Kutenai language

Kutenai (/ˈkuːtniː/ KOOT-nee), also Kootenai, Kootenay, Ktunaxa, and Ksanka, is the native language of the Kutenai people of Montana and Idaho in the United States and British Columbia in Canada. It is typically considered a language isolate, unrelated to the Salishan family of languages spoken by neighboring tribes on the coast and in the interior Plateau. The Kutenai also use ʔa·qanⱡiⱡⱡitnam, Ktunaxa Sign Language.

Kutenai is typically considered a language isolate. There have been attempts to place Kutenai in either a Macro-Algonquian or Macro-Salishan language family, most recently with Salish, but these claims are not generally accepted.

Like other languages in the area, Kutenai has a rich inventory of consonants and a small inventory of vowels, though there are allophones of the three basic phonemic vowels. The lack of a phonemic distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants is much as in other languages of the area. Because Kutenai is on the periphery of this linguistic area, the loss of a rich lateral inventory is consistent with other nearby languages, which now have only one or two lateral consonants. One such language group contains the Sahaptian languages, which have had a similar loss of laterals. Nez Perce has /ts/, believed to be the lateral affricate in the proto-language. Nez Perce, like Kutenai, lies in the eastern periphery of the Northwest Linguistic area.

Another typological analysis investigates the lexical category of preverbs in Kutenai. This lexical category distinguishes neighboring Algonquian languages, found to the east of the Kootenay Rocky Mountains and near the Kutenai linguistic area. Another typological relationship Kutenai could have is the presence of its obviation system.

In 1969, the Kutenai language was spoken by 446 registered Indians in Canada. As of 2021^[update], Statistics Canada reported 210 Ktunaxa speakers. Referring to the Ktunaxa Nation Council (KNC) Traditional Knowledge and Language program findings, Ktunaxa scholar Christopher Horsethief stated that 24 fluent speakers remain and all are over the age of 65.

As of 2012^[update], the Ktunaxa people in Canada are working on a language revitalization effort. Tribal councils from the separate communities of the Ktunaxa nation have contributed a selection of audio recordings of Kutenai words and phrases to the FirstVoices website, an online catalogue of the indigenous languages of North America. As of November 2017^[update], the Ktunaxa webpage had 2500 words and 1114 phrases archived, stories and songs recorded, a language learning app available, and First Voices tutor. The FirstVoices Tutor provides lessons and practices in the given language. The Ktunaxa Language app, accessible for iOS and Android devices, is a Ktunaxa dictionary which uses the audio recordings of words and phrases, and provides flashcards with audio, of the vocabulary found on the FirstVoices website. The Ktunaxa nation aims to target younger generations with the FirstVoices materials to teach fluency in the Kutenai language.

One such example is the ʔAq̓am community of the Ktunaxa Nation, also known as St. Mary's band in Cranbrook, British Columbia, which has a private elementary school called the ʔaq̓amnikSchool. This school, as well as providing standard BC curriculum, teaches the Ktunaxa language and cultural traditions of the people to younger generations. It also has an after school program and a program called Headstart, which helps adults of children up to the age of six learn about teaching the Ktunaxa culture and language to their children.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation have founded the Salish Kootenai College, a tribal college on the Flathead reservation in Pablo, Montana. The college offers a certificate program in Native American studies, which requires that students have knowledge of the history and culture of the Salish and Ktunaxa people. The curriculum also offers classes in basic Kutenai language pronunciation and grammar. Some sources suggest that the knowledge and preservation of the native communities' culture will contribute to the preservation of the communities language, but there is no evidence yet from the Salish Kootenai College to support this claim.