Aboriginal Languages of Canada

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C ~ ~ ~ r - : J ~ r ~ L ~ ~ ~ ~

J . . - . v ~ : k ~

r T;) ,,-to:

P e ~ r j J k s ~

ine

Eung Do Cook

Darin Flynn

boriginal

l ngu ges

o Canada

He

who

studies only one Indian

language

and

learns

its

manifold

curious

grammatical

devices

its

wealth ofwords its capacity of

expression

is

speedily convinced of its superiority to all other

Indian

tongues and not

infrequently to

all

languages by

whomsoever

spoken

l POWELL, INDI N LINGUISTI F MILIES OF

MERI

NORTH OF MEXI O 1891

T

he

study of languages spoken by

the

descendants

of the

original

inhabitants

of

North

America has made a number of significant contributions to

the

development of linguistics

In practically every book

that

the student of linguistics reads, the impact ofwork in this area i

evident.

would be

no

exaggeration

to

say

that the

lasting

and

profound influence of such

eminent pioneers of linguistics

as

Franz

oas

Edward Sapir,

and

Leonard Bloomfield

is

due

in

large part to the seminal work they did on structurally diverse Aboriginal languages in North

America, especially in Canada.

The value of current research

on

North American Aboriginal languages stems primarily

from the light

that

i t can shed

on the

nature of

human

linguistic competence. Besides refuting

the

popular misconception

that

these languages are somehow primitive, this work has also

uncovered certain structural

and

semantic

phenomena that

are

no t

found

in

more widely

studied languages such

as

English, French, Mandarin,

and

so on. Another compelling reason

for

the

study

of

Aboriginal languages is

that

i t can yield clues sometimes

the only

ones

available to help resolve problems in archaeology

and

anthropology especially ethnohistory

relating to

the

origin

and

migration of

the

indigenous peoples of

the

Americas.

is

also

important to

recognize

that

Aboriginal languages in

North

America are in a grave state of

decline, so

that an

urgency underlies their study, whether theoretical or historical.

PJ I thnolinguisti overview

How many Aboriginal languages are there How are

they

related genetically? How are

they distributed lthough definitive

answers cannot

yet be given to any of these

questions,

the

current

tentative consensus is

briefly

outlined in t he nex t

two sections

prior to a

comment

on the

decline of Aboriginal languages

in

Canada. A discussion

of the

structural characteristics

of

Canadian aboriginal languages then follows.

8



boriginal languages

Canada

9

9.1.1

enetic classification

John Wesley Powell s work of

1891,

which represents the first

attempt

at a comprehensive

genetic classification of

the

indigenous languages of North America, recognizes fifty-eight

families. Although this classification was preceded by and indebted to many other classifica

tions, it

is

considered

one

of

the

most valuable works

in

Native American linguistics. Powell s

classification of hundreds of different languages into fewer

than

sixty families was a

remarkable achievement, but really only a first step toward a final genetic classification.

In t he years folloWing Powell s work, many linguists

came

to assume that all o f the

indigenous languages of Nor th America ultimately origina ted from a smal l

number

of

mother languages. Consequently, they began trying to place the known language families

into larger stocks and still larger phyla The best-known classification from this perspective

was proposed by Edward Sapir

in

1929. In this far-reaching analysis, which owes a great deal

to earlier work by Alfred Kroeber and Ronald Dixon,

among

others, all language families of

Aboriginal America were

grouped

into stocks that

in turn

were organized into six

superstocks or phyla. Although not adequately substantiated in all details, this proposal

stimulated a great deal of research aimed at the further classification of Aboriginal languages.

A

more

realistic classification was

proposed

in 1964. FolloWing Sapir s scheme,

221

languages were grouped

into

42 families

and

31 isolates, which were

then

classified

into

9 phyla. Agreat deal more has been learned since this proposal was made, and some aspects

of th is work are now out of date. Certain languages that were earlier treated as isolates have

since been proven to be related. For example, Yurok

and

Wiyot of California, originally

considered isolates, have not only been found to be related to each other, but have been

placed in the Algonquian family as claimed by Sapir

as

early

as 1913).

Similarly, studies of

Tlingit prove it to be no t an isolate

but

distantly related to Athabaskan languages and Eyak.

On the other hand, there is also strong evidence that what were formerly considered

dialects of one language should be treated as separate languages. For example, the Klallam

language has recently been recognized

as

distinct from Straits Salish. Similarly,

DOgrib

Bear

Lake and Hare of the Athabaskan family were once believed to be dialects of the same language,

but their status has since been reconsidered. The identity of Dogrib as a separate language is

now well established and the possibility that Bear

Lake

and Hare are separate languages

is

under

consideration. Several of the proposed phyla also remain

in

question; in fact,

many

linguists

have chosen to retreat from such large-scale classification until the histories of the individual

families are better understood. A more up-to-date Consensus Classification appeared in the

latest

Vol.

17 of the Smithsonian s Handbook

North merican Indians see Recommended

reading at the end of this chapter.)

Language Matters The merind Hypothesis

Anew and daring

classification

has been widely enterta.ined

in

popular media and in interdisciplinary

research. Highly controversial, this classification recognizes the Eskimo-Aleut

family

nd Na-Dene-a

stock consisting of the Athabaskan

family

llingit.

Eyak

and perhaps Haida-but places

all

o t r ~

indigenous languages·of the Americas into ~ · s i n g l e ~

grOup;

labelled merlnd 80th t h e ~

methOdology and thedataundertying this propo f

hiWe

been subjected to severe

criticism

and thej

Amerind hypothesis

t currentlyaecepted by most specialists in the

field.

.



320

hapter ine

9.1.2

Canada s languages

Canada s Aboriginal peoples fall

into

three distinct political groupings: First Nations, Inuit,

and Metis. Although there is

no

agreement on the details of genetic classification, there is

some consensus

that

Canada s First Nations represent

no

less

than

nine language families

and isolates, that

the

Inuit represent a separate language family, and that

the

Metis represent

a unique mixed language.

The

map in

figure 9.1 sh ow s

the

geographic distribution

of the

widely accepted

Aboriginal language families and isolates of Canada discussed in this chapter. Of course,

the

political border between Canada

and

the United States is

no t

a linguistic boundary;

the

traditional homeland of many Aboriginal groups includes portions of

both

countries.

...

,*fI c

*

0 < ...

~ t . , \ ~

* f1

......

*.\'

W

*

1CI

:1l

lt

Illc ,,;

...

If f

:E ;1 Ie x

/

x f,/f

~ J r XX

xXi

x

Ie

X

.......

I e x ~ . l J l x

, XX

x ~

•

•.x · x

. :x

II

X

x

II

...: i t

It t

X

~

x

\c

X Algonquian •

. Ie lCtc x

~ - ~ ~ . . . . . J i Q i ~

*

Athabaskan • Siouan

Z Haida 0 Tlingit

• lroquoian * Tsimshian

• Kutenai _ Wakashan

A Salish

Eskimo-Aleut

igur

9.1 ,

Distribution o f

Aboriginallanguage

families in Canada

Languages

and

affiliations are introduced

in

d es ce nd in g o rd er o f size i n C an ad a) as

follows. Slashes /) indicate alternative names for languages or dialects. Although some of the

names provided may appear exotic,

they

are

in

fact

the

ones preferred by First Nations to

identify themselves. Note, too,

that

there are

no

exact figures

on

speaker populations. Figures

suggested here are informed current estimates but only approximate, based loosely

on

Foster

1982), Kinkade 1991), Krauss 1997), Cook 1998), Grime 2000), Mithun 2001), Statistics



boriginal languages

anada

32

Canada s 2001 Census, our own surveys, and personal inquiries to specialists of individual

languages

or

language families

and

to organizations such as

the

Saskatchewan

Indian

Cultural Centre, the Yinka Dene Language Institute especially Bill Poser), and Aboriginal

Languages of Manitoba especially Carol Beaulieu). The symbol < means fewer

than

Algonquian

Canada s most Widely spoken Aboriginal languages, Cree and Ojibwe, belong

to the

AlgonqUian family see table 9.1). Dialects of both languages are spoken in British Columbia,

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. Cree

is

also represented

in

Labrador

by the Innu dialects. Malecite-Passamaquoddy

and

Mi kmaq are spoken further east, in the

Maritime Provinces. Here and elsewhere, speaker populations outside Canada are proVided

to give an idea o f the overall size of the various Aboriginal linguistic communities. Of the

Algonquian languages, only Ojibwe is Widely spoken outside Canada.)

Table 9

Language

The lgonquian languages

anada

Estimated number

of

speakers

in

Canada

Estimated

number

of

speakers

in the

United States

Cree

Dialects: Plains, Swampy,

Woods, Moose, At t)ikamek w),

Montagnais

and

Naskapi Innu)

OJ

ibwe/Anishinaabemowin

Dialects: Odawa, Saulteau x),

Ojibwa/Chippewa, AlgonqUin,

Severn/Oji-Cree)

Mi kmaq/Micmac

Blackfoot

Malecite-Passamaquoddy

Potawatomi/Neshnabemwen

Munsee Delaware

Western Abenaki

Eskimo Aleut

80000

45

000

7

000

3 000

750

<

50

<8

<5

1000

5000

1200

500

850

100

The Inuktitut language of the Eskimo-Aleut family)

is

spoken by about two-thirds of the 44

Inuit who largely populate Canada s Arctic, from the northwestern part of the Northwest

Territories lnuvialuit) to northern Labrador

see

table 9.2). Of those with Inuktitut

as

mother

tongue, almost a thir d live in northern Quebec Nunavik) and almost two-thirds live in

Nunavut, Canada s newest and largest territory. A syllabary for writing Inuktitut

is

now in wide

use, especially in Nunavut it

is

adapted from the Cree syllabary; see chapter 15, section 15.4.4).



Chapter Nine

Table

9 2

Inuktitut

The Eskimo-Aleut family

in

Canada

Estimated

number

of

speakers in

Canada

Estimated number

of speakers outside

Canada

Eastern Canadian dialects

Western

Canadian

dialects

thabaskan Eyak Tlingit

24000

4 00 0

Greenland/Denmark

Kalaallisut): 46 00 0

Alaska Inupiaq): 3

000

This family exhibits

th e

greatest internal diversity, with seventeen distinct languages

in

th

country

alone

see table 9.3). They are spoken

in

British Columbia,

th e

Yukon,

th e

Northwe

Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, an d

Manitoba

All except

Tlingit

belong

to th

Athabaskan subfamily, which

is

more closely related to Eyak. The last

remaining

speaker

Eyak died in 2008.

Table 9 3

Language

The Tlingit an d Athabaskan languages

of

Canada

Estimated number

of

speakers in

Canada

Estimated number

of speakers

in

th e

United

States

TIingit

thabaskan

Dene SiVimYChipewyan

Slave y), including Hare

Dogrib

TSinlhqot in/Chilcotin

Dakelh/Carrier

Tutchone

Northern, Southern)

Kaska

Gwich in/Kutchin

Beaver

Witsuwit en-Babine/Nedut en

Sekani

Tsuut ina/Sarcee

Tahltan

Upper Tanana

Han

Tagish

Siouan Catawban

100

15 000

3850

1900

1200

1250

450

400

35 0

20 0

185

< 4 0

< 4 0

10

<S

2

<400

300

105

12

The Siouan-Catawban language family is represented

by

three Dakotan languages in Canada

1

Stoney

or

Nakoda, spoken exclusively in Alberta; 2) Sioux , a now-disfavoured cover term



boriginal languages

anada 32 3

for three dialects spoken in Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba: Yankton-Nakota/Dakota

or Ihal1ktol1wal1 Damta, Santee-Dakota or Isal1ti Damta, and Teton Lakota or

tit0l1wal1

Lamta;

and

3

Assiniboine-Nakoda Hohe Namda), spoken in Saskatchewan see table 9.4). Separate

figures are no t available for Yankton an d Santee; these are commonly grouped together

as

Dakota .)

Dakota/Sioux

able

9.4 The Siouan-Catawban family in Canada

Estimated

number

of speakers in

Canada

Estimated

number of

speakers in th e

United States

Stoney Nakoda)

Sioux : - Yankton an d Santee Dakota)

- Teton Lakota)

Assiniboine Nakota)

alish

1500

<

400

< 1 0

34

5

6000

Assiniboin: 75

T he Salish f am ily ha s te n languages centred in British Columbia, bu t its total speaker

population

is

estimated at fewer than

2000

see table 9.S).

able

9. 5

Language

The Salish languages of Canada

Estimated

number

of speakers

in

Canada

Estimated

number

of speakers in

th e

United States

Okanagan/Nsilxcin

Nlaka pmx/Thompson

Comox-Sliammon

Secwepemctsin/Shuswap

Lillooet/St at imcets

Halkomelem Halq emeylem,

Hul q umin um , h;m q Jmin Jm

Nuxalk/Bella Coola

Northern Straits: Saanich/SENCO:rEN

S q u a m i s h S k w ~ w u 7mesh

Sechelt/Shashishalhem

simshianic

500

400

400

300

200

125

20

20

15

10

200

Tsimshianic languages are located in northwestern British Columbia see table 9.6). This

family is believed to be distantly related to a dozen

other

language families of th e American

Pacific Coast, under a proposed phylum called Penutian.



Language

3 4

Chapter Nine

able

9 6

The Tsimshianic languages of Canada

Estimated number

of

speakers in

Canada

Estimated number

of

speakers in

the

United

States

Nass-Gitksan

Tsimshian

Gitksan/Gitsenimx: 900

Nisga a: 500

Sm algyf x/Coast

Tsimshian: 430

Klemtu/South

Tsimshian: 1

200

7

roquoian

Another major group of Aboriginal languages represented in Canada is the Iroquoian family,

which

is

found in southwestern Quebec

and southern

Ontario, as well as in adjoining parts

of the United States see table 9.7).

ble

9 The Iroquoian languages of Canada

Language

Mohawk

Oneida

Cayuga

Onondaga

Seneca

Tuscarora

Wakashan

Estimated

number

of

speakers in

Canada

< 2

5

SO

<SO

<25

<7

Estimated number

of speakers in

the

United States

2

<

15

15

100

30

The Wakashan family, which

is

spoken principally on Vancouver Island and

the

adjacent

British Columbia coast, consists of five languages in Canada see table 9.8). A sixth Wakashan

language, Makah, has about 20 speakers in Washington State, opposite Vancouver Island.)

able

9 8

The Wakashan languages of Canada

Language Estimated

number of

speakers

Nuu chah nulth Nootka

Kwakw ala/Kwaldutl

Haisla-Henaksiala

Heiltsuk-Oowekyala

Ditidaht Nitinat

200

200

200

Heiltsuk: 200

Oowekyala: 2

<



boriginal languages o Canada 5

solates

Two

language isolates are spoken in Canada: Haida, spoken in

the

Queen Charlotte Islands

off the northern coast of British Columbia, and Ktunaxa, spoken in the Canadian Rockies in

southeastern British Columbia see table 9.9).

Tabfe

Language

Language isolates

of

Canada

Estimated

number

of

speakers

in

Canada

Estimated

number

of

speakers

in the

United

States

Haida

Ktunaxa/Kootenay-Kinbasket

ontact languages

35

6

<6

Contact

languages resist genetic classification

in

terms of language families

or

isolates,

because they do not descend from a single parent language. Michif is a fascinating example

of a contact language unique

to Canada s Metis, who are mostly) descendants from Cree or

Ojibwe women and French-Canadian fur trappers. This language uses Plains Cree words and

g ra mmar for i ts verbs,

and

French words

and

g ra mmar for its n ou ns . Still, M ic hi f

is not

mutually intelligible with either Cree or French. There are five hundred o r so speakers o f

Michif

in the Canadian

Prairies,

and another

couple

of hundred

in

North

Dakota

and

Montana in

the

United States. Crucially,

many

of these speakers do not know Cree or French.

Here

is an

example of a Michif sentence words in italics derive from Cree;

the

others derive

from French).

1 e:gwanI-gi

li: sava:z

ki:pa:famwak

la

vjM

they the Natives dried the meat

Historically,

Canada

also

had

its s ha re o f t ra de ja rgo ns o r p id gi ns , c ha ra ct eriz ed

by

rudimentary grammars and limited vocabularies see chapter 14).

For

example, at one time

or

another

Inuktitut was mixed with Basque, French, and Montagnais in Labrador-Eskimo

Pidgin; with Cree and Montagnais in H ud so n Str ai t P id gin I nu kt it ut ; w it h En glish in

Inu kt it ut -E ng li sh Pid gi n w hi ch was u se d un ti l the

mid twentieth

century); and with

Athabaskan languages in Loucheux Jargon.

Chinook Jargon, which originated

as

a lin gua franca i n the Pacific Northwest, drew

many

basic words from Canada s Nuu-chah-nulth Nootka)

and

from Canadian French. Its

use peaked in

the

nineteenth century with

an

estimated 100 000 speakers representing more

than 100 mother t on gu es . T he re are now probably

no

more than a d oz en sp eak ers of

ChinookJargon in Canada, mostly in British Columbia.

A f or m

of communication

using

the

hands

Plains Sign Talk, was

more

commonly

used

as

a lingua franca in the P lain s area; it s u se also a pp ea rs to h av e p ea ke d in the

nineteenth

century

in

Alberta, Saskatchewan,

and

Manitoba. It

is

still

known

by a few

Cree, Blackfoot,

and Dakota some

deaf,

and

others hearing,

who

use it

to accompany

their

oral narratives.



6 h pter Nine

Language Matters

onfusing igns

The Plains sign for big

belly

involves

moving

the

right hand

outward and down fingers pointing

left.

The

sign

for waterfall s

similar

but

with fingers

pointing forward. Eighteenth-century

Cree

n

French apparently

mixed

these signs

and

began referring to th e Falls Indians , Whom they

encountered

ali the Canadian Prairies as Big-bellied Indians .

The

l g o n q u i a n ~ s p e a k i n g r o s

Ventres Big BellieS in French- -

now

l eside in Montana. .,

9.1.3 Decline Aboriginal languages

Epidemics especially smallpox), famines,

and innumerable

wars reduced

the

Aboriginal

population

of

North America fro m o ve r five mil li on at the time of Columbus t he la te

fifteenth century) to fewer

than

h al f a mil lio n at

the beginning

of the

twentieth

century.

Fortunately, Aboriginal peoples are now recovering rapidly from these historical disasters;

Canada s Aboriginal population grew from 120000

in

1925 to a million today.

Nonetheless, many Canadian Aboriginal languages became extinct

when

their last

speakers died, including

Laurentian

Iroquoian, Quebec) in the l at e 150 0s;

Beothuk

isolate, Newfoundland) in 1829; Nicola Athabaskan, British Columbia) in

the

late 1800s;

Huron-Wendat Iroquoian, Quebec)

and

Tsetsaut Ts ets aut Athabaskan, British Columbia)

in

the

early 1900s; and Pentlatch Salish, British Columbia around 1 94 0. N ot e that

Beothuk appears to have been an

i so la te ; as s uc h,

represents an

eleventh

language

lineage in Canada.

Of

the

languages

that

remain,

many

face

imminent

extinction.

For instance, less

than

a dozen elderly) speakers remain for Munsee Delaware AlgonqUian), Western Abenaki

Algonquian),

min

Athabaskan), Tagish Athabaskan), Squamish Salish), Sechelt Salish),

Tuscarora Iroquoian , Ditidaht Wakashan), Ktunaxa isolate), and Chinook Jargon.

Dialects,

too,

are disappearing, such as the Ts ooke and

Songish

dialects of

Northern

Straits Salish. Klallam, a closely related Salish language, has no more Canadian speakers;

only three

remain

in

Washington

Sta te . T hi s state of affairs resulted in part from

deliberate action:

Aboriginal

language

use was

general ly forbidden in

church and

government-run residential schools to which Aboriginal children were sent from

the

1880s

to

the 1970s.

Other Aboriginal languages with

more

speakers are nonetheless rapidly

becoming

obsolete under the influence of English and French, which have become

the

languages of

the

nursery

and the

liVing-room

in

most

o f C an ad a d ue

in

par t to

the

influence

of

mass

media. Recently, however, many Aboriginal communities have sought to counteract the

loss o f

their

ancestral languages.

With

the

help

of government agenCies, museums, and

universities, they have launched programs to retain and promote their languages and

cultures. sa resu lt o f t hi s Renaissance mov emen t, s ome l an gu ag es such as T si lh qo t i n,

Ktunaxa,

and

Secwepemctsin) have seen the establishment of

an orthography

for the first

time, and others have become part of sc hoo l cu rric ul a o r e ve n a medium of instruction in

l owe r grades. T he l on g-te rm effect o f t hi s effo rt

on

the survival of Aboriginal languages

remains to b e seen. In the meantime, linguists can assist Aboriginal communities who wish



Aboriginal languages ofCanada 327

to preserve their languages by becoming involved in th e development of sociolinguistic

surveys, of curriculum material, and of resource materials such as dictionaries, grammars,

an d texts.

To

en d o n

a p os it iv e n ot e: i t is remarkable t ha t i n spite of th e difficulties confronting

them several o f C ana da s Aboriginal

languages-notably

C re e, O ji bw e, Inuktitut

an d Dene SuJ ine-remain relatively healthy. For instance, over 90

p er ce nt o f

Quebec s

5000 Attikamekw speak

their

dialect of Cree as mother tongue. Two-thirds

of

th e 15000

Innu

in Quebec an d Labrador speak

their

ow n dialect of C re e as mother tongue

an d

about a third of

them

are monolingual in it. D en e SuJ ine continues to be acquired by

children

as

their

first language

in

many northern Saskatchewan

communities

including

Fond

du Lac, Black Lake, an d

La

Loche. The n um be r o f Aboriginal youth

learning their

h er it ag e t on gu e

as a

second

language also c on ti nu es t o grow, which

ma y

signifi

cantly

improve th e long-term viability of languages otherwise considered endangered or

near-extinct.

Structural features

Since there are so

many

apparently unrelated languages

in

Canada, it

is

no t

surprising

to

find

a great deal of typological variation. Although it is impossible to present even a synopsis of

th e

structural characteristics of these languages, a small selection of

what

th e reader might

consider strikingly different

an d

interesting will be given.

9 2 Phonology

The Algonquian languages such

as

Cree an d Blackfoot)

and

th e Athabaskan languages such

as

Tsuut ina

an d

Dene SuJ ine) have long been in contact in th e Prairie provinces of Canada.

However, th e

phonological

differences between these tw o language families are striking

because Algonquian has on e

of the

simplest

phonemic

inventories

in

th e world, while

Athabaskan has

on e

of

th e

most complex.

Cree vowels

may

be e it he r s ho rt or long, e xce pt for

le:

which

is

always long. The Cree

consonantal system is also simple an d straightforward, with no aspiration or glottalization.

Consonant clusters are rare,

a nd t he

most

common

syllable types are CV; CVC,

an d

The

vocalic

an d

consonant systems of Cree are given in table 9.10.

Table 9 1

Vowel an d consonant phonemes in Cree

Vowel phonemes

Consonant

phonemes

ilabial

Alveolar Velar lottal

i i

:

Obstruents

p

t k

ts

e

a

a: s h

Sonorants m n

w



8

hapter Nine

In Dene

Sutine on the

o th er h an d, t he re are five te ns e vowels, each o f w hi ch m ay be

either oral or nasal, as well as a lax vowel, which has

no

nasal counterpart. The Dene St¥ine

consonant system has four times more phonemes

than

does Cree.

t is

characterized by a

large and symmetrical class of obstruents, particularly affricates, as shown in table 9.11.

Another characteristic of Dene

Sutine

phonology

is

the presence of tone, which, along with

nasality, makes for

many

more syllable types in Dene Sutine than in Cree.

Table 9

Vowel and consonant phonemes

in

Dene Sqline

Vowel

phonemes

Oral

Nasal

i u

f

e a 0 e

6

a a

Consonant phonemes

Labial

Interdental

lveolar

lveolar

Plain

p te t ts

Aspirated te

h

t

h

ts

h

Glottalized te

t ts

z

e

s

m

n r

Lateral lveopalatal el r Labiovelar

lottal

Plain ti

k

k

W

)

Aspirated ti

h

h

k

h

kWh

Glottalized

ti

t f

k

k

W

)

?

I

j

Y

w

i

x

x

W

)

h

Note:

i

is a voiceless, alveolar lateral fricative.

Putting aside the elements in parentheses whose phonemic status is questionable), there are

thirty-five consonantal phonemes in Dene St¥ine, most of which are obstruents. Several sets

of stops, affricates, and fricatives constitute the core system. There are two very conspiCUOUS

phonological characteristics: a three-way contrast plain versus aspirated versus glottalized)

involving six sets of stops and affricates,

and

a large inventory of affricates

in

four series

interdental, alveolar, lateral, and alveopalatal). Particularly worthy of note h er e are the

interdental and lateral affricates, which are seldom found in other language families, as well

as

the paucity of bilabial stops. The syllable structure is either CV or CVe.



boriginal languages Canada 9

The examples in table 9.12 illustrate CV an d CVC syllable types as well as a contrast

between oral an d nasal vowels an d b et we en h ig h tone m arke d by th e diacritic ) an d

low tone.

Table 9 12 Vowel an d

tone

contrasts in Dene t ¥ine

Low

tone/high tone

iu

fish

il l

white fish

khue

house

khue

town

tesk

h

08

I cough

tesk

h

68 I a m wide

Oral/nasal ti prairie chicken

ti yi)

four

tsha

beaver

excrement

si

I

si

emphatic

particle)

In Dene SuJ ine,

consonant

clusters are avoided in syllable margins, an d every syllable

has a vowel; as already noted, syllables are maximally CVe. Some

consonant

clusters are

allowed in Cree syllables, e.g., amisk beaver , ospwa:kan pipe . Much more complex clusters

are tolerated in

other

Canadian Aboriginal languages. In particular, Blackfoot Algonquian)

allows words like niltssksksfnitaksini one minute ,

an d

Oowekyala Wakashan) and Nuxalk

Salish) are notorious for allowing all-obstruent utterances, as in

2

and 3 .

2) thxspstikts Oowekyala)

This here with me,

no t

visible) will be a nice thwart:

3) ts ktskWts Nuxalk)

He arrived.

9 orpholo y

Equally interesting characteristics of North American Aboriginal languages are seen in their

morphology, whose complexity has fascinated linguists for a long time. We can illustrate

some of these intricacies with th e help of several Aboriginal languages spoken in Canada.

Polysynthesis

The term polysynthetic see chapter

8,

section 8.2.2) is often used to underscore the morpho

logical compleXities that are easily observable in many Aboriginal languages.

olysynthetic

l ngu ges are characterized by morphologically complex words whose component mor

phemes often express meanings that would be expressed by separate words in such languages

as

English

an d

Mandarin. In the Inuktitut language, for instance, a typical word consisting of

a root followed by on e or more suffixes can be the equivalent of an entire sentence in English.

The following utterances are each considered to consist of a single word. There is allomorphic

variation involVing the morpheme gik rik meaning good .)

4 Iglu-gik-tuq.

house-good-he-has.3sG

He has a good house .



hapter ine

Qayaq-rik-tuq.

kayak-good-he-has.3sG

He has a good kayak.

The following words further illustrate polysynthesis in Slave,

an

Athabaskan language,

an d

Blackfoot, an Algonquian language.

5) Ts e- khu-

nT-

wa Slave)

preverb

them

you wake

You woke them.

6) Ma:t- ja:k- wa:xkaji- wa:tsiksi Blackfoot)

no t

will go

home he

He is

no t

going home.

erson nd number

Most English speakers are familiar with a three-way contrast involving person first per son-

speaker; second

person addressee; third person other

party)

an d

a t wo -w ay con tr as t

involving number unmarked singular versus marked plural). In

many

Canadian Aboriginal

languages, however, a

much

more elaborate system of contrasts

is

encountered.

As

noted in

th e

chapter

on

morphology, for instance, th e Inuit language has three subcategories of number -

singular one), dual two),

an d

plural three or more). The follOWing two sets of examples

illustrate ho w t hese sub categori es are mar ked i n

nouns

an d verbs. In

th e

transcription

employed here,

th e

symbol

represents a

phoneme

with

th e

allophones

j an d [3].)

7) iglu

iglu-k

iglu-t

a n igloo house)

igloos twa)

igloos three or more)

niriyu-q

niriyu-k

niriyu-t

h e ate

they

two) ate

they three or more) ate

The Algonquian languages have

an

especially elaborate system of person

a nd n umbe r

marking, as th e verb paradigm from Cree in table 9.13 illustrates.

ble 9.13 Person and number marking in Cree

pimisin

t o lie

down

1st singular

2n d

singular

3rd singular proximate)

4t h

singular obviative)

1st plural inclusive)

1st plural exclusive)

2n d plural

3rd plural

ni-pimisin-in

ki-pimisin-in

pimisin

pimisin-ijiwa

ki-pimisin-inaw

ni-pimisin-ina:n

ki-pimisin-ina:wa:w

pimisin-wak

I lie

down

you lie

down

he or she lies down

th e

other

lies

down

w e you an d I) lie down

we

I an d

other) lie

down

you pI) lie down

they

lie

down

These examples exhibit a contrast i n t he first person plural between the so-called

inclusive

and exclusive. This contrast is found no t only in AlgonqUian, but also in Iroquoian, Siouan,

an d Wakashan. The inclusive indicates that the addressee is to included i n t he interpretation



boriginal languages

o

anada 331

of the morpheme corresponding to English

we

Thus,

ki-pimisin-inaw,

the inclusive first person

plural form, means either you and I lie down or you, and someone else lie down . In contrast,

the exclusive form

ni-pimisin-ina.71

indicates that the addressee

is

to be excluded. In English,

the

phrase we lie down is potentially ambiguous because the grammatical distinctions observed

in

Cree are

not

made.

The grammatical distinction between proximate

and obviative

(sometimes called

third

person

and

fourth person, respectively)

is

made

in

all Algonquian languages,

as

well

as

in

the isolate Ktunaxa.

is difficult to describe,

but

an example may help illustrate its

function. Suppose we are

talking

about

two people

(two third

persons

and that the

sentence He

l y down

is

used. In English i t

is

unclear

which

of the two people lay down.

Cree speakers avoid this ambiguity by choosing

one

third person as the focus of the

conversation and marking this choice grammatically. One of

the

ways that this choice

can

be signalled

is

by using the focused person s

name

as subject o f a proximate form of the

verb. Subsequent references

to that

person

can

then be made

by means

of a

proximate

verb

form. Thus, when

a Cree speaker uses

the

proximate form

pimisin to

express

the meaning

he lay down , listeners know that

he

or she is talking about the person chosen as the focus

of the

conversation.

Reference to

any

other person requires use of the

obviative

form

pimisin ijiwa

Gender

Several lroquoian languages (Mohawk, Oneida,

and Onondaga

divide third-person

pronominals into masculine

feminine

and neuter in the manner

of English

he, she

it

and other Indo-European languages.

(8) Walli .hneki:ra? (Mohawk)

Hf drank it.

W a ~ h n e k i r a (Mohawk)

She drank it. (This

can

also be used for unspecified sex: someone drank it .)

Wa?kahneki:ra? (Mohawk)

drank it. (This

can

also be used for some female persons: she drank it .)

In contrast, grammatical gender

in

Cree and

other

Algonquian languages distinguishes

between animate

and

inanimate

This contrast can be seen in the two different forms of

the plural suffix:

-ak

for animate nouns

and -a

for inanimate ones (see table 9.14).

Table

9 4

nimate and inanimate ou s ree

Animate

Inanimate

ingular lural

si:si:p

duck

si:si:p-ak

ducks

na:pe:w

man

na:pe:w-ak men

ospwa:kan pipe ospwa:kan-ak pipes

rni:nis berry

rni:nis-a

berries

astotin cap astotin-a caps

a:tsimo:win story a:tsimo:win-a stories



children killed ducks

children ducks killed

killed children ducks

killed ducks children

ducks killed children

ducks children killed

Chapter Nine

Assignment

of

Cree words

to

a

noun

class sometimes seems

to

lack

a ny n at ur al

motivation.

The word

ospwa kan

pipe

for instance, belongs

t o t he a ni mat e

class even

though i t does no t denote a living thing. This practice is somewhat reminiscent of

what

is

found i n th e gender classification system of English, which ca n place a few inanimate words

(such

as

those referring to ships an d countries) in

th e

feminine class.

9 3 ynt x

Canada s Aboriginal languages show great diversity in word order (see

chapter

8). For

example, Wakashan languages such as Oowekyala have a strict VSO order. Salish languages

and

Ktunaxa are also verb-initial. By contrast, Siouan languages such

as

Dakota are rigidly

SOY.

Athabaskan languages are also verb-final.

(9) DaduqWl

a

wism-axi w ats -iaXi. (Oowekyala)

saw

man-the/a

dog-the/a

The/a ma n saw

the/a

dog.

(10) ThathaI]ka

ph

e3

i jutapi (Dakota) K ot ini?i mit adikodi iyala (Tsuut ina)

oxen grass eat

ma n

beaver kill

oxen eat grass The ma n killed a beaver.

On th e other hand, th e word order i n m an y other Canadian languages is no t fixed. This

is

the case in Eskimo-Aleut Inuktitut, in lroquoian languages such

as

Mohawk, in AlgonqUian

languages such

as

Cree,

an d

in Michif.

All

six orderings

in

each

of

(11)

an d 12

are gram

matical an d the literal meaning does no t change.)

(11) The children killed th e ducks (Cree)

SVO

Awa:sisak nipahe:wak si:si:pa

SOY Awa:sisak si:si:pa nipahe:wak

VSO

Nipahe:wak awa:sisak si:si:pa

VOS Nipahe:wak si:si:pa awa:sisak

OVS

Si:si:pa nipahe:wak awa:sisak

OSV

Si:si:pa awa:sisak nipahe:wak

(12) Sak likes he r dress (Mohawk)

SVO

Sak ra-nuhwe?-s ako-atya?tawi Sak likes her-dress

SOY

Sak ako-atya?tawi ra-nuhwe?-s Sak her-dress likes

VSO Ra-nuhwe?-s Sak ako-atya?tawi likes Sak her-dress

VOS Ra-nuhwe?-s ako-atya?tawi ne Sak likes her-dress Sak

OVS Ako-atya?tawi ra-nuhwe?-s

ne

Sak her-dress likes Sak

OSV

Ako-atya?tawi Sak ra-nuhwe?-s her-dress Sak likes

Also of interest is

th e

oft-repeated claim

tha t m an y

of Canada s Aboriginal

languages

Salishan, Wakashan, lroquoian,

and Inuktitut-lack

a distinction between

noun

an d verb .

This claim

is

controversial,

bu t

most linguists agree

that

the noun/verb distinction

is

weak in

th e syntax of these languages. For example, in Nuu-chah-nulth (Tseshaht dialect) qu as

man not only has th e noun-like use in (13a), bu t also th e verb-like use in (l3b). (Verbs come

at

th e beginning of th e sentence in Nuu-chah-nulth.)



13 a Noun-like use of qu:?as

Mamu:k-ma qu:?as-?i

work 3sG

man-the

The m n is working.

boriginal languages

Canada

b Verb-like use of qu:?as

Qu:?as-ma mamu:k-?i

man-3sG work-the

he working

one

is a man.

Sumrning

This

ch pter

outlines genetic classifications, geographic distributions, nd speaker

populations of Canada s Aboriginal languages, nd presents a selection of phonological nd

grammatical characteristics of these languages. Even this brief discussion should illustrate

just how much languages c n differ from

e ch

other. Although has sometimes een

claimed

th t

languages may differ

in

unpredictable ways, it should be remembered

th t

there

are striking similarities th t underlie surface differences nd th t these differences can be

described in terms of universal categories

nd

processes (phonemes, morphemes, inflection,

derivation, phrase structure, and so on). For this reason, the structural diversity of Canadian

Aboriginal languages offers the linguist opportunities

to

reaffirm familiar principles,

as

well

as

to

discover new insights

into

the nature of hum n language.

ecommended re ding

Campbell,

Lyle

1997.

American [ndian

Languages:

The Historical Linguistics

Native America

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Foster, Michael K 1982. Canada s Indigenous Languages: Past

nd

Present.

Language and

ociety7:3-16. Ottawa: Commissioner of Official Languages.

Goddard, Ives, ed. 1996.

Languages

Vol. 17

of

the

Handbook North merican Indians

Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

Mithun, Marianne. 2 1

The Languages

Native

North

America

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press

Voegelin, e nd EM Voegelin. 1965. Classification

of

American Indian Languages.

Languages ofthe World, Native America Fascicle 2, section 1.6, Anthropological Linguistics

7:121-50.

Aboriginal Languages of Canada

Documents

Transcript of Aboriginal Languages of Canada