Tsuutʼina language

The name Tsuutʼina comes from the Tsuutʼina self designation , meaning "many people", "nation tribe", or "people among the beavers". Sarcee is a deprecated exonym from Siksiká. ==Language revitalization==

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. and placing stop signs in the Tsuutʼina language at intersections in the Tsuutʼina Nation. ==Phonology==

Consonants The consonants of Tsuutʼina are listed below, with symbols from the standard orthography in brackets: Vowels There are four phonemically distinct vowel qualities in Tsuutʼina: , represented as . While and are fairly constant, can vary considerably. 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. ). • long vowels are written doubled, e.g., • high tone is marked with an acute accent, e.g., • low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g., • mid tone is marked with a macron, e.g., ==Nouns==

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 (or ) to the end of the noun or by using the word . List of nouns People • husband - • man, human - • wife - • woman - • grandmother - • grandfather - • mother - • father - Nature • Buffalo, cow - • Cloud - • Dog - • Fire - • Mud, dirt - • Snow - • Water - Words and phrases • my name is (..) - 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, , "knife", can be affixed with the 1st person prefix to become or "my knife". Note that is the possessed form of the noun. Some nouns, like , as shown above, can alternate between free form and possessed form. A few nouns, like , "snow", are never possessed and exist only in free form. Other nouns, such as , "head", have no free form and must always be possessed. Typical possession prefixes • 1st person - • 2nd person - • 3rd person - • 4th person (Athabaskan) - ==References==