A Sarcee Grammar

0.40. ORTHOGRAPHY.

There are several slightly different versions of orthographies ilsed for
scholarly presentations of Sarcee data. All are based on Edward Sapir's
original system, which is essentially -phonemic'Mn the traditional sense.^ I
shall present below the symbols that 1 use and explain how they compare
with others that have appeared in print* A brief discussion on the phonetic
properties that the symbols represent, where not self-explanatory, follows.

INTRODUCTION

(1)

a. Segmentals:

(b)

d

dl dz

dj

g

(gw)

t

tl ts

tc

k

(kw)

t'

tf ts'

t S

tc*
c

k'

X

(kwO

h

m

n

1 z

j
y

i
a( =

a)

Y

w

u
o

b. Length: Short (V), Long (V).

c. Tones: H(V), M(V), L(V).

0,4L Consonants.

The consonant symbols above are identical to those used by Sapir (1925)
and Li (1930) except for the diacritical mark for glottalization, e.g., ts' for
t's, etc. In a more recent work, Hoijer and Joil (1963) used the same con-
sonant symbols except for alveopalatal obstruents for which they replaced c
andy by / and ;? respectively. I adopted these modifi<Kl symbols in a number
of writings (e.g., Cook 1971a, 1971b, 1972). In this book, however, I return
to Sapir's original symbols for no other reason than typographic con-
venience where a (roman) and a (italic) represent the same vowel.

The consonants and vowels presented in (la) may very well be considered
an inventory of phonemes in a taxonomic sense. Nevertheless, no rigorous
justiflcation of the phonemic status is intended, since the primary purpose
of the symbok presented above is to introduce an orthography by which
Sarcee examples are cited, eliminating a great deal of insignificant (viz.,
redundant) phonetic details while maintaining salient futures. I shall not
elaborate any further here, since the chapters dealing with phonology,
particularly chapters 10 and 11, examine phonological representations from
a generative point of view. For the reader who is not familiar with Sarcee,
however, the inventory presented above requires some conunent.

Cook, Eung-Do. 1984. A Sarcee Grammar.
Vancouver: Univ. of British Columbia Press.