View source for Crow language

{{Short description|Missouri Valley Siouan language of Montana, US}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=February 2011}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=July 2025}}
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{{Infobox language
| name             = Crow
| nativename       = {{lang|cro|Apsáalooke aliláau}}
| states           = [[United States]]
| region           = [[Montana]]
| ethnicity        = 8,500 [[Crow people|Crow Tribe]] (2007)<ref name=ethnologue>[https://www.ethnologue.com/language/cro/ Ethnologue]</ref>
| speakers         = 4,160 (2015)<ref name=census/>
| familycolor      = American
| fam1             = [[Siouan languages|Siouan]]
| fam2             = [[Western Siouan languages|Western Siouan]]
| fam3             = Missouri River Siouan
| sign             = [[Hand Talk]]
| iso3             = cro
| glotto           = crow1244
| lingua           = 64-AAA-b
| glottorefname    = Crow
| notice           = IPA
| map              = Lang Status 60-DE.svg
| mapcaption       = {{center|Crow is classified as Definitely Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''.}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|sio|ə̀ˈpsâːɾòːɡè|}}<br />{{IPA|sio|ə̀ˈpsâːlòːɡè|}}
}}
{{Infobox ethnonym|root=Apsáalooke<br/><small>"children of the large beaked bird"</small>|person=|people=[[Crow people|Apsáalooke]]|language=[[Crow language|Apsáalooke aliláau]]<br />[[Plains Indian Sign Language|Baapáattuua]]<ref>{{cite web |title=sign language |url=https://dictionary.crowlanguage.org/#/E/sign%20language |website=Crow Language Consortium |access-date=26 March 2025}}</ref>|country=Apsáalooke Isawúua}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Roanne speaking Crow.webm|thumb|A Crow speaker]]
'''Crow''' ([[endonym|native name]]: {{lang|cro|Apsáalooke}} {{IPA|sio|ə̀ˈpsâːɾòːɡè|}} or {{IPA|sio|ə̀ˈpsâːlòːɡè|}}) is a [[Missouri River Valley|Missouri Valley]] [[Siouan languages|Siouan language]] spoken primarily by the [[Crow Tribe]] in present-day southeastern [[Montana]]. The word {{lang|cro|Apsáalooke}} translates to "Children of the Large Beaked Bird" (from {{lang|cro|apá}} 'beak/nose', {{lang|cro|isáa}} 'big', {{lang|cro|dooká}} 'child'), which was later incorrectly translated into English as 'Crow'.<ref name=LBHC>[http://lib.lbhc.edu/index.php?q=node/128 Little Bighorn College]</ref> It is one of the larger populations of [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|American Indian]] languages with 4,160 speakers according to the 2015 US [[Census]].<ref name="census">{{Cite web |publisher=United States Census Bureau |title=Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2009-2013 |url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=Census.gov}}</ref>

==Dialects==
Crow is closely related to [[Hidatsa language|Hidatsa]] spoken by the [[Hidatsa]] tribe of the Dakotas; the two languages are the only members of the Missouri Valley Siouan family.<ref name="Silver and Miller 1997: 367">Silver and Miller 1997: 367.</ref><ref name="Graczyk, 2007: 2">Graczyk, 2007: 2</ref> Despite their similarities, Crow and Hidatsa are not mutually intelligible.

==Status==
According to Ethnologue with figures from 1998, 77% of [[Crow people]] over 66 years old speak the language; "some" parents and older adults, "few" high school students and "no pre-schoolers" speak Crow. 80% of the [[Crow Tribe]] prefers to speak in English.<ref name=ethnologue/> The language was classified as "definitely endangered" by UNESCO as of 2012.<ref name="unesco">See [[UNESCO]]'s ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''.</ref>

However, R. Graczyk claims in his ''A Grammar of Crow'' (2007) that "unlike many other native languages of North America in general, and the northern plain in particular, the Crow language still exhibits considerable vitality: there are fluent speakers of all ages, and at least some children are still acquiring Crow as their first language."  Many of the younger population who do not speak Crow are able to understand it. Almost all of those who do speak Crow are also bilingual in English.<ref>Graczyk, 2007: 1.</ref>  Graczyk cites the reservation community as the reason for both the high level of bilingual Crow-English speakers and the continued use and prevalence of the Crow language. Daily contact with non–American Indians on the reservation for over one hundred years has led to high usage of English. Traditional culture within the community, however, has preserved the language via religious ceremonies and the traditional clan system.

Currently, most speakers of Crow are 30 and older but a few younger speakers are learning it. There are increased efforts for children to learn Crow as their first language and many do on the [[Crow Indian Reservation|Crow Reservation]] of [[Montana]], particularly through a Crow language immersion school that was sponsored in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Crow Tribe gets language immersion grant|url = http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/crow-tribe-gets-language-immersion-grant/article_3730b364-b6f8-5d84-ac7f-ad9267888569.html|access-date = 2015-08-16|first = Susan|last = Olp| date=15 August 2012 }}</ref> Development for the language includes a Crow language dictionary and portions of the [[Bible]] published from 1980–2007. The current literacy rate is around 1–5% for first language speakers and 75–100% for second language learners.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/cro|title = Crow}}</ref> Teens are immersed in Crow at the Apsaalooke language camp sponsored by the Crow Tribe.<ref>{{Cite web|title = 'Keep speaking Crow to me': Teens immerse themselves in Native language|url = http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/keep-speaking-crow-to-me-teens-immerse-themselves-in-native/article_48708902-5da1-520e-87fb-30e46e8c981e.html|access-date = 2015-08-16|first = Derek|last = Brouwer| date=22 July 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/environmental/courses/es368/leffner.php|title=Apsáalooke: The Story of the Crow Language|website=www.lakeforest.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-02-10|archive-date=2017-02-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211075051/https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/environmental/courses/es368/leffner.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Classification==
Crow is closely related to [[Hidatsa language|Hidatsa]] spoken by the [[Hidatsa]] tribe of the Dakotas; the two languages are the only members of the Missouri Valley Siouan family.<ref name="Silver and Miller 1997: 367"/><ref name="Graczyk, 2007: 2"/>  The ancestor of Crow-Hidatsa may have constituted the initial split from Proto-Siouan. Crow and [[Hidatsa]] are not mutually intelligible, however the two languages share many phonological features, cognates and have similar morphologies and syntax. The split between Crow and [[Hidatsa]] may have occurred between 300 and 800 years ago.<ref>Graczyk, 2007: 2-3.</ref><ref>Matthews, 1979: 113-25.</ref><ref>Hollow and Parks, 1980: 68-97.</ref>

==Phonology==

===Vowels===
There are five distinct vowels in Crow, which occur either long or short with the exception of the mid vowels.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! rowspan=2 |
! colspan=2 | [[Vowel length|Short]]
! colspan=2 | [[Vowel length|Long]]
|-
! [[Front vowel|<small>Front</small>]]
! [[Back vowel|<small>Back</small>]]
! <small>Front</small>
! <small>Back</small>
|-
! [[High vowel|High]]
| {{IPA|i}}
| {{IPA|u}}
| {{IPA|iː}}
| {{IPA|uː}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|
|
| {{IPA|eː}}
| {{IPA|oː}}
|-
! [[Low vowel|Low]]
| colspan=2| {{IPA|a}}
| colspan=2| {{IPA|aː}}
|-
! [[Diphthong]]
|
|
| {{IPA|ia}}
| {{IPA|ua}}
|}

There is also a marginal diphthong ''ea'' {{IPA|[ea]}} that only occurs in two native Crow stems: {{lang|cro|déaxa}} 'clear' and {{lang|cro|béaxa}} 'intermittent'.

===Consonants===
Crow has a very sparse consonant inventory, much like many other languages of the [[Great Plains]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[Plosive]]
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|tʃ}} {{grapheme|ch}}
| {{IPA link|k}}
| ({{IPA link|ʔ}})
|-
! [[Fricative]]
|
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} {{grapheme|sh}}
| {{IPA link|x}}
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
! [[Sonorant]]
| {{IPA link|m}}~{{IPA link|b}}~{{IPA link|w}}
| {{IPA link|n}}~{{IPA link|d}}~{{IPA link|ɾ}}
|
|
|
|}

[[Plosive|Stops]] are aspirated word-initially, word-finally, when geminated (e.g. [ppʰ]) and when following another stop (e.g. [ptʰ]). Stops in a consonant cluster with ''h'' as the initial radical (''hp'', ''ht'', ''hk'') are unaspirated and lax. Gemination in stops only occurs intervocalically. Intervocalic single, nongeminate stops are lax, unaspirated, and generally voiced. The difference between voiced stops ''b'' and ''d'' (allophones of ''m'' and ''n'') and voiceless stops is hardly discernible when following a fricative, since both are unaspirated and lax. The phoneme ''k'' has a palatalized allophone [kʲ] that occurs after ''i'', ''e'', ''ch'' and ''sh'', often word-finally.

[[Fricative]]s are tense; they are only lax when intervocalic. Palatal ''sh'' is often voiced intervocalically; ''s'' is sometimes voiced intervocalically; ''x'' is never voiced. The alveolar fricative /s/ has an optional allophone /h/ in phrase-initial position:
*''sáapa'' "what" > [háapa]
*''sapée'' "who"  > [hapée]

[[Sonorant]]s voiced /m/ and /n/ have three allophones: ''w'' and ''l'' intervocalically, ''b'' and ''d'' word initially and following an obstruent, and ''m'' and ''n'' in all other conditions. In conservative speech, ''l'' is realized as a tapped ''r'', however in general cases it is realized as ''l'', perhaps due in part to the influence of English. Word initially, ''b'' is optional for /m/, though ''b'' is more commonly realized. The glottal sonorant /h/ assimilates to the nasality of the following segment, but retains its voicelessness. When following ''i'' or ''e'' or preceding ''ch'', /h/ may be realized as an alveopalatal fricative.

===Structure===
Vowel sequences across [[morpheme]] boundaries can be quite varied, but short vowels cannot appear alone in the morpheme: V:V (long+short), V:V: (long+long) and diphthong+V (short). Word finally, only ''a'' (in a diphthong), ''o'', and ''u'' (allomorphs of the plural suffix) can occur after a long vowel.

A wide variety of [[consonant cluster]]s can occur in Crow. All consonants except for /h/ can be [[gemination|geminated]]. Voiced labials and dentals (phonemic ''m'' and ''n'', allophones ''b'', ''m'', ''w'' and ''d'', ''n'', ''l'') are resistant to clustering. Because they only occur intervocalically, ''l'' and ''w'' do not occur in clusters. The plosive [[allophone]]s ''b'' and ''d'' only occur in clusters as the second consonant and only at morpheme boundaries. The nasal allophones ''m'' and ''n'' can only occur with each other with the exception of ''nm'', or occur with ''h'' at a morpheme boundary. Clusters in general occur at morphemic boundaries.

Some morphemic constraints:
*A word begins either with a V (long or short) or a single C; no word-initial consonant clusters
*Consonant clusters only occur word-internally; exception: ''sht'' as a single morpheme is an emphatic sentence-final declarative marker.
*A word can end in any C except for ''p'' and ''x''; ''ch'' only occurs in one word ({{lang|cro|iach}}) as a plural demonstrative
*All lexical nouns and verb stems end in a vowel
*Generally, nonderived noun and verb stems consist of between 1–4 syllables.
*Only V: or diphthongs occur in one-syllable word

===Stress===
[[stress (linguistics)|Stress]] in Crow is phonemic. The position of the stress in the stem is determined lexically. Virtually all noun and verb stems have an inherent stress. In word initial syllables, accented short vowels in a word initial syllable are generally followed by a consonant cluster, while accented long vowels are generally followed by a single consonant. Stress can fall on short vowels as well as long vowels and may fall on either [[mora (linguistics)|mora]] of a long vowel. With diphthongs, either the long vowel or the offglide may bear the stress.

Stress helps predict the tones of all the vowels in a word: stressed vowels are high in pitch; all vowels following the stressed vowel are low in pitch; all short vowels preceding the stressed vowel are low in pitch; all long vowels preceding the stressed vowel are high in pitch; short vowels occurring between a long vowel and the accented vowel assimilate to a high pitch.

In words composed of more than one morpheme, there are several rules (with a few exceptions) to determine the placement of the stress:
*If the first stressed morpheme is stressed anywhere except for the final mora of a stem-final vowel, the subsequent morpheme is unstressed.
*If the first stressed morpheme has its accent of the stem-final vowel mora, that morpheme loses its stress.
*If the morpheme following the first stress lacks lexical stress, the stress remains on the first morpheme.
*If a stress stem-final vowel is deleted when the following morpheme lacks lexical stress, the stress is transferred to the preceding vowel mora of the deleted vowel.

Exceptions:
*A few stems with final falling accent have long high stress for the purposes of word formation.
*The punctual aspectual marker ''áhi'' overrides the regular word accent – it is always accented
*The exclamative sentence-final marker ''wík'' is stressed in addition to the stress of the stem to which it is combined. Vowel morae that occur between the first stress and the exclamative suffix are low in pitch.

===Phonological processes===
Phonological processes in Crow include:
*short vowel deletion: stem-final short vowels are deleted at a morpheme boundary unless a three-consonant cluster or a nasal plus voiceless obstruent would occur. Stem-final vowels do not delete before ''dak'', the coordinate noun-phrase conjunction. Sentence-final evidential suffixes also do not cause the final short vowel to be deleted.
*nasal assimilation: ''n'' assimilates to ''m'' in a cluster; ''nm'' clusters do not occur.
*sibilant assimilation: alveolar ''s'' and ''ss'' are realized as /sh/ at morpheme boundaries before all consonants except ''x'' and ''s''.
*vowel neutralization: word-finally, stem-final short vowels ''i'', ''a'' and ''u'' are neutralized to their corresponding mid nonround or round vowel: ''i'', ''a'' become ''e''; ''u'' becomes ''o''.
*identical vowel reduction: with suffixes beginning with ''a'', sequences of 3-4 identical vowel morae are reduced to two (''aa-a'' and ''aa-aa'' are reduced to ''aa''); exceptions are compounds and prefixes.
*long vowel reduction before ''h'': long vowels shorten before ''h'' in a syllable coda.
*final schwa deletion: the final schwa of a diphthong is deleted before suffixes beginning with ''a'' and before the plural; before other vowels, it is otherwise retained.
*palatal-dental alternation: stem-final ''ch'' and ''t'' are complementary; ''t'' occurs before ''a''-initial suffixes and plural ''u'', and ''ch'' everywhere else. This relations holds parallel for ''š'' – ''s''; and geminates ''čč'' and ''šš''. The ''č'' and ''š'' alternates occur before nonlow vowels, whereas ''t'' and ''s'' occur before low vowels. There are, however, a few exceptions to this complementary relationship, therefore these phonemes cannot be considered as allophones.
*palatal-velar alternation: there is a lexically conditioned ''č'' to ''k'' alternation; ''k'' occurs before the plural and before suffixes beginning with ''a'', not producing ''t''.
*stem ablaut: lexically conditioned alternation affecting stem-final long vowels triggered by the plural morphemes, the imperative, and ''a''-initial suffixes.  (''ii'' to ''aa'' ablaut; ''ee'' to ''ii'' ablaut; ''ee'' to ''aa'' ablaut.

==Morphology==
Crow is a [[polysynthetic language]].

===Nominal morphology===
Basic stems consist of one to four syllables (with four being rare) and always end in a vowel. Monosyllabic stems have long vowels or diphthongs, e.g., {{lang|cro|bií}}, 'stone, rock'; {{lang|cro|bía}}, 'woman'. The vast majority of nouns in Crow are derived stems. Derivational processes in nominal morphology include affixation and compounding.

====Suffixes====
An exhaustive list of nominal suffixes:
*{{transliteration|cro|aachí/lichí}} – 'approximative': {{transliteration|cro|aachí}} follows a stem-final short vowel, {{transliteration|cro|lichí}} follows a stem-final long vowel. Marks resemblance or similarity: 'kind of, sort of, like, (temporal) around the time of.'
*{{transliteration|cro|kaáshi}} – 'real, true; very'
*{{transliteration|cro|káata}} – 'diminutive': Can add the diminutive meaning 'small, little' or the endearing, affectionate meaning 'dear' according to the semantics of the noun.
*{{transliteration|cro|kíishi}} – 'sportive, imitative': Marks resemblance or imitation.
*{{transliteration|cro|táa(hi)li}} – 'real, genuine': Marks an object's reality, its genuineness. Often reduced to ''táali''.
*{{transliteration|cro|ahi}} – 'here and there': Most commonly occurs with verbs, though occasionally is attached to nouns.
*{{transliteration|cro|ht(aa)}} – 'even': Marks concessive subordinate clauses as 'although, even though, even if.'  Also occurs as a noun suffix glossed as 'even.'  ''Htaa'' is a rare suffix that combines with the bare nominal stem of the noun.

====Prefixes====
Prefixes will render a relative clause into a derived noun.
*{{transliteration|cro|ak}} – 'agent nominalizer': creates agentive nouns (ex. 'singer', 'dancer') from active verbs or verbs plus incorporated objects.
*{{transliteration|cro|ala}} – 'locative, temporal, or manner nominalizer': 'where, when, how' derived from verbs or verbs plus incorporated nouns. In some cases, ''ala'' may follow the noun creating a lexicalized relative clause.
*{{transliteration|cro|baa}} – 'indefinite nominalizer': Derived from stative verbs, [[inalienably possessed noun]]s plus stative verbs, active transitive verbs, and from active intransitive verbs.
*{{transliteration|cro|ii}} – 'instrumental nominalizer': Derived from active transitive and intransitive verbs, and from transitive verbs plus incorporated nouns.
*{{transliteration|cro|bale}} – 'depossessivizer': Allows an inalienably possessed noun to occur without a possessor.

====Compounding====
There are two basic types of compounding in Crow: noun-noun compounds and noun-verb compounds.

Noun-noun compounds often involve a whole-part relationship: the first noun refers to the whole and the second to the part. Members of the compound may also be themselves compounds or derived nouns.

{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|íi + bilí {{=}} íi-wili
|mouth + water {{=}} saliva|}}

{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|áali + ísshi {{=}} áal-isshi
|arm + container {{=}} sleeve|}}

Noun-verb compounds consist of a noun plus a stative verb. There are a number of select exceptions.

====Possession====
Nouns are classified as either inalienably or alienably possessed, according to which possessive markers they occur with.

Inalienably possessed nouns are those that are inherently possessed or nondetachable associations, specifically body parts and family members, opposed to alienably possessed nouns whose entity is not inherently possessed. This rule is not absolute as some body parts and kin nouns can be considered alienable and some nouns with close associations to its possessor (i.e., {{transliteration|cro|aasúu}} 'his house', {{transliteration|cro|isaashkakaáshi}} 'her dog') can be considered inalienable.

The affixed possession paradigm for inalienable and alienable possessives can be derived. The alienable possessives only use the first consonant of the alienable prefixes and do not mark the possessor when the prefix begins with a vowel. The final suffix transforms into a diphthong from /-o/.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! rowspan=2 |
! colspan=2 | Alienable
! colspan=2 | Inalienable
|-
! <small>Singular</small> || <small>Plural</small>
! <small>Singular</small> || <small>Plural</small>
|-
! 1st Person
| '''''bas-'''''{root}
| '''''bas-'''''{root}'''''-o'''''
| '''''b-'''''{root}
| '''''b-'''''{root}'''''-úua'''''
|-
! 2nd Person
| '''''dís-'''''{root}
| '''''dís-'''''{root}'''''-o'''''
| '''''d-'''''{root}
| '''''d-'''''{root}'''''-uua'''''
|-
! 3rd Person
| '''''is-'''''{root}
| '''''is-'''''{root}'''''-o'''''
| '''''0-'''''{root}
| '''''0-'''''{root}'''''-úua'''''
|}

====Personal names====
Personal names constitute a distinct morphological class of nouns in Crow. They are marked with the definite determiner suffix /sh/, which attaches to the stem rather than to the citation form.

====Pronouns====
Crow has three pronominal forms: bound; emphatic and contrastive; and interrogative-indefinite pronouns. With the first two types, there is a correlation between morphology and syntax. Argument pronouns are generally bound whereas emphatic and contrastive pronouns are generally independent. Bound pronominals function as direct and [[oblique argument]]s.

*'''A-set pronominals''' mark only subjects of active verbs, both transitive and intransitive.
*'''B-set pronominals''' mark subjects of stative verbs, direct objects, and objects of postpositions.

Bound Pronominal Stems:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! rowspan=2 |
! colspan=2 | A-Set
! colspan=2 | B-Set
|-
! <small>Singular</small> || <small>Plural</small>
! <small>Singular</small> || <small>Plural</small>
|-
! 1st Person
| '''''baa'''''
| '''''baa'''''+PL
| '''''bii'''''
| '''''balee'''''
|-
! 2nd Person
| '''''dá(a)'''''
| '''''dá(a)'''''+PL
| '''''dii'''''
| '''''dii'''''+PL
|-
! 3rd Person
| '''''0'''''
| '''''0'''''+PL
| '''''0'''''
| '''''0'''''+PL
|}

===Verbal morphology===
Verbal derivational morphology is composed of prefixes, suffixes, one infix (''chi'', 'again; possessive reflexive') and reduplication, which expresses an "iterative, distributive, or intensive sense to the meaning of the stem."<ref name="Graczyk p104">Graczyk, 2007: 104.</ref>

====Active–stative verbs====
The morphological verb classes in Crow mirror a semantic distinction: Crow is an [[active–stative language]], meaning that the subject of an active verb is treated differently than the subject of a stative verb. Active verbs and stative verbs are marked with distinct sets of pronominal affixes: the "A-set" for active verbs and the "B-set" for stative verbs.

'''Active verbs''' may have one, two, or three arguments (making them respectively intransitive, transitive, or ditransitive). An intransitive verb takes a subject (SV), a transitive verb takes a subject and an object (SOV) and a ditransitive verb takes a subject and two objects (SO<sub>1</sub>O<sub>2</sub>V). In a relative clause built on an active verb, when the subject of the verb is the head of the relative clause and it is an animate noun phrase, it is marked by ''ak''.

'''Stative verbs''' may have zero (impersonal), one, or two arguments. In a relative clause, the subject of a stative verb is marked with ''m'' or in elevated discourse, ''dak''. There may also be an absence of marking on the head noun where the entire relative clause is marked with the indefinite nonspecific determiner ''m''.

====Verb chain====
Crow has a fairly complex ordering of verb phrase constituents. The following table demonstrates simple constructions of active-state intransitive and transitive verbs based on the first person.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
! 8
! 9
! 10
! 11
|-
!
! [[Indirect object]]
! Indirect Object No.
! [[Direct object]]
! Subject: [[Transitive verb]]
! Subject: [[Intransitive verb]]
! Subject No.
! Verb Stem
! Subject: Transitive Causative
! [[Causative]]
! Subject No.
! [[Grammatical mood|Mood]]
|-
!
! <small>B-Set Pronominals</small>
!
! <small>A-Set Pronominals</small>
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
|-
!1
|
|
|
|
|''baa''
|
|Active Intransitive
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Mood
|-
!2
|
|
|''bii''
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Active Intransitive
|''[b]''
|''aa''
|Singular-Plural
|Mood
|-
!3
|
|
|''bii''
|''baa''
|
|Singular-Plural
|Active Transitive
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Mood
|-
!4
|''bii''
|Singular-Plural
|''bii''
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Active Transitive
|''wa''
|''hc''
|Singular-Plural
|Mood
|-
!5
|
|
|
|
|''bii''
|
|Stative Intransitive
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Mood
|-
!6
|
|
|''bii''
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Stative Intransitive
|
|
|Singular-Plural
|Mood
|}

*1-4) Active ("A-Set") pronominals in Crow are very diverse coming in many different forms based on the based bound form. They are patterned by a certain list of lexical and phonological factors, such as the ''dú(u) – by hand'' pattern which results in a 1sg ''bu'' and a 2sg ''di'', or the ''dá(a) – by mouth'' pattern which results in a 1sg ''ba'' and a 2sg ''da''.
*2) For Active-Intransitive Causative Verbs, 1-2 person singular causitive (rank 10) is marked by ''aa'' as in chart, 1-2 person plural is marked by ''uu'', 3rd person singular is marked by ''ee'' or ''a'' determined lexically, and 3rd person plural is marked by either ''uu'', ''o'', or ''iio'' determined lexically.
*4) For Active-Transitive Causative Verbs, the causative transitive verb subject is marked by ''wa'' in the first person, ''la'' in the second person and ''0'' in the third person. The Causative affixes are ''hc'' (singular) and ''hk'' (plural).
*Mood in Crow is expressed by a variety of postpositionals. The standard indicative morpheme is ''k''.

The verb chain constituents are, of course, much more complicated. Following is a concise list of the rank ordering of each type element:
*Prefixes:
**I: Adverbial proclitics:
**II: B-set pronominal elements
**III: A-set pronominal elements
**IV: Locative prefixes
**V: Instrumental prefixes
*Stem:
**VI: Stem modification – reduplication or prefixation and infixation of ''chi/ku'' "again"
*Suffixes
**VII: Derivational suffixes
**VIII: Punctual ''áhi''
**IX: Continuative, modal, or benefactive auxiliary
**X: Habitual ''i''
**XI: Plural
**XII: Subordinate clause markers
***a. Speech act and evidential markers
***b. Switch reference markers
***c. Subordinate clause markers
***d. Clauses without final markers
**XIII: Negative ''ssaa''

==Syntax==
Crow is a subject–object–verb ([[Subject–object–verb|SOV]]) language; it is a verb-final and head marking. In noun phrases, the order is possessor–possessum, with the person marker of the possessor identified by a prefix to the possessum. Subordinate clauses precede matrix clauses, and are marked by a suffixed clause-final marker. Relative clauses are internally headed. Crow has postpositional phrases, with the postposition often occurring as a prefix to the following verb. There is no distinct category of adjectives; instead, stative verbs function as noun phrase modifiers.

Crow is an active–stative language, with verbs divided into two classes, active (both transitive and intransitive) and stative, largely on semantic grounds. This is also often called a "split intransitive" language.<ref name="Graczyk p104" />

===Noun-phrase syntax===
An analysis of Crow noun phrase syntax under [[generative grammar]] has yielded the following rules:

# NP → N' (DET)
#
## N' → N
## N' → [s...N' head...]     (relative clause)
## N' → NP N'                (genitive/possessive)
## N' → PP N'                (PP modifier)
# Q → DP Q                  (quantifier phrase)
# DP → DEM NP               (demonstrative phrase)
# NP → NP NP                (appositive)
# NP → S (COMP)             (nominalization)
#
## NP → (NP CONJ)^n          (coordinate NP with ''dak'')
## NP → (N' CONJ)^n DET      (coordinate N' with ''xxo'')

There are two phrases that are subordinate to the NP (noun-phrase): (1) the DP (demonstrative phrase) and (2) the QP (quantifier phrase).

A noun phrase can be marked as definite or indefinite by a suffixed [[determiner (class)|determiner]] (DET). The definite suffix is /-sh/ and the indefinite suffix is /-m/.
**''iisáakshee-'''sh''''' (definite)
***'the young man'
**''bía-'''m''''' (indefinite)
***'a woman'

The determiner suffix is attached to the final word of the noun phrase, not just the agentive noun.
{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|<nowiki>[[</nowiki>bíakaate shoop-úu]-'''m''' húulee-'''sh''' aw-ákee]-'''sh'''
|girl four-PL-DET yesterday-DET {{gcl|1A|1st-person A-set pronominal}}-see-DET
|'the four girls I saw yesterday'}}

'''[[Relative clause|Relative Clauses]]''': N' → [s...N' head...]
{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|['''iisáakshi-m''' búupchee-sh ak-ataalée]-sh aw-ákaa-k
|young.man-DET ball-DET {{gcl|REL|relativizer}}-steal-DET {{gcl|1A|1st-person A-set pronominal}}-see-DECL
|'I saw the young man who stole the ball'}}

'''[[Genitive case|Genitive Clauses]]''': N' → NP N'
{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|[Clara-sh [is-íilaalee<nowiki>]]</nowiki> sapéen ataalí-?
|Clara-DET {{gcl|3POS|3rd-person possessive}}-car who steal-INTERR
|'who stole Clara's car?'}}

'''[[Preposition and postposition|Postpositional Phrases]]''': N' → PP N'
{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|<nowiki>[[</nowiki>dii-héel-uua] ham]-dappií-o-lahtaa
|{{gcl|2B|2nd-person B-set pronominal}}-among-PL some-kill-PL-even.if
|'even if they kill some of you'}}

'''[[Quantification (linguistics)|Quantifier Phrases]]''': Q → DP Q
There are two classes of quantifiers that are distinguished syntactically. The first class heads a quantifier phrases that takes a demonstrative (or in its stead, a noun phrase) as its complement: ''xaxúa''.
{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|hinne bía-sh <nowiki>[[</nowiki>hileen [bachée-sh<nowiki>]]</nowiki> xaxúa] áxpa-m
|this woman-DET these men-DET all marry-DS
|this woman married all these men}}

The second class is a stative verb that may function as a nominal modifier. This class includes: ''ahú'' 'many, much', ''hawa'' 'some', ''kooshtá'' 'few', ''sáawi'' 'how many, so many, some', and the numerals. This class may also be followed by a determiner. They may also function as clausal predicates.

'''[[Demonstrative|Demonstrative Phrases]]''': Q → DP Q
Demonstratives are deictic words; in Crow, they occur phrase-initially. They can also cooccur with determiners (ex. 'this the horse').

'''[[Apposition|Appositives]]''': NP → NP NP
/ko/ (demonstrative) and /kon/ (appositive) are used to modify each other.
{{interlinear|lang=cro|indent=3
|['''ko''' bachée-sh] ['''kon'''] día-k
|that man-DET PRO do-DECL
|'that man is the one who did it'}}

===Relative clauses===
Relative clauses in Crow are complex and subject to theoretical debates. There are two types of relative clauses in Crow: lexically headed and non-lexically headed. There are two basic relativizers /'''ak'''/ and /'''ala'''/, several composite forms based on ''ala'' plus ''baa'' 'indefinite pronoun' and instances with no relativizer.  /'''ak'''/ indicates the subject of the relative clause is relativized and marks the subject as animate, and generally agentive. It can occur in both lexically and non-lexically headed clauses.  /'''ala'''/ may indicate a locative, temporal or manner adverbial is the head of the relative clause. In non-lexically headed relative clauses, /'''ala'''/ can sometimes be interpreted as the head of the clause itself. It can also occur in both lexically and non-lexically headed clauses. The relativizers are bound, with many exception, but they are generally prefixed to the word that contains the verb of the relative clause.

Relative clauses are marked with final determiners. If the definite referent of the relative clause has already been accounted in the discourse or is otherwise obvious, the relative clause is marked with the definite /''-sh''/. Relative clauses can also be marked with the indefinite determiner marker /''-m''/; generally this is used to imply that the referent is being introduced into the discourse for the first time. However, the nominal head is almost always marked by the indefinite determiner /''-m''/.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*Graczyk, R. 2007. ''A Grammar of Crow: Apsáaloke Aliláau''. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
*Hollow, R.C., Jr.; Douglas R. Parks. Studies in Plains linguistics: a review. In ''Anthropology on the Great Plains'', ed. W. Raymond Wood and Margot Liberty. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
*Kaschube, D.V. 1978. ''Crow Texts''. IJAL-NATS Monograph No. 2. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
*Kaschube, D.V. 1963. ''Structural Elements of Crow''. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, June 1960. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms.
*Kaschube, D.V. 1967. ''Structural Elements of Crow''. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press.
*Lowie, R.H. 1945. The Crow Language: Grammatical Sketch and Analyzed Text. ''American Archaeology and Ethnology'', 39 (1942–1945):1-139. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
*Lowie, R.H. 1960. ''Crow Texts''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
*Lowie, R.H. 1960. ''Crow Word Lists''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
*Matthews, G.H. 1979. "Glottochronology and the separation of the Crow and Hidatsa." In ''Symposium on the Crow-Hidatsa Separations'', ed. by Leslie B. Davis. Bozeman, MT: Montana Archaeological Society.
*Silver, S. & W.R. Miller. 1997. ''American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts''. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*Estes, J. [http://www.yourdictionary.com/elr/natlang.html How many indigenous American Languages Are Spoken in the United States? By how many speakers?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723113231/http://www.yourdictionary.com/elr/natlang.html |date=2017-07-23 }} National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.
*[http://www.native-languages.org/crow.htm Crow Language] on the Native Languages of the Americas site
*[http://www.crow-nsn.gov/ Official site of the Crow Tribe]
*{{Cite news
| last = Susan Olp
| title = Crow Tribe gets language immersion grant
| access-date = 2012-09-02
| date = 2012-08-15
| url = http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/crow-tribe-gets-language-immersion-grant/article_3730b364-b6f8-5d84-ac7f-ad9267888569.html
}}
*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/crow.htm Crow Language at Omniglot]
*[http://www.native-languages.org/crow.htm Crow Indian Language (Apsaaloke, Apsaroke, Absarokee)]
*[http://www.language-archives.org/language/cro OLAC resources in and about the Crow language]

{{Siouan languages}}
{{Languages of Montana}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crow Language}}
[[Category:Crow tribe]]
[[Category:Endangered languages of the United States]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Plains]]
[[Category:Native American language revitalization]]
[[Category:Western Siouan languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of Montana]]
[[Category:Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas]]