Cree Keyboards are available

Text Examples:

• Moose Cree — ᐃᓕᓖᒧᐎᓐ

• Plains Cree dotted y-final — ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ

• Plains Cree plus-sign y-final — ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ

• Woods Cree — ᓀᐦᐃᖬᐍᐏᐣ

See Glossary for terminology explinations.

1. The six or seven major spoken dialects spread across most of mid-latitude Canada from east to west. The Syllabics writing system is divided into eastern and western styles, differing mostly in the shape of the finals and the position of the w-dot However, the east-west finals dividing boundary is not in the same place as the east-west w-dot boundary. So some commuities write with western finals, but put the w-dot on the left side of the syllabic following the eastern style. The maps section shows the orthographical divisions. Within both the ‘east’ and ‘west’ sections, specific dialects or linguistic communities have some additions, omissions, and/or changes to the basic Cree syllabic system. These will be discussed below.
2. Starting in the West (Plains or Y-Cree), there are two ways of representing the final /y/, either a raised plus sign ᕀ or a raised dot ᐝ. When the raised y-dot follows a w-dot, they are combined into a colon-like glyph; e.g. /kīkwāy/ ᑮᑳ: . Generally in the West, /r/ and /l/ do not have their own syllabic series (these sounds are used almost exclusively for loan-words), instead they are written with special symbols preceding a vowel glyph; e.g. /rētiyo/ ᕒᐁᑎᔪ. Some Syllabics charts from the West do have a /l/ and /r/ series, and these have been shown in the syllabarium above as l-west² and r-west².
3. Speakers of Woods or Th-Cree in Saskatchewan have added the ð-series, but do not require the ē-column, as this sound has merged with /ī/ in this dialect. The ē-column is used for the /ī/ sound, so that /mīna/ is ᒣᓇ (ᒦᓂ in Plains Cree); a dotted i-syllabic is not used. In Manitoba, some communities prefer to use n-series or t-series syllabics with a macron to indicate the /ð/ sound: ᖞ or ᑕ̄.
4. Swampy Cree (n-dialect) or Omushkego Cree is spoken in Manitoba and Ontario. All communities use Western finals. However, in Ontario: the sh-series is included (as it is phonemic in most places), the eastern R and L syllabics are employed (with the l-east “Special” and r-east finals), and the w-dot is on the left. Manitoba Swampy Cree follows western traditions for the R and L syllabics and w-dot placement.
5. Most Cree dialects in the West have a special final /hk/ ᕁ, especially prevalent in the locative suffix -/ihk/ ~ᐃᕁ, /sīpīhk/ ᓰᐲᕁ (at the river). Maskwacis Cree (Central Alberta) does not use this symbol, instead writing the /h/ and /k/ separately: ᓰᐲᐦᐠ.
6. The Eastern dialects use a raised version of the /a/ syllabic for its finals. One exception to this rule is in Moose or L-Cree where the /y/ final is in fact a small ring diacritic (accent). A side effect of using a diacritic for a final consonant is that the syllabic is ambiguous as to whether it is long or short; e.g. /sīpīy/ ᓰᐰ, /nikāwiy/ ᓂᑳᐧᐂ. Also in Moose Cree, the ligature-final /sk/ ᔉ can be found.
7. East of James Bay, the /y/ final is the raised version of the a-syllabic. There are at least two additional finals: /kw/ ᒄ and perhaps /mw/ ᒽ.
8. In the syllabarium, several rows are used only for loan-words or proper nouns, these are: /l/ (except in Moose Cree where /l/ is a native sound), /r/ /th/ /f/. In the recent past, around Île-à-la-Crosse Saskatchewan, there was an r-dialect of Cree, but according to Pentland 1978, this has probably been replaced by Plains Cree. The Omushkego Cree Syllabic Project also mentions an /r/ dialect near lake Kesagami in Ontario, but it has since merged with Moose or East Cree.
9. Often, the decision to use the /h/ final ᐦ and the long vowel diacritic ᐋ is inconsistent. Some speakers fully “point” their texts (i.e. include all finals, /h/'s, and long vowels), while other speakers omit some or all of these. Some language communities have instituted standards, such as the East James Bay Cree, who officially publish everything pointed.

Last Update: August 21, 2008