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. It is also occasionally used by a few Cree speakers in the United States.

Phonology of languages using Western Cree syllabics

Western syllabics use only those characters needed to write the phonemes of the western dialects. The table below demonstrates the phonemes present in Western Cree dialects. Each sound is presented with a transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet along with the characters used to represent the sound in the Standard Roman Orthography used to teach Plains Cree.

Consonant phonemes in Western Cree<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Plosive<ref group="note" name="aspiration"/>	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Fricative			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Approximant		Template:IPA link<ref group="note" name="dent fric"/> Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link<ref group="note" name="anglo"/> Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Lateral			Template:IPA link<ref group="note" name="anglo"/> Template:Angbr

<references group="note"> <ref group="note" name="aspiration">Plosives are never aspirated. For example in Western Cree Template:IPA is always Template:IPA contrasting with English where Template:IPA can be Template:IPA or Template:IPA depending on the surrounding context.</ref> <ref group="note" name="dent fric">The phoneme Template:IPAslink is only present in Woods Cree.</ref> <ref group="note" name="anglo">Template:IPA and Template:IPA are not native to Western Cree and only appear in loan words. Nevertheless there are characters dedicated to these sounds.</ref> </references>

Standard Roman Orthography consonants sound for the most part like their English equivalents. The key differences being that Template:IPA and Template:IPA are never aspirated and that the letter Template:Angbr is used to represent Template:IPAslink.

Western Cree dialects have between 6 and 7 vowels distinguishing between short and long vowels. Short vowels are written standard Latin characters while long vowels are written either with a macron or a circumflex. Template:IPA, written Template:Angbr is always long and has no short counterpart.

citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>		Short			Long
Front		Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close				Template:IPA link<ref group="note" name="front long merge"/> Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Near-close	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Mid		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link<ref group="note" name="front long merge"/> Template:Angbr
Open					Template:IPA link Template:Angbr

<references group="note"> <ref group="note" name="front long merge">In Woods Cree, Template:IPA has merged with Template:IPA. Only six vowels total, three long and three short, are used in that dialect.</ref> </references>

Inventory

File:Cree type proof.jpg

A proof from freshly made Cree typeface

Cree syllabics uses different glyphs to indicate consonants, and changes the orientation of these glyphs to indicate the vowel that follows it. The basic principles of Canadian syllabic writing are outlined in the article for Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.

Western Cree syllabic character table

Initial	Vowels							Final
	êTemplate:Refn	i	o	a	îTemplate:Refn	ô	â
	ᐁ	ᐃ	ᐅ	ᐊ	ᐄ	ᐆ	ᐋ
p	ᐯ	ᐱ	ᐳ	ᐸ	ᐲ	ᐴ	ᐹ	ᑊ
t	ᑌ	ᑎ	ᑐ	ᑕ	ᑏ	ᑑ	ᑖ	ᐟ
k	ᑫ	ᑭ	ᑯ	ᑲ	ᑮ	ᑰ	ᑳ	ᐠ
c	ᒉ	ᒋ	ᒍ	ᒐ	ᒌ	ᒎ	ᒑ	ᐨ
m	ᒣ	ᒥ	ᒧ	ᒪ	ᒦ	ᒨ	ᒫ	ᒼ
n	ᓀ	ᓂ	ᓄ	ᓇ	ᓃ	ᓅ	ᓈ	ᐣ
s	ᓭ	ᓯ	ᓱ	ᓴ	ᓰ	ᓲ	ᓵ	ᐢ
y	ᔦ	ᔨ	ᔪ	ᔭ	ᔩ	ᔫ	ᔮ	ᕀ (ᐝ)Template:Refn
thTemplate:Refn	ᖧ	ᖨ	ᖪ	ᖬ	ᖩ	ᖫ	ᖭ	ᙾ
wTemplate:Refn	ᐍ	ᐏ	ᐓ	ᐘ	ᐑ	ᐕ	ᐚ	ᐤ
h	ᐦᐁ	ᐦᐃ	ᐦᐅ	ᐦᐊ	ᐦᐄ	ᐦᐆ	ᐦᐋ	ᐦ
hkTemplate:Refn								ᕽ
lTemplate:Refn	ᓬ
rTemplate:Refn	ᕒ

Notes:

Roman Catholic additions

Initial	Vowels				Final
	ê	i	o	a
r	ᖊ	ᖋ	ᖌ	ᖍ	ᙆ
l	ᕃ	ᕆ	ᕊ	ᕍ	ᔆ

Note that the th-series closely resembles the y-series characters. The th phoneme in Woods Cree appears where a y is found in Plains or an n in Swampy Cree. Recognising the relationship between the th and y sounds, Cree writers use a modification of the y-series.

In addition to these characters, western Cree syllabics indicates the w phoneme by placing a dot after the syllable. (This is the reverse of the Eastern Cree convention.) Thus, the syllable wa is indicated with ᐘ, pwi by ᐽ and so on. The dot used to mark the w can be combined with the dot marking length. The syllable wâ is marked as ᐚ and pwî as ᐿ. The dot used to indicate w is placed before the syllable in Eastern Cree syllabics. This and the way finals are written are the two principal differences between eastern and western Cree syllabics.

The dot placed above syllables with long vowels is often dropped in real texts unless necessary to disambiguate the word. Long and short vowels may be written identically and require context to disambiguate.

Also, western Cree writers may use the character ᙮ to indicate the end of sentence, instead of the Roman alphabet period so that it is not confused with the diacritic indicating the w sound.

An example of Plains Cree written in western syllabics:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

English translation:

The young people then began to speak in the language of his ancestry – Nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree language). Unfortunately the young man could not make out what they were saying even though he was of the same nation; Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree people).

External links

• Cree syllabics at languagegeek.com (Website has downloadable Unicode syllabics fonts)

References

Template:Reflist ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ: ᐃᑘᐏᓇ / nēhiýawēwin: itwēwina / Cree: Words Compiled by Arok Wolvengrey. Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, Saskatchewan. 2001. Template:ISBN