Cree

**Cree** (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐏ, *nēhiyawēwin*) is a dialect continuum belonging to the **Algonquian** language family in Canada, spoken from Labrador to British Columbia. It is the most spoken Canadian Indigenous language with 117k+ speakers.

## Dialects

The most spoken Cree dialect is Plains Cree, which will be the focus of this wiki article unless otherwise stated. The map here shows the dialects and where they are spoken.

You may see the dialects referred to as a **Y** dialect, **Th** dialect, **N** dialect, **L** dialect or **R** dialect based on what sound they use in certain words.

## Orthography & Phonology

Cree is written with **Canadian Syllabics**, an abugida type script, or with **Standard Roman Orthography**, known colloquially as SRO. An abugida is a script where the letters make up a consonant and a vowel sound. The shape represents its consonant and the way it faces represents its vowel. Final consonants are small and entirely different from the letters that represent a consonant and a vowel pair. A dot over the shape means that the vowel is long.

File:Cree Syllabics.png

It should be noted that it's improper to use any capitalization in Cree at all. Don't use capitalization at the start of sentences nor for any common nouns.

## Grammar

Cree is a **polysynthetic** language, which means that long words are formed with many word parts. Word order is relaxed and the order in which words are spoken indicates emphasis on a certain part of the sentence.

### Nouns

Cree has two genders: **animate** and **inanimate**. Animate is used for living things and some other things of cultural importance. Inanimate is used for non-living things or some body parts or plants (flower).

### Pronouns

Cree has **inclusive** and **exclusive** first person plural pronouns. The inclusive form includes the person spoken to while the exclusive form excludes that person. A third person differential, colloquially known as **fourth person**, concept exists and it affects verbs and nouns. The fourth person is a secondary third person - one that "belongs" to the primary third person - if you are talking about John, then John's son is the fourth person.

we (excl.)
 you (sg.)
 (s)he/it

### Verbs

Verbs have different forms: **transitive** and **intransitive**. Transitive verbs affect a **direct object**. Intransitive verbs have no object. Verbs also have different forms based on whether the subject and object nouns are **animate** or **inanimate**.

#### Mood

Cree makes use of **indicative**, **subjunctive** and **imperative** moods.

The imperative mood has two forms itself: **immediate** and **delayed**. As one can infer, an immediate imperative command is one that the speaker intends the other to do immediately, and a delayed one intends the action to be done at a later time. Thus it is not necessary to specify a time with other words when using the imperative mood.

#### Tense

Cree has **present**, **past** and **future** tenses.

There are two aspects of future tense: **definite** and **intentive**. The intentive future describes actions one intends to do.

##### Future conditional

This verb form describes "*if/when ... (then) ...*" situations.

 When I finish this I will go to bed.

## Resources

Most resources describe Plains Cree and are for English speakers.

\* User-created courses

\*\* Here's an online petition to Rosetta Stone to add Cree

### Websites and apps

* Online Cree Dictionary
* Cree Literacy Network - a community that promotes Cree
* Learn Cree - interactive vocabulary sets with audio
* Cree subreddit - slow subreddit, some questions about the language are there
* Linguistic Resources for Plains Cree - grammar guide

### Books and PDFs

* Little Cree Books
* Cree: Language of the Plains - thorough grammar PDF

### Other Media

#### Music

* nêhiyawak - contemporary indie - some songs in Cree but couldn't find lyrics anywhere

#### YouTube

* Cree Phrases
* FHQTC nêhiyawêwin
* CreeSimonSays
* SayITFirst - children's stories with audio in Cree and subtitles in Cree and English, available in **Plains Cree**, **Woods Cree** and **Swampy Cree**
* First Nation Stories - Cree Videos for Everybody - Woods Cree