The Atikamekw langaguage, also called in the past‘Tête-de-Boule Cree’ and sometimes spelled ‘Attikamekw’, is an r-dialect of the Cree language. The Cree language is typically divided into dialects based on the pronunciation of the Proto-Algonquian (the ancient “mother” language of the Algonquian people) sound *l, although the dialect situation is somewhat more complicated then that.
Although a dialect of Cree, Atikamekw is politically a distinct nation, so the language is also often considered separate from Cree – although it is more closely related to other Cree dialects than East Cree is. Atikamekw uses only Roman orthography; it does not have a history of syllabics use that I am aware of. The developers of the writing system chose not to indicate vowel or consonant length in the standard orthography, but there is a phonemic system for marking these sounds when necessary: e.g., a pronunciation guide.
The standard orthography is spelled out in the official publication, Atikamekw nehiromowin itasinahikewin. The Atikamekw Nation Council website contains some of the native language at the bottom of a few pages.
Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.
Demographics
The Canadian Census counts 5,645 Atikamekw speakers in 2006, up from 4,955 in 2001.
Community Names
- Manawan – Manouane
- Opitciwan – Obedjiwan
- Wemotaci – Weymontachi
Atikamekw Consonants
| bilabial | alveolar | pal.-alveolar | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lenis stop | p |
t |
k |
||
| affricate | tc |
||||
| voiceless fricative | s |
c |
h |
||
| nasal | m |
n |
|||
| approximate/tap | w |
r |
Atikamekw Vowels
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | i |
||
| mid | e |
o |
|
| low | a |
Notes
- Long vowels can be written with a cîrcumflex accent: â, î, ô. The vowel /e/ is always long, so the orthography does not require a circumflex over this vowel. Most often, long vowels are unmarked in texts.
- The consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /c/, and /tc/ have two different qualities, which could be describes as: short and long, lax and tense, normal and preaspirated, etc. The long-tense-preaspirated versions are treated as preaspirated (with an /h/ sound before) in other dialects of Cree. Preaspiration in Cree is something of a linguistic convention, as it can take different guises in different dialects. For example, the word /mihkwāw/ ‘it is red’ is pronounced different ways: [mihkwāw] preaspirating the consonant, [mīkwāw] lengthening the preceding vowel, [mixwāw] causing the consonant to become a fricative, [mikkwāw] tensing the consonant. Atikamekw follows the latter pattern.
- When a more precise representation is required, the standard Atikamekw orthography writes the tense consonants with an underline: p̱, ṯ, ḵ, s̱, c̱, t͟c. In the word Atikamekw, the first /k/ is tense; for pronunciation purposes, the word would be written /atiḵamekw/.
- Atikamekw writes the letter ‹i› to represent the vowel sound /i/~/î/ as well as its consonantal counterpart /y/. So ‘and’ is /kaie/, pronounced [kaye].
