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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
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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.
.
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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
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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).
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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
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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.
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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
<
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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 .
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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
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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
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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.)
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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.
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