#kutenai

[neechees]

Native American cradleboards.

Cree / Comanche / Seneca

Crow / Kutenai /Osage

Mohawk / Klikitat / Nez Perce

[roseboy-in-training]

Hands down the coolest thing IE languages do is using prepositions as prefixes to augment verbs, but are there any other language families who do anything like that? Like, I imagine languages with applicative morphology could potentially do something to a similar effect, but the only language like that I’m somewhat familiar with is Ktunaxa and I don’t think it does anything quite like that.

[matriarchy-au]

Paige Pettibon is a Tacoma, Washington-based multidisciplinary artist of Black, Salish, and white descent. Her artistic practice represents her diverse background. She's got an incredible range of styles and mediums, include acrylic, charcoal, and jewelry. Below is a mural she did for the Kraken Iceplex.

[salvadorbonaparte]

Ktunaxa Resources

Wikipedia

Omniglot

First Voices

Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

Alphabet Video

PDFs

MEGA folder

Ktunaxa (also known as Kutenai) is a Language Isolate spoken in what is now Canada (British Columbia) and the USA (Idaho, Montana). It uses the Latin Alphabet. There is also a Ktunaxa Sign Language known as  ʾa·qanⱡiⱡⱡitnam

[kephas-rolling]

Linguistic Diversity Challenge - Kutenai

I haven’t had that much time lately to take part in the Linguistic Diversity Promotion Initiative but here ‘s my contribution.

Where is the language spoken?

 Kutenai is the language of the Ktunaxa people who are spread over Montana, Idaho (United States) and British Columbia (Canada).

How many people speak the language?

According to a 2016 census, there are 31 speakers, out of a community of  1,510. So not even 2% of the Ktunaxa people can speak the Kutenai language.

Language family

Kutenai is thought to be a language isolate. Efforts have been made to attach it to the Macro-Algonquian or Macro-Salishan languages but the results have been inconclusive.

What script is used ?

Because the first work produced on the Kutenai language was by a Roman Catholic missionary in the late 19th century, the language uses the Latin script, augmented by a few letters:

Grammar and syntax

Kutenai is an agglutinative language, with both prefixes and suffixes, particularly on verbs. It has a flexible word order but the language favours Verb-Object-Subject and Verb-Subject-Object (word orders only present in 3% and 9% of the world languages) word order. Kutenai also features head-marking.

One of the most striking features of Kutenai is the use of obviative; which is also called the “fourth person”. This feature allows speakers to distinguish between different third persons. As an example “She saw her mother”. Are we talking about the mother’s subject ? Or the mother of a different person ? Obviative allows for this distinction. Another interesting aspect is it allows to put focus on one of the third-person element. In the case of “The man gave a pen to his friend”, obviative would be applied to the least salient third-person referent. 

Sound inventory

Kutenai has no phonemic distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants. It has a two-way distinction between plain voiceless consonants and ejective ones, which applies to plosives and affricates. It also stands out for its pre-glottalised nasals.

Plosives:  p pʼ t tʼ k kʼ q qʼ ʔ

Affricates: t͡s t͡sʼ

Fricatives: s ɬ  χ h 

Nasals: m ʔm n ʔn 

Approwimants: j w

Vowel system is more straightforward with length distinction for /a/, /i/ and /u/.

Why choose Kutenai ?

Because of certain features like obviative, its phonology but mostly because of an initiative to revitalise the language. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation have founded the Salish Kootenai College. This college gives the opportunity ti earn a certificate in Native American studies by attending classes about the history, culture and language (pronunciation and grammar) of the Salish and Ktunaxa people.

Sources:

Wikipedia

Omniglot

Statistics Canada

A Description of the Kutenai Language (Ph.D thesis)

[thebigkelu]

Portrait of Pielle, a Native American (Kutenai) man - Boos - 1905/1907

[matriarchy-au]

Paige Pettibon, Tacoma-based artist

[shabbytigers]

me: currently running a sleep deficit so heavy it feels like 24/7 white noise, cried actual wet tears at dinner because we were eating pizza and watching the great british bake-off and somebody was making their gingerbread scene in the shape of the empire state building, but somehow overcome The Inertia sufficiently to get the fuck off the couch and shower and crawl into bed at 1 am

also me: