East Cree

Cree is one of the most spoken non-official aboriginal languages of Canada.

The dialects are mutually intelligible, though difficulty arises as the distance between communities increases.

East Cree is not considered an endangered language thanks to the large population of younger people who speak it (Mela S.; Mali A.

[3] The long vowels *ē and *ā have merged in the northern coastal dialects but remain distinct in the southern coastal and southern inland dialects; southern inland has merged *s with *š, which remain distinct in the coastal dialects.

[clarification needed] In East Cree there are thirteen consonants:[4] There are eight vowels:[5] In East Cree you have Primary Derivation, Secondary Derivation, and Composition.

For example, the noun mishtikunaapaau is made by conjoining two other noun stems: ᒥᔥᑎᒄmishtikwwood+  ᓈᐹᐤnapaauman=  ᒥᔥᑎᑯᓈᐹᐤmishtikunaapaaucarpenterᒥᔥᑎᒄ + ᓈᐹᐤ = ᒥᔥᑎᑯᓈᐹᐤmishtikw {} napaau {} mishtikunaapaauwood {} man {} carpenterIndependent elements forming with Verbs English Translation: It is a good day Gender is a grammatical distinction.

These type of nouns express kinship, body parts, and personal belongings, like certain pieces of clothing.

Below is the table of Prefixes and Suffixes for some Dependent Nouns that are Animate East Cree adds suffixes on verbs in order to distinguish classes based on two factors, transitivity and gender.

When referring to transitivity it means if the verbs is intransitive or transitive, and when referring to gender, it means if the subject or object of the verb is animate or inanimate.

Below is a table that describes the differences between the transitive, intransitive and animate, inanimate in regards to the verbs and their role.

In East Cree there are Demonstrative Pronouns this are distinguished by three areas.

The distal is used to indicate something or something specific that is slightly farther away from the speaker.

In addition, there is the Remote noted as (a)naa or (a)nwaa and is used to indicate that someone or something is far away from the speaker.

Below is a table demonstrating the relation of prefixes on the words using the proximal, distal, and the remote for Animate Pronouns.

Below is a table demonstrating the relation of prefixes on the words using the proximal, distal, and the remote for Inanimate Pronouns.

East Cree tense is marked on the preverbs attached to the pronoun.

There is an indicative of past and future tense on the preverb such as, che, chii, kata, chika, nika, chechii, wii, nipah, chipah, e, kaa, uhchi.

In East Cree, all six word orders SVO, SOV, OVS, OSV, VOS, and VSO are grammatical.

Below is a chart to see how they could all be used to construct the sentence, The children killed some ducks There is a ranking system of the grammatical functions where the subject outranks the object.

This appears on the transitive verb with an animate object in order to indicate the person hierarchy, whether it be aligned (DIRECT) or crossed (INVERSE).

There is a difference in which suffix and prefix you use if the noun in questions is animate or inanimate.

The bold part of the sentence indicates the subordinate clause in both languages.

"The Acquisition of Stress in Northern East Cree: A Case Study."

Focus, obviation, and word order in East Cree.

345–365 Junker, Marie-Odile, Marguerite MacKenzie, and Julie Brittain.

Language Revitalization in Northern Manitoba: A study of a Cree Bilingual Program in an Elementary School Www12.statcan.gc.ca,.