Tsuutʼina language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tsuutʼina |
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| Sarcee Tsúùtʼínà |
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| Native to | Canada | |||
| Region | Alberta | |||
| Ethnicity | Tsuutʼina | |||
| Native speakers | 80 (2016 census) | |||
| Language family |
Dené–Yeniseian ?
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The Tsuutʼina language (formerly known as Sarcee or Sarsi) is spoken by the people of the Tsuutʼina Nation, whose reserve and community is near Calgary, Alberta. It belongs to the Athabaskan language family, which also include the Navajo and Chiricahua of the south, and the Dene Suline and Tłı̨chǫ of the north.
Contents
Nomenclature
The name Tsuutʼina comes from the Tsuutʼina self designation Tsúùtʼínà, meaning "many people", "nation tribe", or "people among the beavers". Sarcee is a deprecated exonym from Siksiká.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonants of Tsuutʼina in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | rounded | |||||
| Stop | plain | p ⟨b⟩ | t ⟨d⟩ | ts ⟨dz⟩ | tɬ ⟨dl⟩ | tʃ ⟨dj⟩ | k ⟨g⟩ | kʷ ⟨gw⟩ | ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩ |
| aspirated | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | tsʰ ⟨ts⟩ | tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩ | tʃʰ ⟨tc⟩ | kʰ ⟨k⟩ | kʷʰ ⟨kw⟩ | |||
| 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⟩ | ||||||
Vowels
There are four distinct vowels in Tsuutʼina: i, a, o, and u. While a and o are fairly constant, i and 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.
- 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
- medial 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 (Athabascan) - ɣi-
Language revitalization
Tsuut'ina is a critically endangered language, with only 150 speakers, 80 of whom speak it as their mother tongue, according to the 2016 Canadian census. The Tsuut'ina Nation has created the Tsuut'ina Gunaha Institute with the intention of creating new fluent speakers. This includes full K-4 immersion education at schools on the Nation and placing stop signs in the Tsuut'ina language at intersections in the Tsuut'ina Nation.
See also
