Nomenclature
The name ''Tsuutʼina'' comes from the Tsuutʼina self designation ''Tsúùtʼínà'', meaning "many people", "nation tribe", or "people among the beavers". ''Sarcee'' is a deprecatedPhonology
Consonants
The consonants of Tsuutʼina in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):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. Vowels are also distinguished by length and tone, similar to other Athabaskan languages. * long vowels are marked with an asterisk, e.g., a* * 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., āNouns
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 criticallyBibliography
*Cook, Eung-Do. (1971a). "Vowels and Tone in Sarcee", ''Language'' 47, 164-179. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1971b). "Morphophonemics of Two Sarcee Classifiers", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 37, 152-155. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1971d). "Sarcee Numerals", ''Anthropological Linguistics'' 13, 435-441. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1972). "Sarcee Verb Paradigms", Mercury Series Paper No. 2. Ottawa: National Museum of Man. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1973b). "Complementation in Sarcee". npublished?*Cook, Eung-Do. (1978b). "The Synchronic and Diachronic Status of Sarcee ɣy", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 43, 259-268. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1978c). "Palatalizations and Related Rules in Sarcee", in: ''Linguistic Studies of Native Canada'', eds. Cook, E.-D. and Kaye, J. 19-36. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1978d). "The Verb 'BE' in Sarcee", ''Amerindia'' 3, 105-113. *Cook, Eung-Do. (1984). ''A Sarcee Grammar''. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. . *Goddard, P. E. (1915). "Sarcee Texts", ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 11, 189-277. *Honigmann, J. (1956). "Notes on Sarsi Kin Behavior", ''Anthropologica'' 11, 17-38. *Hofer, E. (1973). "Phonological Change in Sarcee". npublished?*Hofer, E. (1974). "Topics in Sarcee Syntax". M.A. Thesis. The University of Calgary. *Hoijer, H. and Joël, J.. (1963). "Sarcee Nouns", in ''Studies in the Athabaskan Languages'', eds. Hoijer, H. et al., 62-75. *Li, F.-K.. (1930). "A Study of Sarcee Verb Stems", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 6, 3-27. *Sapir, E. (1924). "Personal Names Among the Sarcee Indians", ''American Anthropologist'' n.s. 26, 108-199. *Sapir, E. (1925). "Pitch Accent in Sarcee, An Athabaskan language", ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris'' n.s. 17, 185-205. *Sarcee Culture Program. 1979. ''Tsu Tʼina and the Buffalo''. Calgary.See also
*References
External links