Swampy Cree language

Swampy Cree
ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐍᐏᐣ / Nêhinawêwin
Spoken in	Canada
Region	Ontario
Native speakers	unknown (4,500 cited 1982)
Language family	Algic Algonquian Central Cree Swampy Cree
Language codes
ISO 639-3	csw
Linguasphere	62-ADA-ac, 62-ADA-ad
Linguistic subdivisions in Canada

Swampy Cree (sometimes known as Maskekon or Omaškêkowak) is a dialect of the Algonquian language, Cree. Swampy Cree is spoken in a series of communities in northern Manitoba, central northeast of Saskatchewan along the Saskatchewan River and along the Hudson Bay coast and adjacent inland areas to the south and west, and Ontario along the coast of Hudson Bay and James Bay.

A division is sometimes made between West Swampy Cree and East Swampy Cree. Communities recognized as West Swampy Cree include: Shoal Lake; The Pas; Easterville [Chemawawin Cree Nation]; Grand Rapids Barren Lands; Churchill; Split Lake; York Factory; Fox Lake; Shamattawa (all in Manitoba); and Fort Severn, Ontario. Communities recognized as East Swampy Cree are: Weenusk, Ontario; Attawapiskat, Ontario; Albany Post, Ontario; and Kashechewan, Ontario; and Fort Albany, Ontario. The Cree spoken at Kashechewan also shows Moose Cree influence. It is one of the western n-dialects of Cree. It had approximately 4500 speakers in a population of 5000 as of 1982 according to the 14th edition of the Ethnologue.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory for Swampy Cree contains 11 phonemes. A twelfth phoneme /l/ is not native, but has entered the language via loanwords and influence from Moose Cree.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m  /m/	n  /n/
Stop	p  /p/	t  /t/		k  /k/)
Fricative		s  /s/	š  /ʃ/		h  /h/
Affricate		c  /t͡s/
Approximant	w  /w/		y  /j/
Lateral Approximant		(l)  /l/

Voicing does not cause phonemic contrast in Swampy Cree. According to Ellis, however, stops often undergo voicing intervocalically when preceded by a stressed long vowel or nasal. For example, "māci" is pronounced [mād͡zi], while "maci" is pronounced "mat͡si."

Contrastively, preaspiration of stops does create a phonemic distinction. For example, "pētāw" (he brings it) is not the same as "pēhtāw" (he waits for it). In emphatic words that contain an initial vowel, "h" is often inserted before the vowel. This is not a phonemic distinction, but simply an indicator of stress. Similarly, word-final vowels are often followed by moderate aspiration, which does not mark any change in meaning. Postaspiration is not phonemically distinctive, either.

Other variation in Swampy Cree: The consonant /h/ is occasionally pronounced as [j] (as in English "yes") intervocalically. When a short vowel is dropped, leaving a nasal next to a stop, the nasal assimilates to the same place of articulation as the stop. For example: "nipāskisikan" becomes "mpāskisikan."

Vowels

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
High (close)	i  /i/	o  /u/	ī  /iː/	ō  /oː/
Close-mid			ē  /eː/
Open-mid	a  /a/
Low (open)			ā  /aː/

Vowels in Cree can experience a great deal of variation while remaining one phoneme. Long /ō/ varies between [ō] and [ū], while remaining one single phoneme. Long /ā/ varies between approximately [æ̃] (as in "hat") and [ɑ̃] (as in "hall"). Short /i/ varies between [ɪ] and [ɛ]. Short /o/ varies between approximately [o] and [ʊ]. Short /a/ has the widest variation, ranging from [æ] to [ʌ] and [ɛ] as well, when it proceeds the approximant [j].

References

• Ellis, Clarence Douglas. 1981. Spoken Cree. Revised Edition. Edmonton: Pica Pica Press. ISBN 0-88864-044-7
• Ellis, Clarence Douglas. 1995. âtalôhkâna nêsta tipâcimôwina: Cree legends and narratives from the West Coast of James Bay. Text and translation. Edited and with a glossary by C. Douglas Ellis. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 0-88755-159-9
• Rhodes, Richard and Evelyn Todd. 1981. “Subarctic Algonquian languages.” June Helm, ed., The Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 6. Subarctic, pp. 52–66. Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution.
• Wolfart, H.C. and Janet F. Carroll. 1981. Meet Cree: A guide to the Cree language. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press. ISBN 0-88864-073-0

External links

• Ethnologue entry for Swampy Cree
• Native Languages: A Support Document for the Teaching of Language Patters – basic language patterns for Ojibwe (Manitoulin Ojibwe/Ottawa "CO" and Lac Seul Ojibwe "WO") and Cree (Swampy Cree "SC").
• Path of the Elders – Explore Treaty 9, Aboriginal Cree & First Nations history.