| Tsuutʼina | |
| Also Known As: | Sarcee |
| Nativename: | Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà[1] |
| States: | Canada |
| Region: | Alberta |
| Ethnicity: | Tsuutʼina |
| Speakers: | 80 |
| Date: | 2016 census |
| Ref: | [2] |
| Familycolor: | Dené-Yeniseian |
| Fam1: | Dené–Yeniseian ? |
| Fam2: | Na-Dené |
| Fam3: | Athabaskan–Eyak |
| Fam4: | Athabaskan |
| Fam5: | Northern Athabaskan |
| Iso3: | srs |
| Glotto: | sars1236 |
| Glottorefname: | Sarsi |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Tsuutʼina map.svg |
| Map2: | Lang Status 20-CR.svg |
| People: | Tsúùtʼínà |
| Language: | Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà |
| Country: | Tsúùtʼínà Nìsk’āNitawahsin'nanni (ᖹᒣᖷᑊᓱᐡ ᖻᐡᖹ) |
The Tsuutʼina language, or Tsúùtʼínà Gūnáhà[3] (and formerly known as Sarcee or Sarsi),[4] [5] 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.
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.
Tsuutʼina is a critically endangered language, with only 150 speakers, 80 of whom speak it as their mother tongue, according to the 2016 Canadian census.[2] The Tsuutʼina Nation has created the Tsuutʼina Gunaha Institute with the intention of creating new fluent speakers. This includes full K-4 immersion education at schools on the Nation[6] and placing stop signs in the Tsuutʼina language at intersections in the Tsuutʼina Nation.[7]
The consonants of Tsuutʼina are listed below, with symbols from the standard orthography in brackets:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | pronounced as /link/ (b) | pronounced as /link/ (d) | pronounced as /link/ (dz) | pronounced as /link/ (dl) | pronounced as /link/ (j) | pronounced as /link/ (g) | pronounced as /link/ (gw) | pronounced as /link/ (ʔ) | ||
| pronounced as /link/ (t) | pronounced as /link/ (ts) | pronounced as /link/ (tł) | pronounced as /link/ (ch) | pronounced as /link/ (k) | pronounced as /link/ (kw) | |||||
| pronounced as /link/ (tʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (tsʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (tłʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (chʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (kʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (kwʼ) | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ (s) | pronounced as /link/ (ł) | pronounced as /link/ (sh) | pronounced as /link/ (x) | pronounced as /link/ (h) | |||||
| pronounced as /link/ (z) | pronounced as /link/ (zh) | pronounced as /link/ (gh) | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ (m) | pronounced as /link/ (n) | ||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ (l) | pronounced as /link/ (y) | pronounced as /link/ (w) | |||||||
There are four phonemically distinct vowel qualities in Tsuutʼina: /i a ɒ u/, represented〈i a o u〉. While /a/ and /ɒ/ are fairly constant, /i u/ can vary considerably.
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ (i) | pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ (u) | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ (a) | pronounced as /ink/ (o) |
Vowels are also distinguished by length and tone, similar to other Athabaskan languages, so that Tsuutʼina, taking the total number of vowel phonemes to 24 (i.e. / ī í ì īː íː ìː ā á à āː áː àː ɒ̄ ɒ́ ɒ̀ ū ú ù ūː úː ùː ɒ̄ː ɒ́ː ɒ̀ː /).
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.
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.