Blackfoot language

Blackfoot has eighteen consonants, of which all but /ʔ/, /x/, /j/ and /w/ form pairs distinguished by length.[13][14]

Blackfoot has a vowel system with three monophthongs, /i o a/.[13][14][15]

The short monophthongs exhibit allophonic changes as well. The vowels /a/ and /o/ are raised to [ʌ] and [ʊ] respectively when followed by a long consonant. The vowel /i/ becomes [ɪ] in closed syllables.[15]

There are three additional diphthongs in Blackfoot. The first diphthong ai is pronounced [ɛ] before a long consonant, [ei] (or [ai], in the dialect of the Blackfoot Reserve) before /i/ or /ʔ/, and elsewhere is pronounced [æ] in the Blood Reserve dialect or [ei] in the Blackfoot Reserve dialect. The second diphthong ao is pronounced [au] before /ʔ/ and [ɔ] elsewhere. The third diphthong oi may be pronounced [y] before a long consonant and as /oi/ elsewhere.[16]

Length is contrastive in Blackfoot for both vowels and consonants. Vowel length refers to the duration of a vowel and not a change in quality. The vowel /oo/ is therefore the same sound as /o/ only differing in the length of time over which it is produced.[8]

áakokaawa			'he will rope'
áakookaawa			'she will sponsor a Sundance'

Consonants can also be lengthened with the exception of /ʔ/, /x/, /j/ and /w/.

kiipíppo			'one hundred'
nínna			'my father'
soká'pssiwa			'he is good'

Blackfoot is a pitch accent language and it is a contrastive feature in the language. Every word will have at least one high pitched vowel or diphthong but may have more than one. Note that high pitch here is used relative to the contiguous syllables. Blackfoot utterances experience a gradual drop in pitch therefore if an utterance contains a set of accented vowels the first will be higher in pitch than the second but the second will be higher in pitch than the syllables directly surrounding it. Pitch is illustrated in the Latin-based orthography with an acute accent.[8]

ápssiwa			'it's an arrow'
apssíwa			'it's a fig'
máátaissikópiiwa			's/he's not resting'

Blackfoot is rich with morpho-phonological changes. Below is a limited sample of phonological rules.

Glides are deleted after another consonant, except a glottal stop, or word initially but kept in other conditions.[17]

	/w/ loss
poos-wa	→	póósa
cat-AN.SG		'cat'
	/y/ loss
óóhkotok-yi	→	óóhkotoki
stone-IN.SG		'stone'
	word initial
w-óko'si	→	óko'si
3.SG.POSS-child		'his/her child'

Accent will spread from an accented vowel to the following vowel across morpheme boundaries.[18]

á-okska'siwa	→	áókska'siwa			's/he runs'
atsikí-istsi	→	atsikíístsi			'shoes'

At the end of a word, non-high pitched vowels are devoiced, regardless of length.[19]

Lexical categories in Blackfoot are a matter of debate in the literature, with the exception of nouns and verbs. Additional proposed categories, proposed by Uhlenbeck, are adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, and particles.[20] Taylor classifies the Blackfoot language as having two major classes, substantives (nouns and pronouns) and verbs, with one minor class consisting of particles.[21] Frantz classifies adjectives and adverbs as affixes but not independent classes.[22]

Agreement morphology is extensive in Blackfoot and agreement morphemes are often fusional, i.e. animacy and number (nouns) or person and number (verbs) are indicated within the same affix.

All nouns are required to be inflected for animacy and are classified as either animate or inanimate. Verbs are inflected to match the animacy of its arguments. Animacy in Blackfoot is a grammatical construct for noun classification. Therefore, some semantically inherently inanimate objects, such as drums and knives are grammatically animate.[23]

Verbs are marked with a transitivity marker which must agree with the animacy of its arguments. Even in stories in which grammatically inanimate objects are markedly anthropomorphized, such as talking flowers, speakers will not use animate agreement markers with them.

All nouns are required to be inflected as either singular or plural. Verbal inflection matches the number of its arguments.[23]

Blackfoot has five grammatical persons – first, second, third (proximate), fourth (obviative), and fifth (sub-obviative).[24]

Word order is flexible in Blackfoot. Subjects are not required to precede the verb.[25] Independent noun phrases may be included but these are typically dropped in Blackfoot. Due to the extensive person inflection on the verb they are not necessary for interpreting the meaning of the utterance. However, if first or second person pronouns are present it yields an emphatic reading.[26] There is an ordering restriction if the Distinct Third Person (DTP) attached pronoun /-aawa/ is used in which the subject independent noun phrase must occur before the verb. If the independent noun phrase occurs after the verb then the DTP may not be used.[27]

Blackfoot nouns must be grammatically particular in order to be a subject of a verb.[26] In transitive constructions the subject must be volitional to be interpreted as subject.[28]

It has been asserted that Blackfoot, along with other Algonquian languages violates the Universal Person Hierarchy in verb complexes by ranking second person over first person. The hierarchy has traditionally been published as 2nd person > 1st person > 3rd person (proximate) > 4th person (obviative).[29] However, alternative analyses of Blackfoot person hierarchy have been published that suggest the Universal Person Hierarchy is applicable to Blackfoot.[30]

The Blackfoot verbal template contains a stem with several prefixes and suffixes. The structure of the verb stem in Blackfoot can be roughly broken down into the pre-verb, the root, the medial, and the final. The root and final are required elements.

Generally, information encoded in the pre-verb can include adverbs, most pronouns, locatives, manners, aspect, mood, and tense. Incorporated objects appear in the medial. The final includes transitivity and animacy markers, and valency markers.

Noun classes are split based on grammatical gender into two categories: animate and inanimate.[31] Additionally, all nouns must be marked for number. Number agreement suffixes attach to noun stems and take four forms, as shown in the table below.[23]

Inanimate			Animate
Singular	Plural		Singular	Plural
-yi	-istsi		-wa	-iksi

í'ksisako (inanimate stem)					'meat'
í'ksisako-yi	→	í'ksisakoyi			'meat'
í'ksisako-istsi	→	í'ksisakoistsi			''meats'

When a sentence contains two or more particular animate gender nouns as arguments proximate (major third person/3rd) and obviative (minor third person/4th) markings are used to disambiguate. There may only be one proximate argument in any given sentence but multiple obviates are permissible. Proximate arguments are more prominent in discourse. Redirectional markers, referred to as inverse and direct theme in the literature, can be applied to indicate that the fourth person is the subject argument.[32]

Blackfoot nouns must be grammatically particular, according to Frantz (2009), in order to be a subject of a verb. To be the subject of any verb in Blackfoot the noun must point to a specific referent in the world. In transitive constructions the subject must also be volitional to be interpreted as subject. If the subject of a transitive verb is non-specific or non-volitional then the verb must be inflected as having an unspecified subject.[33]

Oma	isttoána	iihtsíkahksinii'pi	annistsi	ikkstsíksiistsi.
om-wa	isttoan-wa	iiht-íkahksinii-'p-yi	ann-istsi	ikkstsíksi-istsi
that-AN.SG	knife-AN.SG	means-cut.off-UNSPEC.SUB-IN.PL	that-IN.PL	branch-IN.PL
`The knife cut off those branches.'
`By means of the knife, the branches were cut off.'

There are four verb categories in Blackfoot: intransitive inanimate, intransitive animate, transitive inanimate, and transitive animate. The parameters of transitivity and animacy for verb selection are typically referred to as stem agreement in order to delineate it from person agreement. The animacy for intransitive verbs is determined by the subject of the verb whereas the transitive verbs are defined by the animacy of their primary object.[34]

The only required component of a clause in Blackfoot is the verb, referred to as a verbal complex in the Algonquian literature, that must be appropriately inflected according to the standard template:

preverb – root – medial – final

Preverbs are prefixes which encode adverbs, most pronouns, locatives, manners, aspect, mood, and tense. Medials are suffixes which primarily encode manner and incorporated objects. Finals are suffixes which encode transitivity, animacy, and valency. Roots and finals are always required in a verbal complex whereas preverb and medials are not.[35]

When there are two animate arguments acting in a transitive animate verb stem one of the arguments must be acting on the other. Which argument is the actor (subject) and which is the acted upon (object) is indicated by the use of direct or inverse theme marking. If a subject argument is higher than the object argument on the person hierarchy then the direct suffix is used. Conversely, when an object outranks the sentences subject then the inverse suffix is used.[36]

Direct
Nitsikákomimmayi	nitániksi.
nit-ikákomimm-aa-yi	ni-táni-iksi
1.SG-love-DIR-3.PL	1.POSS-daughter-AN.PL
'I love my daughters.'

Inverse
Nitsikákomimmoki	nitániksi.
nit-ikákomimm-ok-yi	ni-táni-iksi
1.SG-love-INV-3.PL	1.POSS-daughter-AN.PL
'My daughters love me.'

Blackfoot voice alterations occur as suffixes on the verb and fall into the category of finals. Finals can include causative, benefactive, reciprocal, and reflexive affixes that either decrease or increase the valency of the stem they are attached too. Below is an example of the reflexive final suffix. It can only be added to a transitive animate stem and results in an animate intranstive stem. This is then interpreted as being a reflexive verb, where the subject of the AI (animate intransitive) stem is understood to be both the underlying subject and object of the original verb stem.[37]

oma	imitááwa	siiksípohsiwa
om-wa	imitáá-wa	siiksip-o:hsi-wa
that-AN.SG	dog-AN.SG	PST:bite(TA)-REFL(AI)-3.SG
‘That dog bit itself.’

Relative clauses are rare in Blackfoot but they do occur. In order to embed a clause, it needs to be nominalized first. The reclassification strategy for nominalization is displayed here followed by a relative clause that uses a nominal formed by this strategy. Reclassification is done by adding nominal inflection to the verb stem instead of person inflection. This derived form then refers to the underlying subject and agrees in both number and animacy.[38]

omiksi	áyo'kaiksi/
om-iksi	á-yo'kaa-iksi
that-AN.PL	DUR-sleep-AN.PL
'those sleeping ones'

Examples below show how a reclassified nominalized clause is used in a relative clause. Note the nominal agreement morphology on the verb matches the subject, singular and plural, respectively.

oma	nínaawa	áyo'kaawa	nóoma.
om-wa	ninaa-wa	á-yo'kaa-wa	n-oom-wa
that-AN.SG	man-AN.SG	DUR-sleep-AN.SG	1.POSS-husband-AN.SG
'That man who is sleeping is my husband.'

Omiksi	aakííkoaiksi	áínihkiiksi	áyaakahkayiyaawa.
om-iks	aakííkoaN-iksi	á-Inihki-iksi	áyaak-wa:hkayi-yi-aawa
that-AN.PL	girl-AN.PL	DUR-sing-AN.PL	FUT-go.home-3.PL-PRO
`Those girls who are singing are on their way home.'

The Siksiká, Kainai, and Aapátohsipikani reserves adopted a standardized roman-based orthography in 1975. The Blackfoot alphabet consists of 13 letters.[39]

Vowels can be marked with an acute accent or underlined to illustrate pitch accent. Vowels and consonants that are long are written with a double letter (aa = a:).[39]

A syllabics script, ᑯᖾᖹ ᖿᐟᖻ ᓱᖽᐧᖿ pikoni kayna siksika, was created by Anglican missionary John William Tims around 1888, for his Bible translation work. 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. The Latin orientation of the letters is used for the e series, after the names of the Latin letters, pe, te, etc.

The direction for each vowel is different from 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).

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

⟨᙮⟩ is used for a period.

Also sometimes it is written in Latin letters but with different spelling on computers because not all computers support the letters used in the Blackfoot language.

John Tims was an Anglican clergyman with the Church Missionary Society.He was at Blackfoot reserve from 1883 to 1895. Tims translated parts of the Bible into the Blackfoot. Selections from Matthew were published by the Church Missionary Society Mission Press in 1887. The Gospel of Matthew was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1890, and other portions of Scripture were published as Readings from the Holy Scriptures by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1890. He used both Roman script and a Canadian Aboriginal syllabics script. The Gospel of Mark was translated by Donald G. and Patricia Frantz, and published by Scriptures Unlimited, a joint venture of the New York Bible Society (later called Biblica) and the World Home Bible League (later called the Bible League) in 1972. The Gospel of John was Translated by Wycliffe Bible Translators and Blackfoot people and published by the Canadian Bible Society in 1979.

In 1987, Dorothy Still Smoking and Darrell Robes Kipp founded the Piegan Institute,[40] a private 501 c 3 non-profit foundation in Montana dedicated to researching, promoting, and preserving the Native American Languages, particularly the Blackfoot language. Piegan Institute founded Nizipuhwahsin (also Nizi Puh Wah Sin or Niitsípuwahsin or Cuts Wood) School in 1995 as a Blackfoot language K–8 immersion school. Since its inception the school has grown and relocated to the center of Browning, Montana in a custom built school house. Recently, some of the school's first graduates have returned to teach the newest generation the Blackfeet language.[41]

Blackfeet Community College (BCC), founded in 1974, is a two-year, nationally accredited college that was made possible by the Indian Education Act of 1972 and the 1964 Act enacted by the Office of Economic Opportunity. BCC is a member of both the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). It allows teenagers and adults alike to take classes in a wide range of subjects, from classes in Psychology and Digital Photography to classes on Blackfoot language and tradition. They have beginning Blackfoot language classes with labs for members and non-members of the community to learn the language.[42]

In order to create jobs for the Blackfoot people with real-world applications, the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council launched a company called Chief Mountain Technologies in 2009. This company gives tribal members the opportunity to work in the fields of computer science and business in Browning, Montana on behalf of various government organizations. The establishment of this company in the Blackfoot community allows the people to use their culture and their language in the modern world while maintaining their traditions.[43]

Radio station KBWG in Browning, Montana, broadcasts a one-hour show for Blackfoot language learners four times a week.[44] The Voice of Browning, Thunder Radio, FM 107.5, or "Ksistsikam ayikinaan" (literally "voice from nowhere") went live in 2010, and focuses on positive programming. In 2011, John Davis, a 21-year-old Blackfeet Community College student explained "I was the first Blackfeet to ever talk on this radio", Davis said. "This is my coup story." A story in the Great Falls Tribune noted, "When the station was replaying programming that originated elsewhere, the radio was all 'tear in my beer' and 'your cheatin' heart.' They called it the suicide station for its depressing old country themes ..." The station's offerings have now expanded beyond country to include AC/DC and Marvin Gaye, and "on-the-air jokes they would never hear on a Clear Channel radio station, such as: 'The captain is as cool as commodity cheese.'"[45]

"So far we have broadcasting Monday through Friday from around 6:30, Indian time", quipped station manager Lona Burns, "to around 11, Indian time." ... "It's Indian radio", agreed Running Crane. "Where else can you hear today's hits with traditional music?"[46]

The Canadian government has provided support for the languages through funds and other financial resources. According to James Moore, the former Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, "the Government of Canada is committed to the revitalization and preservation of Aboriginal languages." The funding was put to use in the form of digital libraries containing interviews with native speakers, online courses, and various other resources in the hopes of promoting Blackfoot language and passing it down to subsequent generations. On top of both of these government efforts, the Canadian Government has also provided over $40,000 through the Aboriginal Languages Initiative Fund to promote the use of Aboriginal languages in community and family settings.[47]