Plains Cree: A Grammatical Study - Computer Science Club

22 [TRANS. AMER. PHIL. SOC.
S 9-6 ostikwan pikoh ka-pikiskwemakahk.
head (O) only speak (AI inan(0))
'It is a head only which talks.'
When an otherwise inanimate noun becomes
temporarily animate, the ambiguity under discussion
may be removed entirely by the presence of modifiers;
consider the demonstrative pronoun awa in
S 54-42 nama ciy awa
not (question) this (3)
kitastotin ewako, "nik-dydwik!"
your headgear(0/3) this (0/3) possess(TA 3-1)
eh- iteyimit
kitastotin ?
think of him(TA 3-1) your headgear(0/3)
'Is not this headgear of yours thinking this of me,
"Let him possess me!" '
The gender transfer discussed so far has a statable
and largely predictable function. Furthermore, it is
a one-way transfer, from inanimate to animate. It
is thus quite distinct from the lack of gender concord
that is occasionally encountered in the texts, e.g.,
T 87-6 e-nitoniket oma sihta
grope(AI 3) this(O) spruce(3)
'he groped for that spruce'
It may be relevant that such discrepancies seem to be
particularly frequent with noun stems showing class-
cleavage, e.g., mistikw- animate 'tree,' inanimate
'stick'; note also the homonymy of 3' and Op discussed
in 2.02.
S 48-10 osdm miywdsin awa
indeed be good(II 0) this(3)
mistik ..
stick (0)
'indeed it is good, this piece of wood'
T 76p7 kd-pasastehahk mistikwa ohi
whip(TI 3) tree(3') this(3'/Op)
'he whipped these trees'
It remains to be seen whether such instances are
really accidental slips of the tongue (or lapses of the
record) or whether they perhaps point to features of
the gender dimension which are not understood.
2.32. Gender Classes of Nouns
Gender is one of the basic criteria for the inflectional
and derivational classification of verbs. Transitive
animate and transitive inanimate stems largely come
in pairs, differing as to the gender of the goal, e.g.,
otinew 'he takes him,' otinam 'he takes it'; animate
intransitive and inanimate intransitive stems similarly
WOLFART: PLAINS CREE
differ by the gender of the actor, e.g. ohpikiw 'he
grows up,' ohpikin 'it grows up'; cf. also 5.1.
In most instances, then, there is a choice, as to
gender, among verb stems. Nouns are sharply
different since most of them belong to only one gender
(but see 2.323 below). Even when they are tempor-
arily animate, showing agreement with animate
verbs, their inflectional endings (as far as they are
unambiguous) remain inanimate.
2.321. Nouns which denote humans, animals,
spirits, or trees are animate. E.g., ayahciyiniw
'enemy, especially Blackfoot,' czpay 'dead person,
corpse,' tahkohci 'On-Top' (personal name; there is
also a particle tahkohci). mistatim 'horse,' mostos
'buffalo.' dtayohkan (a certain kind of spirit),
kise-manitow 'God.' sihta 'spruce,' mdyi-metos 'black
popular,' mistik 'tree.'
Also animate are extensions of these, e.g., ayisi-
yinshkdn 'effigy, doll.'
2.322. Also animate is a variety of objects some of
which constitute relatively well-defined semantic
groupings. By and large, the gender assignment of
nouns in Cree seems to correspond fairly closely to
that of MIenomini which Bloomfield has described in
great detail (1962: pp. 28-36).
Some body-parts are animate: nisakitikom 'my
braid,' nitasiskitan 'my calf of leg,' nitihtikos 'my
kidney,' nitlhiy 'my shoulder-blade,' niyihk 'my
gland,' etc.
Animal hides and garments made from them:
waposwaydn 'rabbit skin,' mostoswaydn 'buffalo-robe,'
maskwaydn 'bear skin,' etc.
Certain plants and their products: mahtdmin 'grain
of maize, ear of maize'; pahkwesikan 'bannock,'
pzswehkasikan '(leavened) bread'; pikiw 'gum, rosin';
ayoskan 'raspberry' (but not otehimin 'strawberry'),
pitikomin 'dried prune,' pakdn 'nut'; etc.
Tobacco and other items from its sphere: cistemdw
'tobacco,' ospwdkan 'pipe,' ahpihcis 'tobacco-pouch.'
Some natural objects (perhaps in relation to their
function as atayohkan?; see T104): pisim 'sun, moon,'
pisimohkdn 'clock, watch, "pseudo-sun,"' acdhkos
'star'; asiniy 'rock, stone' (cf. 2.323 below); kona
'snow,' maskwamiy 'ice'; soniydw 'gold, money'; etc.
Some articles of personal or household use: askihk
'kettle,' napwenis 'little frying pan' (loan from French
la poele), kwapahikan 'ladle'; asdm 'snowshoe,'
akwdndn 'shawl,' nitds 'my trousers' (but inanimate
in the meaning 'my gaiter'); akwask 'knob-shaped
arrow head,' pahpahahkwdn 'shield,' etc.
Further and more specific groups may be set up,
but their predictive value is obviously low. The
above examples are given mainly to illustrate the
wide range of animate nouns. In short, only a list
can account for the gender of Cree nouns.
2.323. Some noun stems are subject to class-
cleavage, taking both animate and inanimate endings,
e.g., akohp 'blanket,' askipwdw 'wild potato,' etc.
The animate and the inanimate stem often have