Moose Cree

Last updated: 2019-10-28

SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: /h/ represented orthographically only when contrast is required

Background

Language Family: Algic / Algonquian / Central / Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi

• Moose Cree is spoken in Ontario, Canada.

Phonology

Consonants

• /r/ appears in loanwords (Ellis 2000, 468).

	Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p	t			k
Affricates			tʃ
Fricatives		s	ʃ			h
Nasals	m	n
Approximants	w	l		j

Vowels

• Vowel length is contrastive in Moose Cree. A small dot atop each character indicates length (gaudry 2005).
  • Notice that /e/ is always long (a dot is never affixed to the character).

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː
Mid	eː		o oː
Low		a aː
Note: The vowels marked with (ː) are long.

Syllabary

• /h/ is said to be included orthographically only when contrast or emphasis is necessary (Ellis 2000, 465). Thus, the language is compromised to some extent.

ᐃ - /i/	ᐅ - /o/	ᐊ - /a/	ᐁ - /eː/	Final
ᐱ - /pi/	ᐳ - /po/	ᐸ - /pa/	ᐯ - /peː/	ᑉ - /p/
ᑎ - /ti/	ᑐ - /to/	ᑕ - /ta/	ᑌ - /teː/	ᑦ - /t/
ᑭ - /ki/	ᑯ - /ko/	ᑲ - /ka/	ᑫ - /keː/	ᒃ - /k/
ᒋ - /tʃi/	ᒍ - /tʃo/	ᒐ - /tʃa/	ᒉ - /tʃeː/	ᒡ - /tʃ/
ᒥ - /mi/	ᒧ - /mo/	ᒪ - /ma/	ᒣ - /meː/	ᒻ - /m/
ᓂ - /ni/	ᓄ - /no/	ᓇ - /na/	ᓀ - /neː/	ᓐ - /n/
ᓯ - /si/	ᓱ - /so/	ᓴ - /sa/	ᓭ - /seː/	ᔅ - /s/
ᔑ - /ʃi/	ᔓ - /ʃo/	ᔕ - /ʃa/	ᔐ - /ʃeː/	ᔥ - /ʃ/
ᔨ - /ji/	ᔪ - /jo/	ᔭ - /ja/	ᔦ - /jeː/	ᔾ - /j/
ᓕ - /li/	ᓗ - /lo/	ᓚ - /la/	ᓓ - /leː/	ᓪ - /l/
ᐎ - /wi/	ᐒ - /wo/	ᐗ - /wa/	ᐌ - /weː/	ᐤ - /w/
ᐦᐃ - /hi/	ᐦᐅ - /ho/	ᐦᐊ - /ha/	ᐦᐁ - /heː/	ᐦ - /h/
				ᔉ - /sk/

• /w/ can also appear between a consonant and a vowel, the transcription of which involves a dot (like in the /w/ + vowel sequence) on the left of any character (ex. ᑄ = /pwa/) (gaudry 2005).
  • Based on (“Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics,” n.d.), which also seems consistent with Crúbadán, /w/ does not appear following /n/ and /h/, except in the sequences /nwa/ and /nwaː/.
• A small ring above a word-final syllable indicates /j/; however, Crúbadán doesn’t seem to follow this convention, opting for ⟨ᔾ⟩ instead, the convention of which is consistent with the other word-final consonants (Ellis 2000, 465).

References

Ellis, C. Douglas. 2000. Spoken Cree, Level I. University of Alberta Press. https://www.ebook.de/de/product/3400297/c_douglas_ellis_spoken_cree_level_i.html.

gaudry. 2005. “The Syllabary - Cree Writing.”

“Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics.” n.d.