Genius of Grammar

The Blackfoot grammar is described by linguists as "polysynthetic." This means that most words are built with many pieces of meaning. A single word - usually with a verb at its root - can comprise a complete sentence or thought. 

The genius of the grammar is that the pieces of meaning - the small linguistic elements - encode Blackfoot traditional values and ways of being and knowing. The slides below provide some examples of how. A list of morphemes (pieces of meaning) can be found here.