There have been attempts to place Kutenai in either a Macro-Algonquian or Macro-Salishan language family, most recently with Salish,[7] but these claims are not generally accepted.

This lexical category distinguishes neighboring Algonquian languages, found to the east of the Kootenay Rocky Mountains and near the Kutenai linguistic area.

[5] Tribal councils from the separate communities of the Ktunaxa nation have contributed a selection of audio recordings of Kutenai words and phrases to the FirstVoices website, an online catalogue of the indigenous languages of North America.

[16] As of November 2017[update], the Ktunaxa webpage had 2500 words and 1114 phrases archived, stories and songs recorded, a language learning app available, and First Voices tutor.

The Ktunaxa nation aims to target younger generations with the FirstVoices materials to teach fluency in the Kutenai language.

[17] One such example is the ʔAq̓am community of the Ktunaxa Nation, also known as St. Mary's band in Cranbrook, British Columbia, which has a private elementary school called the ʔaq̓amnikSchool.

This school, as well as providing standard BC curriculum, teaches the Ktunaxa language and cultural traditions of the people to younger generations.

The college offers a certificate program in Native American studies, which requires that students have knowledge of the history and culture of the Salish and Ktunaxa people.

Through the use of social media, another example of Indigenous language revitalization efforts is the Instagram page KtunaxaPride created by Aiyana Twigg in the fall of 2020.

[24][25] In 1991, Lawrence Richard Morgan wrote a description of the Kutenai Language as his PhD dissertation through the University of California, Berkeley.

Morgan's work is an exhaustive list of each grammatical particle, morpheme, and affix, with their respective environments and their varying forms.

In general terms, Kutenai is an agglutinative language, with many grammatical functions being served by both prefixes and suffixes, primarily on the verb, though some affixes select nouns as well.

[7] The pre-verbal position can be occupied by adverbs, as seen in these three examples: qa·kiⱡADVhiȼ'kiⱡsearch-ni-INDhukiʔlouse/lice-s-OBVtiⱡnaold womanqa·kiⱡ hiȼ'kiⱡ -ni hukiʔ -s tiⱡnaADV search -IND louse/lice -OBV {old woman}The old lady started looking for lice.pikʔaklong ago-sOBVnaqaʔiexist-ni-INDtitkat'manqakⱡikcalledxaxacrow-s-OBVpikʔak -s naqaʔi -ni titkat' qakⱡik xaxa -s{long ag}o OBV exist -IND man called crow -OBVLong ago there was a man named 'Xaxa' (or Crow).isvery-iⱡPVBȼⱡakiⱡlike-ni-INDxaxacrownaʔutigirl-s-OBVis -iⱡ ȼⱡakiⱡ -ni xaxa naʔuti -svery PVB like -IND crow girl -OBVCrow loves Naʔuti.One aspect of Kutenai that complicates word order somewhat is the fact that the verb is marked for first- or second-person subjects by "affixal or clitic pronouns" that precede the stem, hu/hun for 'I' and hin for 'you'.