Tsuutʼina language
Athabaskan language of Alberta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tsuutʼina, (endonym: Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà)[3] formerly known as Sarcee or Sarsi,[4]: 2 [5] is an Athabaskan language spoken by the people of the Tsuutʼina Nation, whose reserve and community is near Calgary, Alberta. It is related to other Athabaskan languages, such as Navajo and Chiricahua to the south, and Dene Suline and Tłı̨chǫ to the north.
| People | Tsúùtʼínà |
|---|---|
| Language | Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà |
| Country | Tsúùtʼínà Nìsk’ā Nitawahsin'nanni (ᖹᒣᖷᑊᓱᐡ ᖻᐡᖹ) |
Nomenclature
Language revitalization
Tsuutʼina is a critically endangered language, with only 150 speakers, 80 of whom speak it as their mother tongue, according to the 2016 Canadian census.[2] The Tsuutʼina Nation has created the Tsuutʼina Gunaha Institute with the intention of creating new fluent speakers. This includes full K–4 immersion education at schools on the Nation[7] and placing stop signs in the Tsuutʼina language at intersections in the Tsuutʼina Nation.[8]
Phonology
Consonants
The consonants of Tsuutʼina are listed below, with symbols from the standard orthography in brackets:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | rounded | |||||
| Stop | plain | p ⟨b⟩[a] | t ⟨d⟩ | ts ⟨dz⟩ | tɬ ⟨dl⟩ | tʃ ⟨j⟩ | k ⟨g⟩ | kʷ ⟨gw⟩[b] | ʔ ⟨ʔ⟩ |
| aspirated | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | tsʰ ⟨ts⟩ | tɬʰ ⟨tł⟩ | tʃʰ ⟨ch⟩ | kʰ ⟨k⟩ | kʷʰ ⟨kw⟩[b] | |||
| ejective | tʼ ⟨tʼ⟩ | tsʼ ⟨tsʼ⟩ | tɬʼ ⟨tłʼ⟩ | tʃʼ ⟨chʼ⟩ | kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩ | kʷʼ ⟨kwʼ⟩ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | s ⟨s⟩ | ɬ ⟨ł⟩ | ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | x ⟨x⟩ | h ⟨h⟩ | |||
| voiced | z ⟨z⟩ | ʒ ⟨zh⟩ | ɣ ⟨gh⟩ | ||||||
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | |||||||
| Approximant | l ⟨l⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | w ⟨w⟩ | ||||||
Vowels
There are four phonemically distinct vowel qualities in Tsuutʼina: /i a ɒ u/, represented as ⟨i a o u⟩. While /a/ and /ɒ/ are fairly constant, /i u/ can vary considerably.
Vowels are also distinguished by length and tone, similar to other Athabaskan languages, so that Tsuutʼina, taking the total number of vowel phonemes to 24 (i.e. / ī í ì īː íː ìː ā á à āː áː àː ɒ̄ ɒ́ ɒ̀ ū ú ù ūː úː ùː ɒ̄ː ɒ́ː ɒ̀ː /).
- long vowels are written doubled, e.g., aa [aː]
- high tone is marked with an acute accent, e.g., á
- low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g., à
- mid tone is marked with a macron, e.g., ā
Nouns
Nouns in Tsuutʼina are not declined, and most plural nouns are not distinguished from singular nouns. However, kinship terms are distinguished between singular and plural form by adding the suffix -ká (or -kúwá) to the end of the noun or by using the word yìná.
List of nouns
People
- husband - kòlà
- man, human - dìná
- wife - tsʼòyá
- woman - tsʼìkā
- grandmother - is’su
- grandfather - is’sa
- mother - in’na
- father - it’ta
Nature
- Buffalo, cow - xāní
- Cloud - nàkʼús
- Dog - tłí(chʼà)
- Fire - kù
- Mud, dirt - gútłʼìs
- Snow - zòs
- Water - tú
Words and phrases
- my name is (..) - sizi
Noun possession
Nouns can exist in free form or possessed form. When in possessed form, the prefixes listed below can be attached to nouns to show possession. For example, más, "knife", can be affixed with the 1st person prefix to become sìmázàʼ or "my knife". Note that -mázàʼ is the possessed form of the noun.
Some nouns, like más, as shown above, can alternate between free form and possessed form. A few nouns, like zòs, "snow", are never possessed and exist only in free form. Other nouns, such as -tsìʼ, "head", have no free form and must always be possessed.
Typical possession prefixes
- 1st person - si-
- 2nd person - ni-
- 3rd person - mi-
- 4th person (Athabaskan) - ɣi-