The historical Blackfoot Syllabics encoded in UCAS are no longer in use by the community. This system of writing the Blackfoot language was developed in 1888 by John William Timms, although it never gained traction with the local language communities. Instead, Blackfoot has been written using a standardized roman orthography for over a century, although there have been recent efforts to develop a new Syllabics orthography for the Blackfoot language, which is distinct from this writing system.
❶ The primary distinction that one would notice regarding the graphic representation of the historical Blackfoot Syllabics is the use of the Square Form style, which is consistent with the common form of Syllabics used in Western Canada for the Dene Syllabics. As well, some Plains and Woods Cree communities also used the Square Form style historically, in the late 19th century. As a result of proximity and the sharing of type material, the historical Blackfoot Syllabics featured this stylistic form, which would be seen in glyphs such as ᑫ ᑭ ᑯ ᑲ ᓭ ᓯ ᓱ ᓴ ᔦ ᔨ ᔪ ᔭ.
Blackfoot Syllabics Subset:
ᖳ ᖰ ᖱ ᖲ ᑫ ᑭ ᑯ ᑲ ᒣ ᒥ ᒧ ᒪ ᖿ ᖼ ᖽ ᖾ ᒉ ᒋ ᒍ ᒐ ᖻ ᖸ ᖹ ᖺ ᓭ ᓯ ᓱ ᓴ ᔦ ᔨ ᔪ ᔭ ᖷ ᖴ ᖵ ᖶ ᐤ ᐨ ᘁ ᐢ ᐡ ᔈ ᐧ ᐟ ᑉ ᐠ ᙿ ᑊ ᐦ ᐀ ᙮ - .