Crow language facts for kids

The Crow language (its native name is Apsáalooke) is spoken mainly by the Crow Nation people. They live in southeastern Montana in the United States. The name Apsáalooke means "children of the raven."

Crow is one of the larger Native American languages. In 1990, about 2,480 people spoke it.

Crow Language: A Closer Look

How Crow is Related to Other Languages

The Crow language is very similar to Hidatsa. The Hidatsa tribe lives in the Dakotas. Crow and Hidatsa are the only two languages in the Missouri Valley Siouan family. Even though they are similar, people who speak Crow cannot understand Hidatsa, and vice versa.

Scientists believe that Crow and Hidatsa split apart between 300 and 800 years ago. They share many sounds and ways of forming words.

Is the Crow Language in Danger?

In 2012, UNESCO said the Crow language was "definitely endangered." This means it was at risk of disappearing. At that time, most Crow people preferred to speak English.

However, things are changing! A book about Crow grammar from 2007 said the language was still strong. It noted that fluent speakers of all ages existed. Some children were even learning Crow as their first language. Many younger people who do not speak Crow can still understand it. Most Crow speakers also speak English very well.

The Crow Reservation community has helped keep the language alive. Even though people have had contact with non-Native Americans for over a hundred years, traditional culture has helped. Religious ceremonies and the old clan system have preserved the language.

Efforts to Keep Crow Alive

Today, most Crow speakers are 30 years old or older. But more young people are learning it. There are growing efforts for children to learn Crow as their first language. Many children on the Crow Reservation in Montana are doing this.

In 2012, a special school called a "Crow language immersion school" opened. In this school, children learn everything in Crow. A dictionary for the Crow language has also been created. Parts of the Bible have been translated into Crow between 1980 and 2007.

Teenagers can also learn Crow at the Apsaalooke language camp. The Crow Nation sponsors this camp. These efforts help make sure the language continues to thrive.

Sounds of the Crow Language

Just like English, the Crow language has vowels and consonants. These are the basic sounds that make up words.

Vowels

Crow has five main vowel sounds. These can be short or long. Think of the difference between the 'i' in "sit" (short) and the 'ee' in "see" (long).

Consonants

Crow has fewer consonant sounds than many other languages. These sounds include 'p', 't', 'k', 's', and 'h'. Some sounds, like 'm' and 'n', can change how they sound depending on where they are in a word. For example, 'm' can sometimes sound like 'b' or 'w'.

Word Stress

In Crow, where you put the stress in a word is very important. Stress means which part of a word you say with more emphasis. For example, in English, "present" can mean a gift (PRE-sent) or to give something (pre-SENT). In Crow, the stress helps you know the meaning.

The stress also affects the pitch of the word. Stressed vowels are said with a high pitch. Vowels after the stressed one are low. This creates a musical quality to the language.

How Crow Words Are Built

Crow is a polysynthetic language. This means words are often very long and complex. They can have many parts (like prefixes and suffixes) added to a main stem. Think of it like building with LEGOs. You start with a basic block and add many smaller pieces to make a bigger, more detailed structure.

Nouns

Nouns are words for people, places, or things. In Crow, most nouns are built from simpler parts.

• Adding endings: You can add endings (suffixes) to nouns to change their meaning. For example, one ending means "kind of" or "sort of." Another ending can make a word mean "small" or "dear."
• Adding beginnings: You can also add beginnings (prefixes) to verbs to turn them into nouns. For example, a prefix can turn a verb like "sing" into a noun like "singer."
• Combining words: Crow often combines two nouns to make a new word. For example, "mouth" + "water" can become "saliva." "Arm" + "container" can become "sleeve."

Possession

In Crow, how you show that something belongs to someone depends on the noun. Some nouns are "inalienably possessed." These are things that are naturally connected to a person, like body parts or family members. Other nouns are "alienably possessed," meaning they are not naturally connected, like a house or a dog. Different small word parts are added to show who owns what.

Personal Names

Personal names in Crow have their own special rules. They often have a specific ending added to them.

Pronouns

Pronouns are words like "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "they." In Crow, these words can be attached directly to verbs. This helps show who is doing the action or who the action is happening to.

How Crow Sentences Are Built

Crow is a SOV language. This means the usual order of words in a sentence is:

1. The person or thing doing the action (Subject)
2. The person or thing receiving the action (Object)
3. The action itself (Verb)

For example, instead of "I saw the ball," a Crow speaker might say "I the ball saw."

Crow also uses "postpositions" instead of "prepositions." In English, we say "in the house" (preposition before the noun). In Crow, it would be more like "the house in" (postposition after the noun).

There are no separate adjectives in Crow. Instead, verbs that describe a state or quality (like "is tall" or "is red") are used to describe nouns.

Noun Phrases

A noun phrase is a group of words that acts like a noun. In Crow, these phrases can be marked as "definite" (like "the young man") or "indefinite" (like "a woman"). A small ending is added to the last word of the noun phrase to show this.

For example, if you want to say "the four girls I saw yesterday," the ending for "definite" would be added to the word "saw," not to "girls."

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses are parts of a sentence that give more information about a noun. For example, in "the young man who stole the ball," "who stole the ball" is a relative clause. Crow has special words that help connect these clauses to the main sentence.