A phonetic description of Káínai Blackfoot

Abstract

This paper presents the Blackfoot (Algonquian) phonetic system from data provided by Tootsinam (Beatrice Bullshields, 1945–2015), a native speaker of Káínai’powahsin, the Blackfoot dialect associated with the Blood Nation. There are relatively few phonetic studies of underdocumented languages, and Blackfoot is no exception. We fill this gap by providing a general articulatory description of the segmental, prosodic, and suprasegmental properties of the language, with an aim to provide a starting point for future targeted studies. Blackfoot is an interesting case study because many of the basic phonetic and phonological facts of the language are still highly contested, and because there are several typologically distinctive characteristics compared to well-documented languages, such as the unusual distribution of /s/. Within each section, we summarize all previous research on Blackfoot up to this point and explain which properties are well understood and which require further research. We also present some novel observations of Tootsinam’s speech that differ from existing documentation, including the distribution of short centralized vowels outside of closed syllables, and an allophonic falling tone on word-final stressed syllables.