Draft:Blackfoot orthographies

• Comment: Thank you for the draft! Aside from the issue with references, just a brief note: It looks like this has been copied in very large part from Blackfoot language#Orthography. When copying from elsewhere in Wikipedia, for copyright reasons you should note somewhere where you got it (in the edit summary is fine).
  If you add some more sources, feel free to ping me and I'll approve it, the topic & content are great Rusalkii (talk) 06:19, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

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The Blackfoot language has many orthographies of how different people write. But the orthography has been adopted by many Blackfoot-speaking Reserves was the Frantz Blackfoot Orthography. Is adopted by The Siksiká, Kainai, and Aapátohsipikani reserves adopted a standardized roman-based orthography in 1975.

An Blackfoot Language Text with both the Syllabics and The Latin Orthography.

The Blackfoot alphabet consists of 13 letters and the syllabics script, was created by Anglican missionary John William Tims around 1888, for his Bible translation work. Although conceptually nearly identical to Western Cree syllabics, the letter forms are innovative. And there are some other alphabets of how people write Blackfoot.

Latin-based Orthographies

Blackfoot has many ways of writing blackfoot. An alphabet for Blackfoot was designed by language specialist, Donald G. Frantz, with input from several native speakers of Blackfoot in the 1960s. The alphabet was based on analysis of the Blackfoot sound system, in conjunction with testing speakers’ ease of use. The education committees of the three Blackfoot-speaking reserves in southern Alberta approved this as the official writing system in 1975.

Standardized roman-based Orthography

The Siksiká, Kainai, and Aapátohsipikani reserves adopted a standardized roman-based orthography in 1975. The Blackfoot alphabet consists of 13 letters: ⟨a, h, i, k, m, n, o, p, s, t, w, y⟩, and a glottal stop (ʼ). Some letters in Blackfoot, might changed sometimes depends on people write blackfoot or in Blackfoot-speaking nations, like: e and u, "e" is how to write ai in a different way, like in syllabics the vowel "ᖰ" is e or ai. "u" is how to write a or o in a different way, is also in the Standardized roman Orthography, but is rarely occurs and not used. One of the only occurs in dialects or word like "Oomohtiuskskasikatoyikstsiko" Wednesday in Siksiká Dialect, and "Niitsípuwahsin" Blackfoot Language.

Letter	A a	H h	I i	K k	M m	N n	O o	P p	S s	T t	W w	Y y	ʼ
IPA	⟨a⟩ ~ ⟨ʌ⟩	⟨h⟩ ~ ⟨x⟩ ~ ⟨ç⟩	⟨i⟩ ~ ⟨ɪ⟩	⟨k⟩	⟨m⟩	⟨n⟩	⟨o⟩ ~ ⟨ʊ⟩	⟨p⟩	⟨s⟩	⟨t⟩	⟨w⟩	⟨j⟩	⟨ʔ⟩

Two digraphs are also used: ts ⟨ts⟩ and ks ⟨ks⟩.

Diphthongs	IPA
ai	⟨e⟩ ~ ⟨ε⟩ ~ ⟨æ⟩ ~ ⟨aj⟩
ao	⟨ɔ⟩ ~ ⟨aw⟩
oi	⟨oj⟩

Vowels can be marked with an acute accent or underlined to illustrate pitch accent. Vowels and consonants that are long are written with a double letter (aa = ⟨aː⟩).

Many Unofficial Orthographies

There are many various orthographies.

The Holterman Orthography is used by some schools in Blackfoot-speaking nations. It also once proposed to write blackfoot.

Letter	A a	H h	I i	K k	M m	N n	O o	P p	S s	T	U u	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
IPA	⟨a⟩	⟨h⟩ ~ ⟨x⟩ ~ ⟨ç⟩	⟨i⟩ ~ ⟨ɪ⟩	⟨k⟩	⟨m⟩	⟨n⟩	⟨o⟩	⟨p⟩	⟨s⟩	⟨t⟩	⟨ʌ⟩ ~ ⟨ʊ⟩	⟨w⟩	⟨ks⟩	⟨j⟩	⟨ts⟩

The Weatherwax Orthography is used in some texts in Blackfoot. Is like the Standard Orthography but is in Capital Letters.

Letter	A	H	I	K	M	N	O	P	S	T	W	Y
IPA	⟨a⟩ ~ ⟨ʌ⟩	⟨h⟩ ~ ⟨x⟩ ~ ⟨ç⟩	⟨i⟩ ~ ⟨ɪ⟩	⟨k⟩	⟨m⟩	⟨n⟩	⟨o⟩ ~ ⟨ʊ⟩	⟨p⟩	⟨s⟩	⟨t⟩	⟨w⟩	⟨j⟩

Also, sometimes it is written in Latin letters but with different spelling on computers because not all computers support the letters used in the Blackfoot language.

Syllabic writing system

A syllabics script, ᑯᖾᖹ ᖿᐟᖻ ᓱᖽᐧᖿ piikani kainai siksika, was created by Anglican missionary John William Tims around 1888, for his Bible translation work. Although conceptually nearly identical to Western Cree syllabics, the letter forms are innovative. Two series (s, y) were taken from Cree but given different vowel values; three more (p, t, m) were changed in consonant values as well, according to the Latin letter they resembled; and the others (k, n, w) were created from asymmetrical parts of Latin and Greek letters; or in the case of the zero consonant, possibly from the musical notation for quarter note. The Latin orientation of the letters is used for the e series, after the names of the Latin letters, pe, te, etc.

Blackfoot	Latin source
ᑭ pe	P
ᒥ te	T
ᖼ ke	K
ᒋ me	m
ᖸ ne	N
ᖴ we	digamma Ϝ

The direction for each vowel is different from Cree, reflecting Latin alphabetic order. The e orientation is used for the diphthong /ai/. Symbols for consonants are taken from the consonant symbol minus the stem, except for diphthongs (Ca plus ⟨ᐠ⟩ for Cau, and Ca plus ⟨ᐟ⟩ for Coi, though there are also cases of writing subphonemic [ai, ei, eu] with these finals).

C	-a	-e	-i	-o	final	medial
(none)	ᖳ	ᖰ	ᖱ	ᖲ
p-	ᑫ	ᑭ	ᑯ	ᑲ	ᐤ
t-	ᒣ	ᒥ	ᒧ	ᒪ	ᐨ
k-	ᖿ	ᖼ	ᖽ	ᖾ	ᘁ
m-	ᒉ	ᒋ	ᒍ	ᒐ	ᐢ
n-	ᖻ	ᖸ	ᖹ	ᖺ	ᐡ
s-	ᓭ	ᓯ	ᓱ	ᓴ	ᔈ	ᐧ
y-	ᔦ	ᔨ	ᔪ	ᔭ	ᐟ	ᑉ
w-	ᖷ	ᖴ	ᖵ	ᖶ	ᐠ	ᙿ

There are additional finals: allophones ⟨ᑊ⟩ [h] and ⟨ᐦ⟩ [x], and three medials: ⟨ᖿᐧ⟩ ksa, ⟨ᒣᐧ⟩ tsa, ⟨ᖿᑉ⟩ kya, ⟨ᖿᙿ⟩ kwa.

⟨᙮⟩ is used for a period.

Literature

John Tims was an Anglican clergyman with the Church Missionary Society. He was at Blackfoot reserve from 1883 to 1895. Tims translated parts of the Bible into Blackfoot. Selections from Matthew were published by the Church Missionary Society Mission Press in 1887. The Gospel of Matthew was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1890, and other portions of Scripture were published as Readings from the Holy Scriptures by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1890. He used both Roman script and a Canadian Aboriginal syllabics script. The Gospel of Mark was translated by Donald G. Frantz and Patricia Frantz, and published by Scriptures Unlimited, a joint venture of the New York Bible Society (later called Biblica) and the World Home Bible League (later called the Bible League) in 1972. The Gospel of John was Translated by Wycliffe Bible Translators and Blackfoot people and published by the Canadian Bible Society in 1979.