Kutenai language

Kutenai
Spoken in	Canada
Region	British Columbia
Ethnicity	Kutenai people
Native speakers	12  (date missing)
Language family	Language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kut
Kutenai language

The Kutenai language (also Kootenai or Ktunaxa language) is named after and is spoken by some of the Kootenai Native American/First Nations people who are indigenous to the area of North America that is now Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia.

Genetic Relationships

Kutenai is a language isolate having no demonstrable relation to any other language. The most plausible hypothesis for a connection to other languages is the proposal that it is distantly related to the Salishan languages. This hypothesis is generally considered plausible but has not been established.

Current Status

The 1990 US Census counted 102 Kutenai speakers in the United States and the Canadian Census counted 220 speakers. However, as of 1999, only about a dozen elders spoke the language fluently.

History of Description

Title page of 1894 grammar in Latin.

The first grammar of Kutenai, by Roman Catholic missionary Philippo Canestrelli, was published in 1894 in Latin.

See also

• Kootenai (tribe)
• Kootenays
• Salish Kootenai College

References

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195094271.
• Mithun, Marianne (2000) The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521232287

Further reading

• Kootenai Culture Committee of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Ksanka ʼA·kłukaqwum = Kootenai Dictionary. Elmo, Mont: Kootenai Culture Committee, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, 1999.

External links

• Ethnologue entry
• First Nations Languages of British Columbia Ktunaxa page
• Ktunaxa language at languagegeek.com
• Resources in and about the Kutenai language at language-archives.org