Blackfoot language
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Blackfoot 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 Algonquian languages, Blackfoot is typologically polysynthetic. Whorf hypothesized that it was oligosynthetic, but mainstream linguistics has rejected this.
Of all the Algonquian languages, Blackfoot is often said to have diverged most drastically from Proto-Algonquian. It is significantly different both phonologically and, especially, grammatically from the other languages in the family.
Sounds
Consonants
| 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, /t͡s/, /t͡sː/. The velar consonants become palatals [ç] and [c] when preceded by front vowels.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | iː | ||||
| Close-Mid | o | oː | ||||
| Open-Mid | ɔ | ɔː | ||||
| Open | æ | æː | a | aː | ||
Some allophonic changes among the vowels: /a/ is raised to [a̝] when followed by a long consonant, /i/ becomes [ɪ] in closed syllables, /æ/ becomes [e] when followed by /ʔ/ and [ɛ] in closed syllables, and /o/ becomes [ʊ] when followed by a long consonant. Blackfoot is pitch accent based, meaning every word has at least one high-pitched vowel, and high pitch is contrastive with non-high pitch. At the end of a word, non-high pitched vowels are devoiced.
Writing System
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 symetrical. Symbols for consonants without any vowels are based on the consonant symbol minus the stem.
Many of the symbols are shared with the Cree language, but were given completely different pronunciations for Blackfoot. In particular the order of all the vowels was swapped around.
If you want to view this alphabet you will need to download a font such as [Sans Serif], which you can get from this site: [LanguageGeek.com font downloads]. After you have installed the font, the table below should display correctly (as should all Wikipedia native American language pages).
In addition to the original Blackfoot script (shown below), sometimes Blackfoot is (confusingly) written in a version of the Cree script. Blackfoot is also often written in Latin.
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 |
External links
- [Ethnologue report for Blackfoot]
- [Blackfoot - English Dictionary]: from [Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition.
- [Blackfoot language]
- [Don Frantz's page on the Blackfoot language]
- [Language & Culture Discussion Forum - Blackfoot Country Dot Com]
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