Blackfoot Words is a database of lexical forms in Blackfoot (Algonquian).
What does that mean? We have typed up the Blackfoot words and translations from older written sources, including wordlists, dictionaries, and grammars. We then add information to each word, like the stems and meaningful parts inside of them. We also provide links between words that are the same but spelled differently, and links between words that share similar parts and concepts.
The database and this website were created to provide access to a large amount of lexical data for the Blackfoot communities and for language researchers.
What’s inside?
Version 1.1 of the database includes words from nine different sources. The earliest source is from 1743 and the most recent source is from 1969, which means that all of the words are Old Blackfoot. PDFs of the sources can be downloaded from the Sources page.
| Source | Type | Dialect | # words |
| Isham (1949/1743) | wordlist | Canada; possibly Káínai (Blood) | 10 |
| Umfreville (1790) | wordlist | Canada | 45 |
| Franklin (1823) | wordlist | Canada | 21 |
| Latham (1846) | wordlist | Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Piegan) | 77 |
| Gallatin (1848) | wordlist | Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Piegan) | 107 |
| Hale (1886) | wordlist | ?? | 90 |
| Curtis (1911) | wordlist | Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Piegan) | 445 |
| Taylor (1967) | article on morphophonology | Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Piegan) | 152 |
| Taylor (1969) | grammar | Aamsskáápipikani (Southern Piegan) | 3,606 |
| Total | 4,553 |
In Version 1.1 many (but not all) of the words are analyzed into stems and even morphemes. The full analysis will be published soon as Version 1.2.
Getting around
This site is under construction. Please reach out to natalie.weber@yale.edu if you have any questions.
- View: using a free, online smart spreadsheet. (Note that you must email natalie.weber@yale.edu for a login.)
- Download: a mysqldump of the full database on Zenodo.
- Sources: bibliographic information for all of the sources in the database, with links to all sources in the public domain.
- Credits: Blackfoot Words was created by the Blackfoot Lab at Yale. The language and words belong to the Blackfoot Nations.
Language acknowledgement
The Blackfoot language belongs to the people of the four Blackfoot Nations: the Siksikaiitsitapi, Kainaiitsitapi, Aapatohsipikani, and Aamsskaapipikani. I do not own the words or data in this database and I do not make any money from this project.
Land acknowledgement
The database is hosted on a Yale-affiliated server. Yale University acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.