Cree language

Spoken in

Algonquian languages

  • Central Algonquian languages Cree

Cr

Cre

Cre ( macro language )

The language of the Cree ( Nēhiyawēwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ in Plains Cree, other variants below) belongs to the Algonquian language family and is spoken by about 100,000 people in several regional variants in large parts of Canada as well as a small group in Montana (USA). Of the indigenous languages ​​of the English-speaking North America, it has the second most speakers.

Number of speakers

The Cree in Canada is the most widespread language of the Indians known as First Nations. According to official figures, it was spoken there in 2006 of 87 285 Cree. Taking the spokesman added that do not identify themselves as members of the Cree tribes, we arrive at 99,950 speakers. In the U.S., where the Plains Cree is spoken by about 100 old people on the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana, the language is considered moribund.

Dissemination

The range extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, where up to nine dialects are distinguished. These are (from west to east) Plains or Western Cree (Alberta, Saskatchewan ), Woods ( Saskatchewan and Manitoba ) and Swampy Cree ( Manitoba and Ontario). Further eastward, the Moose Cree joins. In Québec to Atikamekw, Eastern Cree, Eastern Montagnais and Innu and Naskapi of the languages ​​that are mainly attributed to the Cree find. This does not apply for the Oji - Cree, which is more of an Ojibwa.

Phonology

Consonants

Taken together in the various Cree dialects following consonants occur:

Vowels

The Cree dialects have up to seven vowels, three short and four long:

Regional variations ( dialects )

Cree is a dialect continuum, which can be divided by many criteria. In northern Ontario and southern James Bay, Lanaudière and Mauricie in Quebec is between / ʃ / (sh) and / s / distinction, while west of it both as / s / and east of it both as / ʃ /, or as / h / is spoken. In several dialects, including in the northern Plains Cree and Woods Cree, the long vowels / e ː / and / i ː / collapsed to / i ː /. In Chisasibi, Whapmagoostui and Kawawachikamach in Quebec are the long vowels / e ː / and / a ː / collapsed to / a ː /.

In particular, l the dialects, however, after the realization of the adopted great- Algonquian phoneme * r / * and * divided by k:

Font

While it is almost always written in eastern Quebec and Labrador Cree with Latin letters, the Cree writing is in the other parts of the country usual, a syllabary, although Latin is used in parallel. Cree is written horizontally from left to right. The phonetic values ​​of the syllabic signs, adapted to the phonetics of the dialects differ in two major regions: the dialects Plains Cree, Woods Cree and Swampy Cree using the Western Cree font, the dialects of East Cree, Moose Cree and Naskapi contrast, the Eastern Cree Scripture. The vowel is determined by the orientation of the syllable character, which is usually sufficient for the four Algonquian vowel values ​​, while about Naskapi even gets along with three vowel values. However, since some dialects have up to seven vowels, also Diacritics are used.

Cree literature

The Methodist missionary James Evans developed the Cree font 1840-1846 in collaboration with Christianized Indians of the Cree and Ojibwe in Norway House on Hudson Bay. Thus, a large part of the literature since creesprachigen resulting from translations of the Bible, hymn books and other Christian texts. As early as 1862 appeared in Cree syllabary the complete Bible in Plains Cree (Western Cree, Old Testament in 1861, New Testament 1862), translated from the Methodist, later Anglican Pastor William Mason and Sophia Thomas Mason what the second translation of the Bible into an indigenous language the Americas was. A translation of the New Testament into Moose Cree by the Anglican Bishop John Horden came out in 1876. 1908 followed by a revised edition of the New Testament on Plains Cree by John A. MacKay (new edition, inter alia, 1990) and more recently a translation into Naskapi 2007. Too, in Latin script, the New Testament has been published. The Canadian Bible Society is currently planning in cooperation with the Wycliffe Bible Translators, the publication of a further revision of the Bible into Plains Cree, who is to appear in both syllabary as well as in Latin script.

The limited by the lack of printing types options for printing were other types of publications in Cree syllabary hardly. More recently, syllabic typewriters and eventually word processing with syllabary ( Canadian syllable character set) have been developed so that since then textbooks, newspapers and even official documents have come out in this language syllabary.

Derived languages

The Michif Métis is a mixed language, in which the nominal system and the French verbal system is Cree.

206508
de