Woods Cree facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Woods Cree
Nīhithawīwin ᓀᐦᐃᖬᐍᐏᐣ
Native to	Canada
Region	Northern Manitoba, Northern Saskatchewan
Ethnicity	53,000 Woodland Cree (1982)
Native speakers	1,800  (2016)
Language family	Algic Algonquian Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi Cree Woods Cree
Writing system	Latin, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics (Cree)
Official status
Official language in	Northwest Territories
Recognised minority language in	Alberta Manitoba Saskatchewan
Linguasphere	62-ADA-ab
Woods Cree is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Woods Cree is an indigenous language spoken by First Nations people in northern Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan, and northern Alberta, Canada. It is part of a larger group of Cree languages. This group of languages has about 116,000 speakers. The exact number of people who speak Woods Cree is not fully known, but it is thought to be between 2,600 and 35,000.

What Kind of Language is Woods Cree?

Woods Cree belongs to a big language family called Algic. Inside that, it's part of the Algonquian group. It is also part of the central Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi language family.

The term "Western Cree" is used for Cree languages that don't use a "palatized" sound. This group includes Woods Cree, Plains Cree, and Swampy Cree.

Woods Cree is also known by other names. Sometimes it is called "Rocky Cree." In Alberta, it is also known as "Bush Cree."

The language is often called "Woodland Cree" because it is spoken by the cultural group of Cree people who live in the forested areas. This helps tell them apart from the Plains Cree, who traditionally lived on the open prairies.

Where is Woods Cree Spoken?

Woods Cree has been spoken in the same areas for a long time. In the early 1900s, a Canadian geologist named J.B. Tyrrell found people speaking the "-th" dialect of Cree near Île-à-la-Crosse and the upper Churchill River. Records from the Hudson's Bay Company also show that this language was spoken west of James Bay.

Today, Woods Cree is mainly spoken in the middle-northern parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The larger group of "Western Woods Cree" languages are spoken across the northern parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

How Many People Speak Woods Cree?

In 1982, an organization called SIL estimated that 35,000 people spoke Woods Cree. However, more recent numbers are lower.

According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 1,840 people said Woods Cree was their first language. Another 2,665 people said they knew some Woods Cree. Many more people identified a general Cree dialect as their first language. Some of these people might also be Woods Cree speakers.

Official Status

Woods Cree is not an official language in any country. Its speakers live in the northern, forested areas of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Sounds of Woods Cree

Woods Cree has a small number of sounds, called phonemes. It has only seventeen different sounds. For example, Canadian English has about thirty-eight different sounds.

One special thing about Woods Cree is its "th" sound. This sound is different from other Cree languages. For example, in Plains Cree, they use a "y" sound instead.

Let's look at the word for 'I':

• In Woods Cree, it's nitha (sounds like "ni-tha").
• In Plains Cree, it's niya (sounds like "ni-ya").

This difference in sounds helps show that Woods Cree and Plains Cree are distinct languages.

How Words are Built in Woods Cree

Cree languages are polysynthetic. This means that one word in Cree can be like a whole sentence in English.

For example:

• ni-kî-nohtê-wâpam-âw-ak
• This means: "I wanted to see them."

Cree is also an inflectional language. This means words change their endings to show different meanings. Most of these changes happen at the end of words.

Showing Who Owns Something

Woods Cree uses special prefixes to show who owns something. These are small parts added to the beginning of a word.

Here are some examples:

• ni- means 'my' (first person).
• yi- means 'your' (second person).
• o- means 'his/her' (third person, specific person).
• mi- means 'someone's' (third person, not specific).

In most Cree languages, the mi- prefix is used for body parts, clothes, and family members when you don't know who they belong to. But in Woods Cree, mi- is not used for family members or animal body parts. This is one way Woods Cree is different from other Cree dialects like Plains Cree.

Talking About the Future

In Woods Cree, specific words are used to talk about the future.

• The word ka- is used for "you will" (second person future).
• The word na- is used for "I will" (first person future).

How Sentences are Put Together

Cree is a very inflected language. This means that much of the meaning of a sentence comes from how words are changed, not just their order. Because of this, the word order in Cree can be quite flexible.

For example, the sentence "the children killed some ducks" can be said in many different ways in Cree, and they all mean the same thing.

Also, because of how words are built, you can often leave out the subject (who is doing the action) and the object (who the action is done to) completely.

• nipaheˑwak can mean "they killed them" without saying "children" or "ducks."

Different Kinds of "Third Person"

Cree has a special way to talk about people who are not the speaker or the person being spoken to (the third person). It divides them into two groups:

• The "third person" (or "proximate") is for the main person or thing you are talking about.
• The "third person obviative" is for someone or something else that is less important in the conversation, sometimes called the "fourth person." These words usually have the suffix -a added to them.

Saying "No"

There are two main ways to say "no" in Cree:

• namoˑya or nama is used in main sentences.
• eˑkaˑ or eˑkaˑya is used in parts of sentences that depend on another part. The eˑkaˑya is also used for commands, like "Don't do that!"

Asking Questions

To ask a "yes" or "no" question in Cree, you add the word ciˑ at the end of the first word in the sentence.

• For example: kikisiwahitin ciˑ? means "Have I made you angry?"

To ask a question like "who," "what," or "where," the question word usually comes at the beginning of the sentence.

• For example: taˑniteˑ eˑ-wiˑ-itohteˑyan? means "Where are you going?"

Special Words: Pronouns

Cree uses special words called pronouns to ask questions or point to things.

• Question Words:

* Who = awína * What = kikway * When = tánispihk * Where = tániti * Why = táníhki These words change if you are talking about one thing or many things, or if it's a living thing or not.

• Pointing Words (Demonstrative Pronouns):

These words are like "this," "that," "these," and "those." They also change depending on whether you are pointing to a living thing or not.

You can even put two pointing words together to be very specific about where something is!

Words You Might Hear in Woods Cree

Because Woods Cree can pack a lot of meaning into one word, some words might seem very long. For example, tîwâpôhkêwin means 'the making of tea'.

Here are some common words and phrases in Woods Cree:

In the chart above, the bolded "th" shows the special "th" sound in Woods Cree. Other Cree languages use a different sound, like "y," in these places. The letters with a line above them (ō, ā, ī) are long vowel sounds, while the regular letters (o, a, i) are short vowel sounds.

You can find more words and phrases at the website: giftoflanguageandculture.ca. This website has digital flash cards to help you learn simple Woods Cree words.

How Woods Cree is Written

The most common way to write Woods Cree is using the Cree syllabic system. A missionary named James Evans created this system in the 1830s.

However, the syllabic writing system is slowly being replaced by the Latin alphabet (the one English uses). This is happening because the language is now taught in Canadian schools and universities.

Here is a chart showing the Woods Cree syllabic system: