Woods Cree is an indigenous language spoken in Northern Manitoba , Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Alberta , Canada . It is part of the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi dialect continuum . The dialect continuum has around 116,000 speakers; the exact population of Woods Cree speakers is unknown, estimated between 2,600 and 35,000.
41-604: The Lac La Ronge Indian Band ( Woods Cree : ᒥᐢᑕᐦᐃ ᓵᑲᐦᐃᑲᓂᕽ , romanized: mistahi-sâkahikanihk ) is a Woodland Cree ( Sakāwithiniwak ) First Nations in northern Saskatchewan . It is one of the ten largest Cree ( Nîhithaw ) band governments in Canada, the largest First Nation in Saskatchewan, with the administrative centre located in La Ronge . La Ronge & Stanley Mission Band of Woods Cree Indians became
82-529: A narrative) of Canadian overland explorer, cartographer, and fur trader David Thompson and, in 1916, published them as David Thompson's Narrative . Tyrrell went into the gold-mining business in 1898, a career that would last more than 50 years. In his work he published several books on gold fields. In 1912 he published The Law of the Pay-streak in Placer Deposits . He was the mine manager of
123-464: A non-specified dialect of Cree as their mother tongue, and 86,115 who said they had some knowledge of a non-specified dialect of Cree. Some of those individuals could be Woods Cree speakers. Woods Cree is not an official language of any country. Speakers of Woods Cree live in and around the northern, forested area of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Like other western Cree languages and dialects, Woods Cree only contains seventeen different phonemes . This
164-645: A possible phonological shift that is occurring in Woods Cree speech due to the influence of the English phonology on the language, however, the data is inconclusive due to the endangered status of the language. The Woods Cree morphological form follows a similar system to that of other Western Cree dialects (for example, Swampy Cree or Plains Cree). A more comprehensive examination of the Western Cree morphological system relating to Woods Cree can be found on
205-751: A signatory to the Treaty 6 on February 11, 1889, signed by Chief James Roberts. In 1900, Peter Ballantyne was allowed to separate from the La Ronge and Stanley Mission Band to form the Peter Ballantyne Band of Cree Indians, the predecessor to the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation . In 1910, the La Ronge & Stanley Mission Band split into two entities: Amos Charles Band of Cree Indians (located in Stanley Mission ) and
246-400: A sonorant. This analysis is challenged however by particular factors which show the likeness of / ð / as an obstruent. For example, among younger speakers the / ð / phoneme is sometimes replaced by a /t/ and voicing in word-final positions also shows that it also falls under obstruent classification. One reason for this particularly unique form of the / ð / phoneme as explained in the article is
287-403: A vowelless variation of the personal prefixes. For example, the verb aðahwi:w 'he buries him' can use the vowelless, reduced version of the personal prefix nika- recognized as n- . The verb then becomes n-aðahwi:w 'I am burying him'. Woods Cree generally uses the connective variant (as seen below) more frequently than the reduced version, however the reduced version is recognized within
328-400: Is a fairly small phonemic inventory for a language; for example, Canadian English distinguishes thirty-eight phonemes. The following phonemes can be found in western Cree languages and dialects: /a, â, c, ê, h, i, î, k, m, n, o, ô, p, s, t, w, y/. Woods Cree differs only in merging /ê/ with /î/ (and thus decreasing the vowel inventory by one down to six distinct vowels) but adding "th" (/ ð /) as
369-563: Is also considered to be a highly inflectional language with all of its inflection being suffixation with the exception of the four personal prefixes. Woods Cree morphology follows the Western Cree system of morphology. Specific to Woods Cree is use of third person indefinite possessors than in other dialects of Cree. The Proto-Algonquian definite possessor prefix is reconstructed as *me- in Bloomfield (1946) Hamp (1976) expands on Bloomfield's analysis by finding in contrast * we- to be
410-468: Is found in Cree, also referred to as non-configurational . For example, the sentence "the children killed some ducks" could be expressed in the following six ways: awaˑsisak children nipaheˑwak killed siˑsiˑpa ducks awaˑsisak nipaheˑwak siˑsiˑpa children killed ducks Joseph Tyrrell Joseph Burr Tyrrell, FRSC (November 1, 1858 – August 26, 1957)
451-399: Is not commonly used in Woods Cree but is found in situations requiring repetition or clarification: The na- morpheme is classified as a portmanteau because it is a dental [n] and therefore it cannot be a reduced form of nika- when here the [n] assimilates with the following [k] ad becomes a velar nasal. Northern Alberta Cree (not specifically Woods Cree) has also been determined to use
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#1732800859662492-566: Is the category of Cree languages spoken west of the Hudson Bay and in the boreal forested area across the northern provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. In 1982 SIL (Summer Institute for Languages) found that the population of Woods Cree speakers was 35,000 people. More recently the University of Regina has documented that of the approximately 75,000 speakers of Cree across in Canada, 20,000 of them live in Saskatchewan, which
533-543: Is the main area where Woods Cree is spoken. Not only is this finding much less than the 1982 statistic, but this estimation accounts for all types of spoken Cree, not just Woods Cree spoken in Saskatchewan - but note that the Woods Cree spoken outside of Saskatchewan is not accounted for in this statistic. According to the 2016 Canadian Census there were 1,840 individuals who identified Woods Cree as their mother tongue, and 2,665 individuals who said they had some knowledge of Woods Cree. There were also 64,050 people who identified
574-471: Is unusual in the Cree language to be used in this manner. As found in Plains Cree, only o- initial verbs are allowed the free variation of using the -t- connective . Also the lengthening of the initial vowel is only allowed in o- initial stems, as seen below: When a verb beginning with a short vowel is used a trend can be seen in Woods Cree that elides the -i- vowel: However, when determining
615-472: The "th" dialect of Cree spoken in the forested area north of the Canadian prairies . A more general, all-encompassing term for this dialect is " Woodland Cree ", which also refers to the cultural group living in the forested area north of the prairies. This term is used, for example, in separating the cultural groups of Cree people who live in the wooded area from the Plains Cree, who traditionally inhabited
656-402: The -t- connective is recognized to be the more common of the two. The use of -y- is also found to be in free variation with the reduced variant of the ki- prefix: In the reduced variant (as seen above in k-ayamina:naw ) the initial short vowel is not lengthened as in the non-reduced variant (i.e. ki-y-ayamihitona:na:w ). This reduction from ni- or ki- to the form n- or k-
697-481: The Algonquian subfamily, and the central Cree – Montagnais – Naskapi language group. Western Cree is a term used to refer to the non-palatized Cree dialects, consisting of Northern Plains Cree, Southern Plains Cree, Woods Cree, Rock Cree, Western Swampy Cree, Eastern Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Atikamekw. Western Woods Cree is the term used to refer to the Cree languages west of the Hudson Bay. This includes
738-599: The Ihalmiut , Inuit from the interior of what is today Nunavut . Tyrrell married Mary Edith Carey in 1894. They had three children: Mary (born 1896), George (born 1900), and Thomas (born 1906). Mary Edith was the founder and first president in 1921 of the Women's Association of the Mining Industry of Canada. In 1894, Tyrrell stumbled upon biographical recollections (11 books of field notes, 39 journals, maps, and
779-533: The Swampy Cree Misplaced Pages page. Cree languages are polysynthetic and can have single words that would need an entire sentence to properly be expressed in English. For example: ni-kî-nohtê-wâpam-âw-ak 1 - PST -want-see. TA - 3 - PL (note: hyphens here are present solely to demonstrate the separate morphemes ) ni-kî-nohtê-wâpam-âw-ak 1-PST-want-see. TA -3-PL "I wanted to see them." (animate) Cree
820-474: The mi- prefix. In Woods Cree the mi- prefix is not applied to members of kin as well as body parts unique to animals. This difference helps demonstrate the dialect difference between Woods Cree and other types of Cree. Plains Cree, for example, does apply indefinite third person possessors when referring to kin. In Pukatawagan Woods Cree, specific usage of the future markers have been determined. Woods Cree spoken in this area, like other Cree dialects, uses
861-463: The / ð / phoneme, the placement of the / ð / phoneme in the phonological inventory, the voicing patterns of this phoneme in non-word final positions, the usage of /l/ phoneme as a replacement for / ð / phoneme in caregiver speech, and lastly the /l/ and / ð / phoneme replacement of /r/ in English loan words. In Proto-Algonquian , the / ð / phoneme of Woods Cree has been reconstructed as *l and, thus, also demonstrates its relation to being categorized as
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#1732800859662902-728: The James Roberts Band of Cree Indians (located in La Ronge). In 1950, the two bands amalgamated and became the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, the current legal name. Lac La Ronge Indian Band's land-base consists of eighteen Indian reserves , some containing one of six communities: The communities of Stanley Mission, Grandmother's Bay and Little Red River are self-administered. This arrangement ensures that these communities have more control over their services and programs. The First Nation elects their council under
943-686: The Journeys of David Thompson and The Mammalia of Canada . He led the 1893 and 1894 expeditions into the Northern Barren Lands, down the Dubawnt River , the first visit to the Kivalliq Region Barrenlands by a European since the explorations of Samuel Hearne in the 1770s. Joseph's younger brother, James William Tyrrell, accompanied him on the expedition, which included the first European contact with
984-419: The area in which Woods Cree was and still is spoken today. In the early 1900s, J.B. Tyrrell , a Canadian geologist and cartographer and the editor of explorer David Thompson 's work found that the people living in the area of Île-à-la-Crosse and upper Churchill River referred to themselves as Nahathaway and spoke the particular -th dialect of Woods Cre e. The Hudson's Bay Company had made record of
1025-435: The area west of James Bay being inhabited by people speaking the -th dialect of Cree. This region of Woods Cree speakers has essentially remained the same until present. Traditionally Woods Cree was often divided into western and eastern Woods Cree, reaching as far east as Quebec. However, the actual Woods Cree language is now determined to be spoken in the mid-northern part of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Western Woods Cree
1066-420: The conjunct order . In the independent order of Woods Cree the preverbs na- and nika- are used. The preverb ka- can be used in both the independent and conjunct orders. The preverb na- can be seen as a portmanteau morpheme, which expresses the first person future context. However, in the second person future context there is no kika- that correlates with the ka- morpheme. The independent order nika-
1107-539: The context of the situation, the initial vowel of the verb stem can be lengthened to portray the specific context: In Woods Cree, when combining a word ending with a short vowel with a word beginning with a short vowel, the rule of external sandhi requires the final vowel of the first word to be dropped and the initial vowel of the second word to be lengthened: The independent order preverbs used in other dialects of Cree (Plains Cree and Swampy Cree) are ta-, kita-, and ka- . In Woods Cree ta- and kita- only occur in
1148-588: The custom electoral system, consisting of a chief and 12 councillors. The current council consists of Chief Tammy Cook-Searson and councillors, Devin Bernatchez, Jimmy Charles, Linda Charles, John Boy Halkett, Gerald McKenzie, Robin McKenzie, Keith Mirasty, Ann Ratt, Dean Roberts, Sam Roberts, Norman Ross, and Charlene Venne. Woods Cree language The Woods Cree language belongs to the Algic family, within
1189-510: The definite human/animal possessor and * me- to be the indefinite possessor prefix. As found in other dialects of Cree, the following possessor prefixes are used in Woods Cree: In most dialects of Cree the prefix mi- is used when describing nouns regarding an undetermined body part, clothing items, and members of kin. For example, a pair of pants (noun requiring a possessor), undetermined in whom they belong to would be preceded with
1230-471: The future markers ka- as the second person future marker. It has been agreed that this is a reduction of the second person prefix ki- and the future marker ka- . The first person future marker na- however does not follow the same reduction patterns (combining ni- first person prefix and ka- future marker). It has determined instead to be a portmanteau realization of first person and tense categories. In vowel initial verb stems, Woods Cree will use
1271-411: The globe have been recorded using the / ð / phoneme and in most of these cases this phoneme is classified as an obstruent . However, the / ð / phoneme in spoken Woods Cree has resemblance to a sonorant phoneme. Most of the evidence demonstrated in the article even concludes that it would be more logical to classify this phoneme as a sonorant due to the following five factors: the sonorant realizations of
Lac La Ronge Indian Band - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-428: The language . Cree verbs that begin with a vowel use the two different connectors -y- and -t- to join the prefix with the verb: Both forms are equally acceptable. However, in Woods Cree the -y- connective is fully productive and can be used with nouns as well as verbs. This is unlike other dialects of Cree, for example, Plains Cree where the connective -t- is mainly used. In spite of using both connectives,
1353-526: The languages Rock Cree, western Swampy Cree, and Strongwoods or Bois Fort Cree. James G.E. Smith classified the linguistic nature of the languages of Woods Cree, northern Plains Cree, western Swampy Cree, and the extinct dialect of Misinipi or Rock Cree to all fall under the Western Woods Cree languages. Another name for Woods Cree is Rocky Cree, translated by Rossignol (1939) from the Cree word asiniˑskaˑwiðiniwak . Rock Cree or Misinipi Cree
1394-430: The plural suffix -waˑw- where all other Plains Cree speakers make use of the plural suffix - ik- . Cree is a highly inflected language and much of the syntactic expression happens within the noun or the verb itself. Due to the complex morphological characteristics of the Cree language, the syntactic word order is relatively free in comparison to many other languages. Free expression of discontinuous constituents
1435-619: The prairies to the south. The language portal of Canada has divided all Cree languages west of Ontario up until the Rocky Mountains into four main subgroups: Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree and Woods Cree. However, in referring to the Woods Cree language they use the terms Woodland and Rock interchangeably. Whether these terms are interchangeable when referring to the Cree "th" dialect however has not been explicitly determined. Different sources in Canadian history texts document
1476-469: The reflex of Proto-Algonquian *r (and thus maintaining a distinct phoneme that the other Western dialects have lost). An important aspect of the Cree vowel system is that the Proto Algonquian short /e/ phoneme merged with short /i/ phoneme as shown above. In Woods Cree the long /eː/ also has merged with the long /iː/ phoneme. Phonetically, these two sounds may also alternate. This results in
1517-420: The vowel system of Woods Cree consisting of only three long vowels /iː uː aː/ and three short vowels /i u a/ in the entire language. The distinguishing feature of Woods Cree is the use of the nonpalatalized -th sound in places where other dialects of Cree would use a different sound: for example, Plains Cree is known for using the -y phoneme . This can be demonstrated by the Cree word for 'I'. In Woods Cree
1558-619: The word for 'I' is nitha (IPA: [ niða ]) whereas in Plains Cree it would be pronounced niya (IPA: [ nija ], spelled ᓂᔭ in Cree orthography ). A significant distinction between Woods Cree and Plains Cree has been questioned in the analysis and history of the language. Various researchers and explorers throughout history however have concluded that there is a "loss of intelligibility between Woods Cree and Plains Cree", distinguishing them as separate languages. Cree / ð / shares features both with obstruents and sonorants. Many languages around
1599-412: Was a "r" dialect of Cree but now have merged with Woods Cree, together as the "th" dialect of Cree spoken by the group of people geographically located at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains. In Alberta, Woods Cree is also known as Bush Cree. Precise classification of the Woods Cree language has not been sufficiently documented. Many different names and terms have been used in the description of
1640-621: Was a Canadian geologist, cartographer, mining consultant and historian. He discovered dinosaur ( Albertosaurus sarcophagus ) bones in Alberta 's Badlands and coal around Drumheller in 1884. Canada's Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta was named in his honour. Tyrrell was born in Weston , Ontario , the fifth child of William and Elizabeth Tyrrell. He was the brother of Canadian explorer and author James William Tyrrell . He
1681-607: Was a student at Weston Grammar School before graduating from Upper Canada College in 1876 and receiving a law degree from the University of Toronto in 1880. After articling for a law firm in Toronto , his doctor advised him to work outdoors due to his health. He joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1880, leading or participating in numerous explorations. He published two books in 1888: A Brief Narrative of