᑯ ᑲ ᐤ
 t- ᒣ ᒥ ᒧ ᒪ ᐨ
 k- ᖿ ᖼ ᖽ ᖾ ᘁ
 m- ᒉ ᒋ ᒍ ᒐ ᐢ
 n- ᖻ ᖸ ᖹ ᖺ ᐡ
 s- ᓭ ᓯ ᓱ ᓴ ᔈ
 y- ᔦ ᔨ ᔪ ᔭ ᐟ
 w- ᖷ ᖴ ᖵ ᖶ ᐠ

There are additional finals: allophones ᑊ [h] and ᐦ [x], and three medials: ᖿᐧ /ksa/, ᒣᐧ /tsa/, ᖿᑉ /kya/, ᖿ= /kwa/.

᙮ is used for a period.

Notes

  1. ^ Ethnologue's estimate
  2. ^ Martin Heavyhead and Don Frantz' estimate
  3. ^ Don Frantz' Blackfoot page
  4. ^ Bortolin & McLellan (1995)
  5. ^ Mithun (1999:335)
  6. ^ a b "Blackfoot Pronunciation and Spelling Guide". Native-Languages.org. Retrieved 2007-04-10
  7. ^ a b c Frantz, Don. The Sounds of Blackfoot. Retrieved 2007-04-11
  8. ^ a b Frantz (1997:1-2)
  9. ^ Frantz (1997:2)
  10. ^ Frantz (1997:2-3)
  11. ^ Frantz (1997:3)
  12. ^ Frantz (1997:5)

References

External links

Bibliography

External links


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Blackfoot mythology · Blackfoot music · Blackfoot language