| Initials |
Syllables |
Finals |
| a |
e |
i |
o |
| Ø |
ᖳ |
ᖰ |
ᖱ |
ᖲ |
|
| p |
ᑫ |
ᑭ |
ᑯ |
ᑲ |
ᖳᐤ |
| t |
ᒣ |
ᒥ |
ᒧ |
ᒪ |
ᖳᐨ |
| k |
ᖿ |
ᖼ |
ᖽ |
ᖾ |
ᖳᘁ |
| m |
ᒉ |
ᒋ |
ᒍ |
ᒐ |
ᖳᐢ |
| n |
ᖻ |
ᖸ |
ᖹ |
ᖺ |
ᖳᐡ |
| s |
ᓭ |
ᓯ |
ᓱ |
ᓴ |
ᖳᔈ |
| y |
ᔦ |
ᔨ |
ᔪ |
ᔭ |
|
| w |
ᖷ |
ᖴ |
ᖵ |
ᖶ |
|
| (C)V+i |
ᖳᐟ |
ᖰᐟ |
|
ᖲᐟ |
|
| (C)V+u(o) |
ᖳᐠ |
ᖰᐠ |
|
|
|
| h |
|
|
|
|
ᖳᑊ |
| hk (x) |
|
|
|
|
ᖳᐦ |
| CsV |
ᖿᐧ |
ᖼᐧ |
ᖽᐧ |
ᖾᐧ |
|
| CyV |
ᖿᑉ |
ᖼᑉ |
ᖽᑉ |
ᖾᑉ |
|
| CwV |
ᖿ= |
ᖼ= |
ᖽ= |
ᖾ= |
|
Origin of Blackfoot Syllabics
There are several places on the internet as well as perhaps an
article in the
alternative-archæological journal ESOP (Epigraphy Society Occasional
Papers) which claim that all Algonquian syllabics stem from a common
Blackfoot ancestor which was used by a single family before contact
with Europeans.
If this is in fact true—I have yet to see any evidence—then it could not be the usual Blackfoot syllabary presented
here. By looking at the letter shapes, it becomes clear that the
forms of most of the glyphs are based on similarly pronounced Latin
letters—usually cut in half or modified in such a way that they are not symmetrical;
Blackfoot syllabics must all have a 45° rotation axis.
- ᑭ /pe/ : Latin P
- ᒥ /te/ : Latin T
- ᖾ /ko/ : Latin k
- ᒋ /me/ : Latin m
- ᖺ /no/ : Latin n
- ᖴ /we/ : Greek Digamma Ϝ
- /s/ and /y/ are directly from Cree.
The finals are simply formed from a syllabic without the stem: ᐤ~ᑭ
ᐨ~ᒥ ᘁ~ᖼ ᐢ~ᒋ ᐡ~ᖸ ᔈ~ᓭ |
|
The 1888? Blackfoot syllabary, unlike other syllabics systems, tended to
over-differentiate somewhat, giving more symbols than necessary for representing the
language. Especially noteworthy is the vowel ‘e’ ᖰ which does
not exist as a separate phonological vowel in the (modern, at least) language, although a [e] sound is one pronunciation of /ai/. This system does not recognise
vowel length, neither does it specifically mention glottal stops.
This syllabary is extremely interesting in that it gives different vowel
sounds for its directions than other languages. In Cree, Ojibway, Inuktitut,
and Dene (except Carrier), ᔭ (/y/ facing south-east) is /ya/, while in
Blackfoot it is /yo/. Similarly, ᓭ is /se/ in the other Syllabics systems,
but /sa/ in Blackfoot. This is not due to sound changes in Blackfoot, but
instead on a re-organising of the chart. The vowel ordering of the Cree
Syllabics chart is always ᐁᐃᐅᐊ ... ᓭᓯᓱᓴ /e.i.o.a...se.si.so.sa). Blackfoot
keeps the Syllabics vowel direction ordering (north-west, n.e., s.w., s.e.),
but reassigns the vowel sounds to their Roman order (a.e.i.o). In fact, it
is the only Syllabics system which has no north-south-east-west facing
symbols. Furthermore, some of the syllabic shapes have been given new
sounds. ᑫ, ᒣ, ᒉ are pronouned /ke/, /me/, /ce/ in Cree, but /pa/, /ta/, /ma/
in Blackfoot. See the discussion of the origin of Blackfoot syllabics above
for more details.
It does somewhat merge the vowels /i/ and /o/ with the semi-vowels /y/ and /w/ respectively. Consequently, there are no finals for /y/ and /w/, instead the diphthong (basically, where two different vowels are beside each other, as in English 'oi' in 'boil') finals would be likely used.
In the chart above, the basic
syllabics are self-explanitory, so that initial /p/ + vowel /a/ (giving the
syllable /pa/) is written ᑫ. The finals are shown with the vowel ᖳ
preceding. The diphthongs are a bit less transparent, and should be
understood as follows. (C)V+i means that any basic syllabic (either
consonant+vowel like ᑫ /pa/, or vowel alone like ᖳ /a/) can have an /i/
after it. Instead of writing for example ᑫᖱ /pa-i/, the /i/ is
considered the second element of a diphthong, so a /i/ final is used, ᑫᐟ. The
/ai/ diphthong, when pronounced [ɛ], or [e] would be written with an e-series syllabic.
Similarly, (C)V+u(o) means that any basic syllabic + /o/ (given as /u/ on
the 1888? table) should be written as ᖿᐠ /kao/, not ᖿᖲ /ka-o/. Gaps in
the chart are where the sound combination does not occur.
The sounds /h/ and /x/ do not
have a syllabic series of their own, and only appear as finals. The
two sounds are actually the same basic sound in different environments, so
again there is over-differentiation.
Finally, some consonants are
often followed by a /s/, which is shown with a special symbol (diacritic),
the middle dot ᐧ after the basic syllabic. Thus /kso/ and /tsi/ are
written ᖾᐧ and ᒧᐧ, not ᘁᓴ and ᐨᓱ. The same idea is used for a
consonant followed by a /y/ or /w/, although these combinations are in fact
likely diphthongs beginning with /i/ or /o/. Frantz (1971:9) indicates that /i/ becomes /y/ before a vowel, so that,
e.g. the syllable /kio/ ᖽᖲ would end up sounding like /kyo/ ᖾᑉ. I am
assuming that the same process would happen with a diphthong beginning with
/o/, so that the syllable /koa/ ᖾᖳ would sound like /kwa/ ᖿ=.
As in Cree, a small ᙮ is used for
a period. |
