Tsuutʼina language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tsuutʼina
Sarcee
Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà[1]
Native toCanada
RegionAlberta
EthnicityTsuutʼina
Native speakers
80 (2016 census)[2]
Dené–Yeniseian ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3srs
Glottologsars1236
ELPTsuut'ina
Tsuut'ina is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
PeopleTsúùtʼínà
LanguageTsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà
CountryTsúùtʼínà Nìsk’ā
     Nitawahsin'nanni (ᖹᒣᖷᑊᓱᐡ ᖻᐡᖹ)

The Tsuutʼina language, or Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà

Dene Suline and Tłı̨chǫ
of the north.

Nomenclature

The name Tsuutʼina comes from the Tsuutʼina self designation Tsúùtʼínà, meaning "many people", "nation tribe", or "people among the beavers".

Siksiká
.

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:

Consonants[6]
Bilabial Alveolar Post-
alveolar 		Velar Glottal
plain sibilant lateral plain rounded
Stop
 plain p ⟨b⟩[a]
t
 ⟨d⟩ 		ts ⟨dz⟩ tɬ ⟨dl⟩ tʃ ⟨dj⟩ k ⟨g⟩ kʷ ⟨gw⟩[b] ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
aspirated tʰ ⟨t⟩ tsʰ ⟨ts⟩ tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩ tʃʰ ⟨tc⟩ kʰ ⟨k⟩ kʷʰ ⟨kw⟩[b]
ejective
tʼ
 ⟨tʼ⟩ 		tsʼ ⟨tsʼ⟩ tɬʼ ⟨tlʼ⟩ tʃʼ ⟨tcʼ⟩ kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩ kʷʼ ⟨kwʼ⟩
Fricative voiceless s ⟨s⟩
ɬ
 ⟨ł⟩ 		ʃ ⟨c⟩ x ⟨x⟩ h ⟨h⟩
voiced z ⟨z⟩ ʒ ⟨j⟩ ɣ ⟨γ⟩
Nasal m ⟨m⟩
n
 ⟨n⟩
Approximant
l
 ⟨l⟩ 		j ⟨y⟩ w ⟨w⟩
  1. ^ /p/ is only found in mimetic buꞏ 'to buzz' and borrowed buꞏs 'cat'.
  2. ^ a b The phonemic status of [kʷ] and [kʷʰ] is questionable; they might be /ku, kʰu/ before another vowel. /kʷʼ/ is quite rare but clearly phonemic.

Vowels

There are four phonemically distinct vowel qualities in Tsuutʼina: /i a ɒ u/, represented〈i a o u〉. While /a/ and /ɒ/ are fairly constant, /i u/ can vary considerably.

Front Back
Close i ~ e ⟨i⟩ u ~ o ⟨u⟩
Open a ⟨a⟩ ɒ ⟨o⟩

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 marked with an asterisk, e.g., a* [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

A bilingual stop sign seen at a commercial centre

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 (Athabascan) - ɣi-

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ "Dānít'ádā ~ 'How are you?' - A Warm Welcome from Tsuut'ina Nation". TC Energy. Tsuut'ina Nation. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Census Profile, 2016 Census: Knowledge of languages". Statistics Canada. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Tsuutʼina Gunaha Institute". Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  4. doi:10.1121/1.4800661
    . Retrieved 2018-07-29. This study is part of the documentation and conservation of Tsuut'ina (formerly Sarcee, Sarsi; ISO 639-3: srs), a northern Dene (Athabascan) language, by a collaboration of academic and Tsuut'ina community members.
  5. ^ Cox, Christopher (2013). Structuring stories: personal and traditional narrative styles in Tsuut'ina (PDF). Athabaskan Languages Conference 2011. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-07-27. This study investigates associations between particular lexical-grammatical features of Tsuut'ina (formerly Sarcee, Sarsi; ISO 639-3: srs) and the narrative contexts in which they are attested.
  6. ^ a b Cook (1984: 7 ff)
  7. ^ "New high school for Tsuutʼina Nation will have strong focus on culture and curriculum | CBC News".
  8. ^ Tsuut’ina Nation displaying Indigenous language stop signs

External links

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