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Athabasca

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Cree ( / k r iː / KREE ; also known as Cree– Montagnais – Naskapi ) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 86,475 indigenous people across Canada in 2021, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador . If considered one language, it is the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. The only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories , alongside eight other aboriginal languages. There, Cree is spoken mainly in Fort Smith and Hay River .

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30-686: Athabasca (also Athabaska ) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca in Canada , āthap-āsk-ā-w (pronounced [aːθapaːskaːw] ), meaning "grass or reeds here and there". Most places named Athabasca are found in Alberta , Canada. Athabasca may also refer to: Cree language Endonyms are: Cree is believed to have begun as a dialect of the Proto-Algonquian language spoken between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago in

60-428: A consonant , can be written four ways, each direction representing its corresponding vowel . Some dialects of Cree have up to seven vowels, so additional diacritics are placed after the syllabic to represent the corresponding vowels. Finals represent stand-alone consonants. The Cree language also has two semivowels . The semivowels may follow other consonants or be on their own in a word. The following tables show

90-465: A complex polysynthetic morphosyntax. A common grammatical feature in Cree dialects, in terms of sentence structure, is non-regulated word order. Word order is not governed by a specific set of rules or structure; instead, "subjects and objects are expressed by means of inflection on the verb". Subject, Verb, and Object (SVO) in a sentence can vary in order, for example, SVO, VOS, OVS, and SOV. Obviation

120-805: A full-stop glyph ( ⟨᙮⟩ ) or a double em-width space has been used between words to signal the transition from one sentence to the next. For Plains Cree and Swampy Cree , Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) uses fourteen letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet to denote the dialect's ten consonants ( ⟨p⟩ , ⟨t⟩ , ⟨c⟩ , ⟨k⟩ , ⟨s⟩ , ⟨m⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , ⟨w⟩ , ⟨y⟩ and ⟨h⟩ ) and seven vowels ( ⟨a⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ā⟩ , ⟨ī⟩ , ⟨ō⟩ and ⟨ē⟩ ). Upper case letters are not used. For more details on

150-593: A work. The vowel ē /eː/ , used in southern Plains Cree, is always long and the grapheme ⟨e⟩ is never used. In northern Plains Cree the sound has merged with ī , and thus ⟨ē⟩ is not used at all. The use of unmarked ⟨o⟩ and marked ⟨ō⟩ for the phonemes /u/ and /oː/ emphasizes the relationship that can exist between these two vowels. There are situations where o can be lengthened to ō , as for example in ᓂᑲᒧ! nikamo! 'sing (now)!' and ᓂᑲᒨᐦᑲᐣ! nikamōhkan! 'sing (later)!'. In alphabetic writing,

180-464: Is also a key aspect of the Cree language(s). In a sense, the obviative can be defined as any third-person ranked lower on a hierarchy of discourse salience than some other (proximate) discourse-participant. "Obviative animate nouns, [in the Plains Cree dialect for instance], are marked by [a suffix] ending –a , and are used to refer to third persons who are more peripheral in the discourse than

210-504: Is not phonologically transparent, which means gender must be learned along with the noun. As is common in polysynthetic languages, a Cree word can be very long, and express something that takes a series of words in English. For example: kiskinohamātowikamikw know. CAUS . APPL . RECP .place kiskinohamātowikamikw know.CAUS.APPL.RECP.place 'school' ( lit. 'knowing-it-together-by-example place') This means that changing

240-539: Is used in Eastern dialects where s and š are distinct phonemes. In other dialects, s is used even when pronounced like [ʃ] . ⟨l⟩ and ⟨r⟩ are used natively in Moose and Attikamek Cree, but in other dialects only for loanwords. The stops, p , t , k , and the affricate, c , can be pronounced either voiced or unvoiced, but the symbols used for writing these sounds all correspond to

270-534: Is used. John John cî Q kî-mîciso-w PST -eat- 3SG Natuashish Natuashish is an Innu community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador . The community is inhabited by the Mushuau Innu First Nation . Natuashish became a federal Indian reserve in 2003. Natuashish (Little Sango Pond) was established in 2002 as a planned community in

300-409: Is very difficult to make definite statements about how different groups emerged and moved around, because there are no written works in the languages to compare, and descriptions by Europeans are not systematic; as well, Algonquian people have a tradition of bilingualism and even of outright adopting a new language from neighbours. A traditional view among 20th-century anthropologists and historians of

330-644: The fur trade posits that the Western Woods Cree and the Plains Cree (and therefore their dialects) did not diverge from other Cree peoples before 1670, when the Cree expanded out of their homeland near James Bay because of access to European firearms. By contrast, James Smith of the Museum of the American Indian stated, in 1987, that the weight of archeological and linguistic evidence puts

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360-472: The original Algonquian homeland , an undetermined area thought to be near the Great Lakes. The speakers of the proto-Cree language are thought to have moved north, and diverged rather quickly into two different groups on each side of James Bay . The eastern group then began to diverge into separate dialects, whereas the western grouping probably broke into distinct dialects much later. After this point it

390-469: The proximate third person". For example: Sam Sam wâpam- ew see- 3SG Susan- a Susan- 3OBV Sam wâpam- ew Susan- a Sam see-3SG Susan-3OBV "Sam sees Susan." The suffix -a marks Susan as the obviative, or 'fourth' person, the person furthest away from the discourse. The Cree language has grammatical gender in a system that classifies nouns as animate or inanimate. The distribution of nouns between animate or inanimate

420-492: The syllabaries of Eastern and Western Cree dialects, respectively: Speakers of various Cree dialects have begun creating dictionaries to serve their communities. Some projects, such as the Cree Language Resource Project, are developing an online bilingual Cree dictionary for the Cree language. Cree syllabics has not commonly or traditionally used the period ( ⟨.⟩ ). Instead, either

450-488: The y dialect, refer to their language as nēhi y awēwin , whereas Woods Cree speakers say nīhi th awīwin , and Swampy Cree speakers say nēhi n awēwin . Another important phonological variation among the Cree dialects involves the palatalisation of Proto-Algonquian *k : East of the Ontario–Quebec border (except for Atikamekw), Proto-Algonquian *k has changed into /tʃ/ or /ts/ before front vowels. See

480-577: The Cree as far west as the Peace River Region of Alberta before European contact. The Cree dialect continuum can be divided by many criteria. Dialects spoken in northern Ontario and the southern James Bay, Lanaudière, and Mauricie regions of Quebec differentiate /ʃ/ (sh as in sh e ) and /s/ , while those to the west have merged the two phonemes as /s/ and in the east the phonemes are merged as either /ʃ/ or /h/ . In several dialects, including northern Plains Cree and Woods Cree,

510-778: The Plains Cree [j] that is [ð] in Rocky Cree as ⟨ý⟩ . Similarly, in dictionaries focused on Western Swampy Cree, Woods Cree may readily substitute ⟨ē⟩ with ⟨ī⟩ , while materials accommodating Woods Cree will indicate the Western Swampy Cree [n] that is [ð] in Woods Cree as ⟨ń⟩ . Atikamekw uses ⟨c⟩ [ ʃ ], ⟨tc⟩ [ t͡ʃ ], and ⟨i⟩ [ j ] (which also serves as ⟨i⟩ [ i ]). Eastern James Bay Cree prefers to indicate long vowels (other than [eː] ) by doubling

540-508: The dialects which use syllabics as their orthography (including Atikamekw but excluding Kawawachikamach Naskapi), the term Montagnais then applies to those dialects using the Latin script (excluding Atikamekw and including Kawawachikamach Naskapi). The term Naskapi typically refers to Kawawachikamach (y-dialect) and Natuashish (n-dialect). The Cree dialects can be broadly classified into nine groups. Roughly from west to east: This table shows

570-403: The hopes of resolving the social problems that had plagued the prior community of Davis Inlet , 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) away. The population of Natuashish at the 2021 Census was 856, down from 938 in 2016. Initial reports suggested that the Canadian government 's plan of renewal and healing had been a failure, as the community was still plagued with alcohol and drug abuse . The government

600-407: The language phonetically. Cree is always written from left to right horizontally. The easternmost dialects are written using the Latin script exclusively. The dialects of Plains Cree, Woods Cree, and western Swampy Cree use Western Cree syllabics and the dialects of eastern Swampy Cree, East Cree, Moose Cree, and Naskapi use Eastern Cree syllabics . In Cree syllabics, each symbol, which represents

630-457: The long vowels /eː/ and /iː/ have merged into a single vowel, /iː/ . In the Quebec communities of Chisasibi , Whapmagoostui , and Kawawachikamach , the long vowel /eː/ has merged with /aː/ . However, the most transparent phonological variation between different Cree dialects are the reflexes of Proto-Algonquian *l in the modern dialects, as shown below: The Plains Cree, speakers of

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660-494: The phonetic values of these letters or variant orthographies, see the § Phonology section above. The /ð/ sound of Woods Cree is written ⟨th⟩ , or ⟨ð⟩ in more recent material. Plains and Swampy material written to be cross-dialectical often modify ⟨y⟩ to ⟨ý⟩ and ⟨n⟩ to ⟨ñ⟩ when those are pronounced /ð/ in Swampy. ⟨š⟩

690-511: The possible consonant phonemes in the Cree language or one of its varieties. In dictionaries focused on Eastern Swampy Cree, Western Swampy Cree may readily substitute ⟨sh⟩ with ⟨s⟩ , while Lowland Moose Cree may readily substitute ⟨ñ⟩ with their ⟨l⟩ . In dictionaries focused on Southern Plains Cree, Northern Plains Cree may readily substitute ⟨ē⟩ with ⟨ī⟩ , while materials accommodating Rocky Cree will indicate

720-473: The reserve. The bylaw was originally passed in 2008 by a margin of two votes. The prohibition bylaw was upheld in a subsequent referendum held in the community in March 2010. The community has continued to struggle with drug abuse and youth boredom. As recently as 2017, gas sniffing by youths has been a notable issue. Natuashish is inaccessible by road and may be reached only by air or sea. The community

750-493: The table above for examples in the * kīla column. Very often the Cree dialect continuum is divided into two languages: Cree and Montagnais. Cree includes all dialects which have not undergone the *k > /tʃ/ sound change (BC–QC) while Montagnais encompasses the territory where this sound change has occurred (QC–NL). These labels are very useful from a linguistic perspective but are confusing as East Cree then qualifies as Montagnais. For practical purposes, Cree usually covers

780-444: The unvoiced pronunciation, e.g. ⟨p⟩ not ⟨b⟩ , ⟨t⟩ not ⟨d⟩ , etc. The phoneme /t͡s/ is represented by ⟨c⟩ , as it is in various other languages . Long vowels are denoted with either a macron , as in ⟨ā⟩ , or a circumflex , as in ⟨â⟩ . Use of either the macron or circumflex is acceptable, but usage should be consistent within

810-418: The use of punctuation has been inconsistent. For instance, in the Plains Cree dialect, the interrogative enclitic cî can be included in the sentence to mark a yes–no question such that this is sometimes considered to be sufficient without including a question mark (?). However, in many modern publications and text collections ( cf. The Counselling Speeches of Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw (1998) ) full punctuation

840-466: The vowel, while the western Cree use either a macron or circumflex diacritic; as [eː] is always long, often it is written as just ⟨e⟩ without doubling or using a diacritic. While Western Cree dialects make use of ⟨o⟩ and either ⟨ō⟩ or ⟨ô⟩ , Eastern Cree dialects instead make use of ⟨u⟩ and either ⟨uu⟩ , ⟨ū⟩ , or ⟨û⟩ . Cree features

870-471: The word order in Cree can place emphasis on different pieces of the sentence. Wolfart and Carroll give the following example by transposing the two Cree words: Cree dialects, except for those spoken in eastern Quebec and Labrador , are traditionally written using Cree syllabics , a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics , but can be written with the Latin script as well. Both writing systems represent

900-451: Was accused of creating a system overburdened with bureaucracy, and not adequately addressing the issues. The local tribal band was accused of corruption, as was proven in a 2005 CBC News report in which it was shown that the leadership was trafficking drugs and other illicit substances to maintain power. The community's attempt to resolve its problem with alcoholism led to a ban on the sale, purchase, and possession of alcohol within

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