Plains Cree language - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Plains Cree is a dialect of the Algonquian language

Algonquian languages

The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...

, Cree

Cree language

Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...

, which is the most common Canadian indigenous language

Indigenous language

An indigenous language or autochthonous language is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but has been reduced to the status of a minority language. This language would be from a linguistically distinct community that has been settled in the area for many generations...

. Plains Cree is sometimes considered a dialect of the Cree-Montagnais language, or sometimes a dialect of the Cree language, distinct from the Montagnais language. Plains Cree is one of five main dialects of Cree in this second sense, along with Woods Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Atikamekw. Although no single dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

of Cree is favored over another, Plains Cree is the most widely used. Out of the 80 thousand speakers of the Cree language, the Plains Cree dialect is spoken by about 34,000 people primarily in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

and Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

but also in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

and Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. This number is diminishing as social pressures increase to use English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, leaving many Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

children without a fluent command of Cree. Monolingual Plains Cree speakers are still found, however, in the more rural Cree-speaking areas, such as the Cree territory's northern reaches. These populations, nevertheless, are primarily composed of elders and are continuously shrinking in size.

Consonants

The consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...

inventory for Plains Cree contains 10 or 11 sounds. This includes the semi-vowels /w/ and /j/, which are glides

Semivowel

In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...

that act like and often follow consonants.

The consonants of Plains Cree in the two standard writing systems, Cree syllabics and the Roman alphabet are listed in the following table (with IPA phonemic

Phoneme

In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....

notation within slashes). Note that the Cree syllabics symbols chosen for this table all represent syllable coda

Syllable coda

In phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...

s, as in ēw, ēp, ēt, etc. The consonants are represented differently when they comprise or are a component of a syllable onset, as in wē, pē, pwē, tē, etc. The exception is h, which always has the same representation, as in ēh or hē.

	Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....	Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...	p /p/	t /t/		k /k/	(/ʔ/)
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...		c /t͡s/
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...	m /m/	n /n/
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...		s /s/			h /h/
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...	w /w/		y /j/

The status of the glottal stop

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...

, /ʔ/, as a phoneme in Plains Cree is uncertain. It was recorded in the word ēhaʔ “yes” (transcribed ähaʔ) by Leonard Bloomfield

Leonard Bloomfield

Leonard Bloomfield was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics...

, who stated that the sound occurred only in this word. In a collaborative online dictionary, Cree speakers have contributed several variants of this word, including ēha (written eha and êha), ēhē (written êhê), and īhi (written îhi). None of these forms includes a final glottal stop. However, there is no way of writing a glottal stop in the standard Roman alphabet or in Cree syllabics. Wolfart

H.C. Wolfart

H. Christoph Wolfart is a German-born Canadian researcher, editor, translator and Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manitoba. He is a graduate of the University of Freiburg as well as Cornell University. He completed a Ph.D...

's grammar contains a text sample which includes this word without a glottal stop, and in his synopsis of Plains Cree sounds no mention of this sound is made. The same word also occurs in Michif

Michif language

Michif is the language of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations women and fur trade workers of European ancestry...

, a language derived in part from Plains Cree. There it appears with a final consonant (and nasalized vowels), as aenhenk “yes”.

There is a degree of variation in the sounds c /t͡s/ and s /s/. On the Sweetgrass Reserve in Saskatchewan in 1925, c /t͡s/ was either alveolar [t͡s] or palatoalveolar [t͡ʃ], but s /s/ was normally alveolar [s], and only abnormally palatoalveolar [ʃ]. In contrast to this, Michif words of Plains Cree origin at Turtle Mountain, North Dakota, invariably have palatoalveolar pronunciation for both of these sounds.

Voicing of the stops and the affricate is not contrastive in Plain Cree, which is to say that the phonemes p /p/, t /t/, k /k/, c /t͡s/ have voiceless

Voiceless

In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of...

allophone

Allophone

In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...

s [p], [t], [k], [t͡s, t͡ʃ] and voiced

VOICED

Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation...

allophones [b], [d], [ɡ], [d͡z, d͡ʒ]. According to Wolfart

H.C. Wolfart

and Carroll, the distribution of voiceless and voiced allophones is complementary: voiceless allophones occur in unvoiced phonological contexts; voiced allophones occur in voiced contexts. The context limit is word boundary, not phrase boundary. So voiceless variants occur at the beginning of a word, at the end of a word, and after h /h/ or s /s/. The voiced variants occur in all other situations. However, other distributions of voiceless versus voiced sounds are possible. Bloomfield reported the same voicing pattern as a possibility for the phoneme k /k/, but did not mentioned it for p /p/, t /t/, or c /t͡s/. The Plains Cree component of Michif shows a different pattern with respect to voicing. Plains Cree p /p/, t /t/, k /k/, c /t͡s/, and also s /s/ normally correspond to the Michif sounds p /p/, t /t/, k /k/, ch /t͡ʃ/, and sh /ʃ/, which in Michif do not have voiced allophones. Michif has voiced sounds b /b/, d /d/, g /ɡ/, j /d͡ʒ/, and zh /ʒ/ which are distinct phonemes, and in some cases the Plains Cree sounds correspond to these. These cases all involve syncope of vowel i /i/ that results in a cluster of nasal consonant plus stop, affricate or sibilant

Sibilant consonant

A sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...

. At the beginning of a word, the nasal consonant is subsequently lost. Unlike the stops and the affricate, sh /ʃ/ becomes voiced only at the beginning of a word.

Voicing variation in Plains Cree and Michif – examples
	Plains Cree proper	Plains Cree words in Michif
“in the mean time”	mēkwāc [meːɡwɑːt͡s, meːkwɑːt͡s]	maykwawt, maenkwawt [mẽːkwɑːt]
“run!”	pimipahtā [pɪmɪbahtɑː, pɪmɪpahtɑː]	pimbahtaw, pimbastaw [pɪmbahtɑː, pɪmbastɑː]
“how?”	tānisi [tɑːnɪsɪ, tɑːnɪʃɪ]	tawnshi [tɑ̃ːʃɪ]
“he/she is loved”	sākihāw [sɑːɡɪhɑːw, sɑːkɪhɑːw]	shawkihow [ʃɑːkɪhɑːw]
“I love him/her”	nisākihāw [nɪsɑːɡɪhɑːw, nɪsɑːkɪhɑːw]	zhawkihow [ʒɑːkɪhɑːw]

Plains Cree has pre-aspirated stops and a pre-aspirated affricate which are actually clusters of /h/ plus a following stop or affricate; these are not separate phonemes. Pre-aspiration can uniquely distinguish words. For example, compare the simple k and cluster hk in wīcihik "help me!" and wīcihihk "help him!".

Vowels

Plains Cree is usually described as having seven contrastive vowels, three short and four long. However, northern Plains Cree has only three long vowels.

These vowels in the standard writing systems are listed in the following table (with IPA phonemic notation within slashes). Note that the Cree syllabics symbols chosen for this table all represent syllable nuclei which have no syllable onset. The vowels are represented differently with non-null onset, as for example with n-onset in nē, ni, nī, etc.

	Short Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...		Long Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
High (close)	i /i/	o /u/	ī /iː/	ō /oː/
Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...			ē /eː/	ō /oː/
Open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel...	a /a/
Low (open)	a /a/		ā /aː/

A distinction not indicated in the table is between back rounded and back unrounded. The back vowels o and ō are rounded, whereas the sometimes back vowels a and ā are not.

Within these phonemes there is a degree of allophonic variation. The short close vowels i /i/ and o /u/ are typically near close [ɪ] and [ʊ], but range to close [i] and [u]. The short open vowel a /a/ is typically open, ranging from front [a] to back [ɑ], but its range extends to front open-mid [ɛ] and back open-mid [ʌ]. The long front close vowel ī /iː/ is [iː]; ē /eː/ is close-mid [eː]; ō /oː/ is typically close-mid [oː] but its range includes close [uː]; and ā /aː/ ranges from front open [aː] to back open [ɑː].

The description of ē /eː/ must be further qualified to account for geographic variation. Although this sound is [eː] in southern Plains Cree, it becomes closer farther north, becoming [iː] and merging with /iː/ in northern Plains Cree, as it has done also in neighbouring Woods Cree.

Contrast in vowel length can be seen in such pairs as sakahikan "nail" and sākahikan "lake" or nipiy "water" and nīpiy "leaf".

Consonant sequences

The vowel /i/ is inserted when morpheme

Morpheme

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...

s with non-syllabic endings are followed by morpheme-initial consonants, such as when the transitive

Transitivity (grammatical category)

In linguistics, transitivity is a property of verbs that relates to whether a verb can take direct objects and how many such objects a verb can take...

animate

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

conjunct ending -at is followed by the third person plural marker -k. The result is not atk but rather acik. Note the palatalization

Palatalization

In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....

of the /t-i/ sequence. This insertion does not occur before semivowels such as /w/ or in certain specific combinations. Because Plains Cree does not accept the phonological sequence /ww/, however, one /w/ is dropped. When the morpheme /ahkw/, a marker for the inclusive

Clusivity

In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...

plural in the conjunct order, is followed by /waːw/, the third person plural marker, the word is realized as /ahkwaːw/.

Vowel sequences

The glide

Semivowel

/j/ is inserted between two long vowels

Vowel length

In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...

, which is why the combination of kīsikā "be day" and āpan "be dawn" forms kīsikāyāpan "it is day-break". Also, the combination of a long vowel

Vowel length

and a short vowel

Vowel length

deletes the short vowel

Vowel length

. Therefore, nīpā "in the dark" and ohtē "walk" form nīpāhtēw "he walks in the dark". This deletion is true whether the short vowel

Vowel length

occurs before or after the long vowel

Vowel length

. When two short vowels

Vowel length

occur in sequence, however, it is the second that deletes. For instance, the stem

Word stem

In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...

ositiyi "his foot/feet" combines with the locative

Locative case

Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...

suffix

Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...

/ehk/ to produce ositiyihk "on his foot/feet". Normal patterns of vowel

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

combination and deletion, however, are set aside during prefix

Prefix

A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...

ation, a process in which a [t] is inserted

Epenthesis

In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....

between vowel

Vowel

s when the personal prefix

Prefix

es ki-, ni-, o-, and mi- precede a stem-initial vowel. As a result, when the personal prefix for "I" ni- is affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

ed to the stem

Word stem

for "sit" apin, the word is realized as nitapin instead of nipin. In isolated cases, /h/ or /w/ is sometimes inserted

Epenthesis

instead of [t], such as the word nihayān "I have it".

Palatalization

of the sounds /θ/ and /t/ to /s/ and /t͡s/ respectively occurs before the vowels /i/ and /iː/ as well as the consonant /j/. For example, the stem

Word stem

/naːθ/ "fetch" becomes kināsin "you fetch me" before the ending

Suffix

/in/ and kinātitin "I fetch you" where it is not palatized before the ending

Suffix

/etin/. This pattern includes several important exceptions, including that of the stem

Word stem

wāt- "hole". Before the inanimate

Grammatical gender

proximate

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

singular suffix

Suffix

/i/, one would expect the /t/ to become either /s/ or /t͡s/ but it does not. Palatalization

Palatalization

is also found in diminutive

Diminutive

In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...

s, where all instances of /t/ in a word are replaced by [c] before the diminutive suffixes

Diminutive

/es/, /esis/, etc. Thus, nitēm "my horse" would become nicēmisis "my little horse" and atimw- /aθemw/ "dog" would realize as acimosis "little dog". Palatalization

Palatalization

to indicate diminution

Diminutive

extends even to internal changes within the stem

Word stem

. This is why the statement yōtin "it is windy" can change to yōcin to say that "it is a little windy".

Apocopation

Word-final short vowels

Vowel length

tend to be subject to apocope

Apocope

In phonology, apocope is the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.-Historical sound change:...

except for when the stem

Word stem

is syllabic

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

. That is, the word /sīsīp-a/ would become sīsīp "duck" but /nisk-a/ remains niska "goose" because the stem

Word stem

is composed of only a single syllable

Syllable

. Similarly, post-consonantal word-final /w/ is lost. In the case of the Plains Cree word for "dog" /aθemwa/, the /w/ is only lost after the short vowel

Vowel length

/a/ is dropped when the plural suffix

Suffix

-k is added. Thus, the word is realized atim while its plural form is atimwak.

Surface variations

In normal, everyday spoken Plains Cree, several phonological contractions are observed. For instance, final vowel

Vowel

s can merge with the initial vowel

Vowel

of the following word. This is how the phrase nāpēw mīna atim is reduced to nāpēw mīn ātim "a man and a dog". In this case, the contraction

Contraction (grammar)

A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....

involved the same vowel

Vowel

; the first vowel

Vowel

is taken and included in the second word in its long form. When the contraction involves different vowel

Vowel

s, the first vowel

Vowel

is deleted and the second is lengthened: nāpēw mīna iskwēw "a man and a woman" is reduced to nāpēw mīn īskwēw. Contraction does not always occur, and the word boundary may also be distinguished by the insertion

Epenthesis

of the /h/ sound: mīna iskwēw and mīna(h) iskwēw respectively. Within words, short vowels

Vowel length

may also disappear when they are unstressed

Stress (linguistics)

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...

, especially between [s] and [t] or [n] and [s]. In normal speech, for example, the greeting tānisi "hello" is reduced to tānsi.

Syllable structure and stress

The stress pattern

Stress (linguistics)

of Plains Cree is dependent on the number of syllable

Syllable

s rather than on vowel length

Vowel length

. For instance, in disyllabic

Syllable

words, it is the last syllable

Syllable

that receives primary stressed

Stress (linguistics)

, as in the word /is'kwe:w/ iskwēw "woman" or /mih'ti/ mihti "piece of firewood". Words of three syllable

Syllable

s or more exhibit primary stress

Stress (linguistics)

on the third syllable

Syllable

from the end. In this case, secondary stress

Stress (linguistics)

falls on alternate syllable

Syllable

s from the antepenult. One may observe, for instance, that the word pasakwāpisimowin "Shut-Eye Dance" is pronounced /'pasa'kwa:pi'simo'win/. This rule holds even in cases where the penultimate syllable

Syllable

is long.

The syllable

Syllable

itself consists of an optional onset, a peak obligatory vowel

Vowel

and an optional coda

Syllable coda

. The onset can be non-syllabic or a consonant

Consonant

, sometimes followed by a w. Although any vowel

Vowel

can occur in any position in the word, the long vowels /iː/, /eː/, and /oː/ are found only rarely in initial and final positions. Plains Cree does not permit vowel clusters; clusters of identical non-syllabics; or fricatives followed by a fricative, nasal

Nasal consonant

A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...

, or y. The coda

Syllable coda

, when it occurs, is either [s] or [h] but many Plains Cree words end in a vowel

Vowel

Morphology

Plains Cree is classified as a polysynthetic

Polysynthetic language

In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes. Whereas isolating languages have a low morpheme-to-word ratio, polysynthetic languages have extremely high morpheme-to-word ratios.Not all languages can be...

fusional

Fusional language

A fusional language is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to overlay many morphemes in a way that can be difficult to segment....

language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

as a result of the complexity of its affix

Affix

combinations. Apart from four personal prefix

Prefix

es, Plains Cree utilizes suffix

Suffix

es exclusively.

Nouns

Because almost all grammatical information is stored within the verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

, noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

s in Plains Cree are relatively simple. Noun

Noun

s can be marked with possessive prefix

Prefix

es, which are paired with suffix

Suffix

es for plural

Plural

In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...

possessive pronouns like that for our (excl.) ni(t)-...-inān. Nominal morphology

Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

, like the language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

in general, is nevertheless dominated by suffix

Suffix

es. This includes the diminutive suffix, plural number suffix

Suffix

es -ak and -a, and the locative suffix

Suffix

-ihk. These forms each have predictable allomorph

Allomorph

In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit of meaning can vary in sound without changing meaning. The term allomorph explains the comprehension of phonological variations for specific morphemes....

s. Additional suffix

Suffix

es include those to mark obviation

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

Personal Prefixes (excl. third persons)

	Singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....	Plural Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
First Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...	/ni-/	/ki(t)-...-inaw/ (incl.) /ni(t)-...-ina:n/ (excl.)
Second Person Second person Second person can refer to the following:* A grammatical person, you, your and yours in the English language* Second-person narrative, a perspective in storytelling* Second Person , a trip-hop band from London...	/ki(t)-/	/ki(t)-...-iwa:w/
Third Person Third Person Third Person was animprovising trio formed in 1990 in New York City, led by cellist Tom Cora and drummer Samm Bennett. Each performance featured an invited guest: A third person...	/o(t)-/ (prox.) /o(t)-...iyiw/ (obv.)	/o(t)-...-iwa:w/

Position classes

Bakker (2006) provides several position class templates for the morpheme

Morpheme

s in the verb

Verb

s of Plains Cree, the following of which is the most derived.

Preverbs
- A – Person [or conjunct]
- B – Tense
- C – Mood
- D – Aspect 1
- E – Aspect 2
- F – Aspect 3
- G – Aktionsart (Lexical Aspect)
Stem
Suffixes
- I – Possessed object (Obviation)
- II – Direction/Theme
- III – Valency
- IV – Voice
- V – Possessed subject (Obviation)
- VI – Person
- VII – Plural
- VIII – Conditional

Bakker (2006) observes that this model does contain contradictions relating to the ordering of preverb

Preverb

Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term preverb is used in Caucasian , Caddoan, Athabaskan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elements prefixed to verbs.Theoretically, any prefix could be called a preverbal element...

s and that this is likely due to the multiple functions of some preverb

Preverb

s. That is, identical forms with distinct meanings can occur at different positions in the verb

Verb

complex.

Wolfart (1973b) identifies two preverb

Preverb

position classes, position 1 and 2. The preverb

Preverb

s of position 1 are few and mutually exclusive while those of position 2 make up an open class of particles, of which several may occur in succession. The preverb

Preverb

s of position 1 include subordinating particles like /e:/ or /ka:/ and the preverb

Preverb

s /ka/ and /kita/, which indicate subsequence or futurity. Position 2 preverb

Preverb

s are arranged semantically

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

along a scale from abstract

Abstract object

An abstract object is an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a type of thing . In philosophy, an important distinction is whether an object is considered abstract or concrete. Abstract objects are sometimes called abstracta An abstract object is an...

to concrete. Abstract preverb

Preverb

s include /a:ta/ "although, in vain", in ē-āta-kitōtāt "although he spoke to him", and /wi:/ "will, intend to", as in wī-mēscihāwak "they will all be killed". An example of a concrete preverb

Preverb

can be found in /ka:mwa:ci/ "quietly", in kī-kāmwāci-pimātisiwak , or /ne:wo/ "four" in ē-kī-nēwo-tipiskāyik "when the fourth night passed". Bakker (2006) classes tense

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

as a position 1 preverb

Preverb

but the following mood

Grammatical mood

In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...

as both a position 1 and position 2 preverb

Preverb

. Aspect

Grammatical aspect

In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...

1 and the Aktionsart are also classified as position 2 preverb

Preverb

s. The difference between Aspect

Grammatical aspect

In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...

2 and 3 seems to be that of length, with 2 being durative and 3 being iterative.

Reduplication

Two types of reduplication

Reduplication

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

occur to verb

Verb

s and particle roots to denote continuity, repetition or intensity. The first type changes the stem

Word stem

during the process and is not predictable, common, or productive. For example, the root pim- "along" becomes papām- "about". The productive type of reduplication

Reduplication

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

places the reduplicated

Reduplication

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

syllable

Syllable

in front of the root

Word stem

. The reduplicated

Reduplication

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

syllable

Syllable

is formed from the first consonant

Consonant

of the word and an /aː/. The final form looks like /kaːkiːpa/ "over and over". In words beginning with a vowel

Vowel

, the reduplication

Reduplication

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

is marked by /ay-/, as evidenced by the word /ayaːtotam/ "he tells it over and over".

Word Order

The basic transitive sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...

is of the form SVO, such as awāsisak nipahēwak sīsīpa "the children killed some ducks", although the forms SOV; VSO; VOS; OVS; and OSV are also possible. Subject

Subject (grammar)

The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...

and object noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

s may be omitted. Thus "the children killed some ducks" may also be expressed nipahēwak sīsīpa "they killed some ducks", awāsisak nipahēwak "the children killed them" or nipahēwak "they killed them".

It is uncommon in conversation for the subject

Subject (grammar)

and object of a verb

Verb

to be realized by full noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

s. More often, the highly marked parallel noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

s are used to indicate emphasis. In narration

Narrative

A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...

, sentences

Sentence (linguistics)

with full parallel noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

s often mark the beginning or end of discourse, indicate peripeteia

Peripeteia

Peripeteia is a reversal of circumstances, or turning point. The term is primarily used with reference to works of literature. The English form of peripeteia is peripety. Peripety is a sudden reversal dependent on intellect and logic...

in narrative

Narrative

, or introduce new information. Sentences of the OSV form with two full noun

Noun

s occur extremely infrequently.

Direction and obviation

Direction, or the semantic

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

designation of the actor-goal relationship, is morphologically

Morphology (linguistics)

expressed through theme signs that also show agreement between the verb

Verb

and its nominal complements. In Plains Cree, direction is dependent on person hierarchy, or the order of person-marking morpheme

Morpheme

s in the verb. The person hierarchy in Plains Cree is: 2>1>3>3'. Note that 3' refers to the obviative

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

third person

Grammatical person

. Derivational suffix

Suffix

es mark whether the semantic

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

roles of persons follow this person hierarchy or invert it, called direct or inverse form respectively. The following examples place the second person marker first linearly but the direct and inverse suffix

Suffix

es change the semantic

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

roles. The direct marker /-i-/ in the sentence ki-wāpam-i-n indicates that it should be read "you see me". The reading is reversed to "I see you" in the sentence ki-wāpam-iti-n because of the inverse marker /-iti-/. Compare the difference in meaning between the two directions in the following tables.

Direct Set

	(2-1)	(1-3)	(3-(3'))	(3'-(3'))
Plains Cree	kitasamin	nitasamāw	asamēw	asamēyiwa
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...	you feed me	I feed him	He feeds him	He feeds him

Inverse Set

	(1-2)	(3-1)	((3')-3)	((3')-3')
Plains Cree	kitasamitin	nitasamik	asamik	asamikoyiwa
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...	I feed you	He feeds me	He feeds him	He feeds him

Note that the situation is made more complicated when both referents are third persons

Grammatical person

because Plains Cree implements obviation

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

. For example, we have the sentence sēkihēw nāpēw atimwa. The verb

Verb

sēkihēw "scare" contains the direct-set marker /-e:w-/, indicating that the proximate

Grammatical person

third person

Grammatical person

is acting on the obviative

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

. The noun

Noun

nāpēw "man" is marked as proximate

Grammatical person

through the absence of a suffix

Suffix

while the noun

Noun

atimwa "dog" contains the obviative

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

suffix

Suffix

/-wa/. Thus the sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

reads "the man scares the dog", with special emphasis on the proximate

Grammatical person

"man". This is contrasted by the sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

sēkihik nāpēw atimwa, where the markers for obviation

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

are the same but the direction marker is now the inverse-set /-ik/ representing action of the obviative

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

third person

Grammatical person

on the proximate

Grammatical person

third

Grammatical person

. Therefore, the sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

becomes "the dog scares the man" and the emphasis still lies with the proximate

Grammatical person

"man". Of course, the sentence

Sentence (linguistics)

may require that the dog atim be the proximate

Grammatical person

noun

Noun

, in which case the sentence would be either sēkihēw nāpēwa atim "the dog (3) scares(3-(3')) the man (3')" or sēkihik nāpēwa atim "the man (3') scares ((3')-3) the dog (3)". Direction and obviation

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

are not versions of the passive

Passive voice

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...

, which is formed separately in Plains Cree.

Locative suffix

Because Plains Cree does not have a true case marking system

Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...

, it has to instead rely on direction, obviation

Obviative

Obviate third person person is a grammatical person marking that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient third person referent in a given discourse context...

, and the locative suffix

Suffix

. This suffix

Suffix

, /ehk/ or its variant /ena:hk/, has the basic meanings of at, in, on, etc. The simple locative suffix

Suffix

/ehk/ can be used with stems

Word stem

or possessed themes, such as the stem

Word stem

skāt "leg". The personal pronoun

Personal pronoun

Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...

/ni-/ can be added to the stem

Word stem

to make niskāt "my leg" and the addition of the plural suffix

Suffix

/-a/ makes niskāta "my legs". On top of these changes, the simple locative suffix

Suffix

is affixed to produce niskātihk "on my leg(s)". The distributive locative suffix

Suffix

/ena:hk/ is used with noun

Noun

s that reference humans or animals. In this way, ayīsiyiniw- "human being" becomes ayīsiyinināk "among humans" or "in this world". Similarly, the noun

Noun

sāsīw "Sarci Indian" changes to "at Sarci Reserve" sāsīnāhk.

Noun incorporation

According to Denny (1978), Wolfart identifies intransitive verb

Intransitive verb

In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....

s with transitive stems as clear examples of noun incorporation

Incorporation (linguistics)

Incorporation is a phenomenon by which a word, usually a verb, forms a kind of compound with, for instance, its direct object or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function....

because they can be reworded with the medial replaced by independent noun

Noun

s. The example nōcihiskwēwēw "he chases women" is given to illustrate the inclusion of the noun

Noun

woman iskwēw within the verb

Verb

complex, which can be paraphrased as iskwēwa nōcihēw "he pursues a woman". Denny (1978) contends that these sentences

Sentence (linguistics)

have an importance semantic

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

difference in that the meaning of the incorporative form is narrower and denotes habitual action. He argues that the medial, or noun

Noun

classifier, has taken on an adverbial meaning in this context. This is illustrated in the Plains Cree sentence wanihastimwēw "he loses his horse" or, literally, "he horse-loses".

Vocabulary

Plains Cree is one of several dialects of Cree-Montagnais. The following tables show words in Plains Cree and corresponding words in a selection of other Cree dialects. A number of similarities and some differences can be seen. In some cases the differences are only in orthography. Plains Cree has some regular sound correspondences with other Cree-Montagnais dialects, and in some cases the differences between Plains Cree and other dialects exemplify these regular correspondences. Note that in terms of linguistic classification, the East Cree dialect which appears in these tables is a dialect of Montagnais.

In the following table, each noun is given in its singular form. All forms are either specifically proximate, or can be either proximate or obviate. If a noun is possessed, the possessor is first person singular.

Some Plains Cree nouns and their counterparts in other Cree-Montagnais dialects
	Plains Cree	Woods Cree	Swampy Cree, eastern	East Cree, southern inland
"axe"	cīkahikan	cīkahikan	cīkahikan	usitaaskw
"bear"	maskwa	maskwa	(western ) maskwa	chisheyaakw, kaakuush
"book"	masinahikan	masinahikan	masinahikan	masinahiikanish
"car"	sēhkēw	otāpānāsk		utaapaanish
"clock"	pīsimohkān	pīsimohkān		piisimuhkaan
"dog"	atim	atim	atim	atim
"fire"	iskotēw	iskotīw	iškotew	ishkuteu
"fish"	kinosēw	kinosīw		names
"gun"	pāskisikan	pāskisikan	pāskisikan	paaschisikan
"horse"	mistatim	mistatim, misatim	(western misatim)	kaapalaskweu
"hospital"	āhkosīwikamik	āhkosīwikamik	āhkosīwikamik	aahkusiiukamikw
"knife"	mōhkomān	mohkomān	mōhkomān	muuhkomaan
"man (male adult)"	nāpēw	nāpīw	nāpew	naapeu
"money"	sōniyāw		šōniyāw	shuuliyaau
"moose"	mōswa	mōswa	mōs (western mōswa)	muus
"my father"	nōhtāwiy, nipāpā	nipāpā, nōhtāwiy	(western ) nōhtāwiy	nuuhtaawii
"my mother"	nikāwiy, nimāmā	nimāmā, nikāwiy	(western nikāwiy)	nikaawii
"my older brother"	nistēs	nistīs	nistes (western nistēs)	nistes
"my older sister"	nimis	nimis	nimis (also western)	nimis
"my younger brother/sister"	nisīmis	nisīmis	(western nisīmis)	nishiim
"shoe"	maskisin	maskisin	maskisin	maschisin
"sugar"	sōkāw, sīwinikan	sōkāw		shuukaau
"town"	ōtēnāw		ihtāwin	ihtaawin, utenaau
"tree"	mistik	mistik	mistik	mishtikw
"woman"	iskwēw	iskwīw	iskwew	iskweu

In the following table, each verb is given with a third person singular subject, and if a verb is transitive, with a third person object or objects (primary and secondary). The pronouns used in the English translations are imprecise due to an imprecise correspondence of Cree categories with English categories. “He/she” in a subject and “him/her” in an object refer to Cree animate gender even when “it” might be a better English translation. So for example the verb “he/she kills him/her/them”, might describe a bear killing a moose, in which case "it kills it" would be a better English translation. In the table, “it” in a subject or an object refers to Cree inanimate gender. The presence of “they” or “them” indicates that the subject or object could be either singular or plural. And finally, the designation “him/her/it/them” indicates that the object could be either animate or inanimate and either singular or plural.

Some Plains Cree verbs and their counterparts in other Cree-Montagnais dialects
	Plains Cree	Woods Cree	Swampy Cree, eastern	East Cree, southern inland
"he/she arrives"	takosin		takošin	takushin
"he/she can see enough of it/them"	tēpāpahtam		tepāpahtam	tepaapahtam
"he/she coughs"	ostostotam		ostostotam	ushtutam
"he/she dies, ceases to live"	nipiw, pōnipimātisiw		nipiw	puunipimaatisiiu
"he/she embarks"	pōsiw		pōsiw	puusuu
"he/she gives him/her/it/them to him/her/them"	miyēw	mīthīw	mīnew	miiyeu
"he/she is sleeping"	nipāw		nipāw	nipaau
"he/she kills him/her/them"	nipahēw		nipahew	nipaheu
"he/she knows him/her/them"	kiskēyimēw		kiskenimew	chischeyimeu
"he/she laughs"	pāhpiw	pāhpiw	pāhpiw	paahpuu
"he/she lives"	pimātisiw		pimātisiw	pimaatisiiu
"he/she plays"	mētawēw	mītawīw		metaweu
"he/she sees him/her/them"	wāpamēw	wāpamīw	wāpamew	waapameu
"he/she sees it/them"	wāpahtam	wāpahtam	wāpahtam	waapahtam
"he/she shoots him/her/them"	pāskiswēw	pāskiswīw		paaschisweu
"he/she shoots it/them"	pāskisam		pāskisam	paaschisam
"he/she shoots"	pāskisikew		pāskisikew	paaschisicheu
"he/she walks"	pimohtēw	pimohtīw	pimohtew	pimuhteu
"he/she works"	atoskēw	atoskīw	atoskew	atuscheu
"it is big"	misāw		mišāw	mishaau
"it is nice"	miywāsin		minwāšin	miywaashuu
"it is raining"	kimowan	kimowan	kimowan	chimuwin
"it is snowing"	mispon	mispon	mispon	mispun
"it is windy"	yōtin	thōtin	nōtin	yuutin
"it tastes good"	miyospakwan		minospakwan	miyuspukun

Some Plains Cree particles and their counterparts in other Cree-Montagnais dialects
	Plains Cree	Woods Cree	Swampy Cree, western	East Cree, southern inland
"in the morning"	kēkisēp, kīkisēp		(eastern kekišep)	chechishep
"outside"	wayawītimihk	wathawītimihk	(eastern wanawītimihk)	wiiwiitimihch
"one"	pēyak	pīyak	pēyak (eastern peyak)	peyakw
"two"	nīso	nīso	nīso (eastern nīšo)	niishu
"three"	nisto	nisto	nisto	nishtu
"four"	nēwo	nīyo	nēwo	neu
"five"	niyānan	niyānan	niyānan	niyaayin
"six"	nikotwāsik	nikotwāsik	nikotwāsik	nikutwaashch
"seven"	tēpakohp	tīpakohp	tēpakohp	niishwaashch
"eight"	ayinānēw	ayinānīw	ayinānēw	niyaanaaneu
"nine"	kēka-mitātaht	kīka-mitātaht	kēka-mitātaht	peyakushteu
"ten"	mitātaht	mitātaht	mitātaht	mitaaht

Words sources for these tables are: Plains Cree, the Online Cree Dictionary website; Woods Cree, the Gift of Language and Culture website and the Saskatchewan Indian Languages website, western Swampy Cree, the Saskatchewan Indian Languages website; eastern Swampy Cree, Ontario Ministry of Education (2002), and East Cree, the Eastern James Bay Cree Language website. Note that where a table entry is blank, it is because the word was not found in these listed sources; without additional information this should not be interpreted to imply that the word does not exist for the dialect in question.

Writing systems

Two writing systems

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

are used for Cree, including the Plains Cree dialect. The primary one is Canadian Aboriginal syllabics

Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics

Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of abugidas used to write a number of Aboriginal Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and Athabaskan language families....

. The Roman alphabet is also used.

Canadian aboriginal syllabics

Plains Cree follows the western Cree usage

Western Cree syllabics

Western Cree syllabics are a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write Plains Cree, Woods Cree and the western dialects of Swampy Cree. It is used for all Cree dialects west of approximately the Manitoba–Ontario border in Canada, as opposed to Eastern Cree syllabics...

of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. The distinguishing features of western Cree syllabics are the position of the w-dot and the use of western finals. The western w-dot is placed after its syllabic, as in mwa (eastern mwa). The form of a western final is unrelated to the corresponding syllabic with a-nucleus, whereas an eastern final is like superscript version of the corresponding syllabic with a-nucleus; thus the western final t bears no resemblance to ta (eastern final t), and western final m is not like ma (eastern final m).

Some Plains Cree communities use a final for y which is different from the usual western final. This is a superposed dot , instead of the usual , as in sīpiy “river”. When the dot y-final is placed after a syllabic which has a w-dot, the two dots combine to form a colon-like symbol, as in nōhtāwiy “my father”.

Writing style in syllabics can differ with respect to pointing. In the Online Cree Dictionary, examples can be found of words with vowel length not distinguished due to lack of pointing.

Roman alphabet

Plains Cree usage of the Roman alphabet does not differ greatly from the use of this alphabet for other languages. It is notable though that Plains Cree makes use of only fourteen of the available Roman letters.

In Plains Cree 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 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.

When vowel length is to be marked it is typically done with a macron

Macron

A macron, from the Greek , meaning "long", is a diacritic placed above a vowel . It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable in Greco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long vowel...

, as in ā, but often a circumflex

Circumflex

The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...

is used instead, as in â.

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 lengthed to ō, as for example in ! nikamo! “sing (now)!” and ! nikamōhkan! “sing (later)!”.

External links

Plains Cree – Y dialect
Bakker, Peter. Algonquian verb structure: Plains Cree in What’s in a verb? (LOT Occasional Series 5). Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap (Utrecht: 2006). ISBN 90-76864-94-2 ISBN 978-90-76864-94-5

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