Swampy Cree language facts for kids

Swampy Cree is a language spoken by many Indigenous people in Canada. It's also known by names like Maskekon or Omushkego. This language is part of the larger Cree family, which belongs to the Algonquian language group.

You can find Swampy Cree speakers in different parts of Canada. These include northern Manitoba, central northeast Saskatchewan along the Saskatchewan River, and areas near Hudson Bay and James Bay in Ontario.

Swampy Cree is special because it's an "n-dialect" within the West Cree group. This means that a certain sound, which changes in other Cree dialects (like to 'y', 'r', 'l', or 'ð'), always appears as an "n" in Swampy Cree.

In 1982, about 4,500 people spoke Swampy Cree out of a population of 5,000. It's hard to get exact numbers today because Canadian census data doesn't usually separate Cree into its specific dialects.

Where is Swampy Cree Spoken?

Swampy Cree is spoken in different communities, and sometimes it's divided into West Swampy Cree and East Swampy Cree.

West Swampy Cree Communities

Many communities in Manitoba speak West Swampy Cree. These include:

• Shoal Lake
• The Pas
• Easterville
• Chemawawin Cree Nation
• Grand Rapids Barren Lands
• Churchill
• Split Lake
• York Factory
• Fox Lake
• Shamattawa
• God's Lake Narrows

In Ontario, Fort Severn also speaks West Swampy Cree.

East Swampy Cree Communities

The communities that speak East Swampy Cree are all in Ontario:

• Weenusk
• Attawapiskat
• Albany Post (now Kashechewan)
• Kashechewan
• Fort Albany

The Cree spoken in Kashechewan also has some influence from the Moose Cree dialect. The examples on this page are mostly based on the forms found in Albany Post, which is now Kashechewan.

How Swampy Cree Sounds

The way a language sounds is called its Phonology. Swampy Cree has specific sounds for its consonants and vowels.

Consonant Sounds

Swampy Cree uses 11 main consonant sounds. There's also a 12th sound, /l/, which isn't originally from the language but came from other words or from Moose Cree.

In Swampy Cree, whether a sound is "voiced" (like 'b' or 'd') or "unvoiced" (like 'p' or 't') doesn't change the meaning of a word. However, sometimes sounds like 'p', 't', 'k' can become voiced if they are between vowels, especially after a long vowel or a nasal sound. For example, "māci" might sound like "mādzi".

Another interesting feature is "preaspiration." This means a little puff of air comes before a sound. This can change the meaning of a word. For example, "pētāw" (he brings it) is different from "pēhtāw" (he waits for it).

Sometimes, if a word starts with a vowel and is spoken with emphasis, an 'h' sound might be added at the beginning. This doesn't change the word's meaning, just shows it's emphasized.

Vowel Sounds

Swampy Cree has both short and long vowel sounds. Long vowels are held for a longer time when spoken.

Vowel sounds in Cree can change a lot in how they are pronounced, but they still represent the same basic sound. For example, the long 'ō' sound can sometimes sound like 'ū', but it's still the same 'ō' sound.

Word Stress

In Swampy Cree, where you put the stress on a word (which syllable you emphasize) doesn't change its meaning. This is different from English, where stress can sometimes change a word's meaning (like "present" as a gift vs. "present" as to give).

How Words are Built

Morphology is about how words are formed. Swampy Cree is a polysynthetic language. This means words can be very long and carry a lot of meaning, often combining many parts into one word. Verbs are very important in Swampy Cree.

Nouns

Nouns in Swampy Cree can be simple words or made up of several parts. You can combine nouns, verb parts, and other small words to create new compound nouns.

Swampy Cree doesn't use "gender" for nouns like masculine or feminine (as in some European languages). Instead, it divides nouns into two groups: animate (living things) and inanimate (non-living things). While all living things are animate, some non-living things are also considered animate, like socks, kettles, or stones!

Showing Possession

To show that something belongs to someone, Swampy Cree uses prefixes (parts added to the beginning of a word). For example, "ni-" means "my" or "our" (if it's just us), and "ki-" means "your."

Pronouns

Even though Cree often uses prefixes to show who is doing an action or who something belongs to, it also has separate words for pronouns (like "I," "you," "he/she"). These are often used when you want to emphasize who you're talking about.

Demonstrative Words

These are words like "this" or "that." Swampy Cree has different words depending on whether the thing is animate or inanimate, and if it's singular or plural.

Verbs

Verbs are super important in Swampy Cree. Many ideas that might be expressed with nouns or adjectives in English are expressed as verbs in Cree. For example, instead of saying "He is strong," you might say something like "He strongs." Swampy Cree doesn't really have adjectives at all!

Cree verbs change their endings based on whether the subject or object is animate or inanimate.

There are different forms of verbs. The "Independent Order" is used for main sentences. The "Conjunct Order" is used for other types of clauses, like "when he went..." or "because she saw...".

Swampy Cree also has ways to show "direct" action versus "inverse" action. This doesn't mean good or bad action, but rather who is acting on whom. For example, "I see him/her" is a direct action because "I" (first person) is acting on "him/her" (third person). But "He/she sees me" is inverse because the third person is acting on the first person.

How Verb Parts Are Ordered

When building a Cree verb, different parts (called affixes) are added in a specific order:

• Person: Prefixes like "ni-" (I/we) and "ki-" (you) come first.
• Tense: To show future tense, a prefix like "-ka-" (for I/you) or "ta-" (for he/she) is added. For past actions, "kī-" is used.
• Ability: The prefix "kī" can be added to mean "can" or "be able to."
• Direction: Some prefixes show direction, like "pēci" (towards the speaker).
• Root: This is the main part of the verb that gives its core meaning.
• Reciprocal: The suffix "-ito-" shows that an action is done to each other (like "they see each other").
• Causative: The suffix "-hēw" can make a verb mean "to cause someone to do something." For example, "itohtēw" (he goes there) becomes "ihotahēw" (he takes him there).

Animate Intransitive Verbs

These are verbs where the subject (the one doing the action) is animate. For example, "he runs" or "they sing."

Inanimate Intransitive Verbs

These verbs often describe things like weather or conditions, where the subject is inanimate (like "it is raining").

• tahk (cold) becomes tahkāyāw (it is cold)
• tipisk (night) becomes tipiskāw (it is night)
• kīšik (sky) becomes kīšikāw (it is day)

These verbs usually only have third-person forms, as "I am raining" doesn't make sense!

Transitive Animate Verbs

These verbs have an animate object (the thing the action is done to). For example, "I see him" or "She calls them." Interestingly, some non-living things, like "wharf," are considered animate in Cree.

Transitive Inanimate Verbs

These verbs have an inanimate object. For example, "he sees it" or "she has it." Some verbs that might seem "intransitive" in English (like "thinking" or "coughing") actually take an object in Cree. So, "he thinks" might be "he thinks it."

How Sentences are Put Together

Syntax is about how words are arranged to form sentences.

Conjunct Order

Verbs in their "Conjunct Order" are like dependent clauses in English. They can show purpose, like in the sentence: Kī-pēc'-ītohtēw nā kici-otāpēt (Did he come to haul {wood}?).

The Conjunct Order also uses special markers to show when something happened:

• kā- means the action is completed or in the past.
• kē- means the action is in the future.
• ē- means the action is happening at the same time as the main verb.

Questions

To ask a "yes/no" question, you add the word "nā" to the first main word of the sentence.

• kimawāpin nā? (Are you visiting?)
• Tāpwē nā? (Really?)

For "content questions" (like "who," "what," "where"), you use a special form of the verb. The sentence usually starts with the question word, then the verb.

Making Sentences Negative

To make a sentence negative (say "not"), you use the word "mōla." It comes before the verb and any other words that directly change the verb.

• Mōla nikihtohtān (I'm not going away.)
• Mōla māskōc wīpac nētē nika-ihtān (I shall probably not be there soon.)

Verbs of Being

The verb "ihtāw" (he is) is only used when talking about someone or something being in a specific location. For example, "He is in the house."

If you want to say "He/she/it is a something" or "He/she/it acts like a something," Cree adds special endings to nouns.

• acimošiš (puppy) + iwiw = acimošišiwiw (He is a puppy)
• cīmān (boat/canoe) + iwan = cīmāniwan (It is a boat/canoe)

Swampy Cree Literature

The Bible has parts translated into Swampy Cree. Reverend James Hunter and his wife Jean, who was a Cree speaker, worked on these translations. The Gospel of Matthew was published in 1853, and Jean Hunter translated the First Epistle of John in 1855, along with many hymns. These were later reprinted by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

More recently, author David Robertson has published books that include Swampy Cree. He released a Swampy Cree version of his book, When We Were Alone. He also used Swampy Cree words and included a glossary in his book, The Barren Grounds, which is part of The Misewa Series.