Cree syllabics are the versions of

Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used in a number of Indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. These languages had no formal writing s ...

used to write Cree dialects, including the original syllabics system created for Cree and

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

. There are two main varieties of syllabics for Cree: Western Cree syllabics and Eastern Cree syllabics. Syllabics were later adapted to several other languages. It is estimated that over 70,000 Algonquian-speaking people use the script, from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

in the west to

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

in the east, the US border to Mackenzie and Kewatin (the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

and

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

) in the north.

History

Cree syllabics were developed for Ojibwe by James Evans, a missionary in what is now

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

in the 1830s. Evans had originally adapted the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...

to Ojibwe (see Evans system), but after learning of the success of the Cherokee syllabary, he experimented with invented scripts based on his familiarity with

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''s ...

and

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

. When Evans later worked with the closely related Cree and ran into trouble with the Latin alphabet, he turned to his Ojibwe project and in 1840 adapted it to Cree. The result contained just nine glyph shapes, each of which stood for a syllable with the vowels determined by the shapes' orientation. After the 1841 publication of a syllabics hymn book, the new script spread quickly. The Cree valued it because it could be learned in just a few hours and because it was visually distinctive from the Latin script of the colonial languages. Virtually all Cree became literate in the new syllabary within a few years. Evans taught by writing on birchbark with soot, and he became known as "the man who made birchbark talk."

Structure

Canadian Aboriginal syllabics are unique among

abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel no ...

scripts in that the orientation of a symbol, rather than modifications of its shape or diacritic marks, determines the

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

of a syllable. Each basic shape corresponds to a specific consonant sound; this is flipped or rotated to denote the accompanying vowel. Like the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

, syllabics are written from left to right, with each new line of writing directly under the previous one.

Variants

The syllabary continues in use for dialects of Cree west of the

–

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

border as Western Cree syllabics.

John Horden John Horden (January 20, 1828Long, John S. (2003) ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 12. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 2013-12-10. – January 12, 1893) was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, Canada, who for more ...

introduced modifications in the 1850s in the

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost p ...

area. These were standardized in 1865 to form Eastern Cree syllabics, used today for many eastern dialects of Cree, Naskapi, and Ojibwe, though Cree dialects of eastern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

use the Latin alphabet. The two versions differ primarily in the way they indicate syllable-final consonants, in how they mark the semi-vowel , and in how they reflect the phonological differences between Cree dialects. There are more minor local differences in orthography, shapes of the characters, writing styles, and punctuation, with some writers using dots or spaces between words, and others not indicating word separation.

Cree numerals

The syllabics have been recorded to have been used as numerals with individual fixed integer values in certain combinations akin to that of the

Roman system Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

: * a

vertical bar The vertical bar, , is a glyph with various uses in mathematics, computing, and typography. It has many names, often related to particular meanings: Sheffer stroke (in logic), pipe, bar, or (literally the word "or"), vbar, and others. Usage ...

represents 1, * ᐅ ''i'' represents 3 (Iᐅ equals 4), * ᐊ ''a'' represents numerals more than 6 (ᐅᐊ equals 6, ᐊ equals 7, ᐊII equals 9), * ᒥ ''mi'' represents 10, * looped syllables (ᓀᓂᓄᓇᑯᑲᑫᑭ) represent 20-90. The

zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by Multiplication, multiplying digits to the left of 0 by th ...

is represented as a eight pointed star.

Modern usage

Though used for manuscripts, letters, and personal records since the 19th century, the need for special type long restricted printed syllabics to missionary publications. However, with the development of syllabic typewriters and, later, word processors, control of the script passed to native speakers, and it is now used for schoolbooks, periodicals, and official documents.

Cree books written in syllabics

* Hundreds of Eastern James Bay Cree books were published by the Cree School Board of Quebec, Canada. See th
catalogue
* ''

Swampy Cree The Swampy Cree people, also known by their autonyms ''Néhinaw'', ''Maskiki Wi Iniwak'', ''Mushkekowuk,'' ''Maškékowak'' or ''Maskekon'' (and therefore also ''Muskegon'' and ''Muskegoes'') or by exonyms including ''West Main Cree,'' ''Lowlan ...

Hymn Book'' = ''ᓇᑲᒧᐏᓇ ᐅᒪᐢᑮᑯᐘ ᐅᑎᑘᐏᓂᐘᐤ''. (By James Evans) Norway House, 1841.
Peel 209
* ''The Psalter, or Psalms of David''
ᑌᕕᑦ ᐅ ᓂᑲᒧᐎᓇᕽ
(By

) London, 1875.
Peel 738
* ''The New Testament, translated into the Cree language''
ᐅᔅᑭ ᑎᔅᑌᒥᓐᑦ ᑭ ᑎᐯᓕᒋᑫᒥᓇᐤ ᓀᔥᑕ ᑭ ᐱᒪᒋᐃᐌᒥᓇᐤ ᒋᓴᔅ ᒃᣅᔅᑦ
(By John Horden) London, 1876.

* ''Catechism''. (Transl. James Evans) Rossville, É.N. * ''The Holy Bible''. (Transl. John Sinclair, Henry Steinhauer) London, 1861. * ''Bunyan: Pilgrim´S Progress''. (Transl. John Sinclair) Toronto, 1900. * ''Cree Hymn Book.'' (By John Mcdougall) Toronto, 1888. * ''Cree Hymn Book.'' (By Robert Steinauer, Egerton Steinauer) Toronto, 1920. * ''The Epistle of Paul The Apostle To The Galatians''. (Transl. Joseph Reader) Oonikup (Northwest Territory), S.A. * ''The Acts of The Apostles And The Epistles''. London, 1891. * ''The Books of The New Testament''. London, 1859. * ''The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians; the Epistle of Jacob; the First Epistle General of John.'' (Transl. Thomas Hullburt) Rossville, 1857. * ''The Travellers´ Spiritual Provision'' (Calendar) S.L., S. A. * ''The Handbook to Scripture Truth: Words of Admonition, Counsel and Comfort.'' Toronto, 1893. * ''Prières, cantiques, catéchisme, etc. en langue crise''. Montréal, 1886. * ''The Book of Common Prayer'', (Transl. John Horden) London, 1889 (Addl. Printings Through 1970). :
In: Paleográfiai kalandozások. Szentendre, 1995.

History

Structure

Variants

Cree numerals

Modern usage

See also

Cree books written in syllabics

References

Further reading

External links