Cree Lesson #1
tansi cuzzins!
Welcome to week one of our journey into the Cree language, or nehiyawewin! I have been taught that Cree is a Spirit language. It is sacred, and when used in prayer can be used to talk to the spirits.
Each week, we will be looking at one of the Spirit Markers from the chart below and learning a bit about what it represents and how it sounds, as well as how to spell the sound in SRO, or Standard Roman Orthography.
Then we’ll learn one word that features this Spirit Marker.
From https://esoteric.codes/blog/jon-corbett.You will notice that the star chart has eight limbs, each of which extends in a different direction. The eight directions represent actual directions: north, south, northwest, southeast, etc. However, in this chart, north is at the bottom and south is at the top.
We will start with the Spirit Markers in the east, which in this chart is on the left hand side of the page.
ᐊ will be the first Spirit Marker we look at. It represents the sound “ah” as in the English word “father.” In SRO it is represented by the letter ‘a’.
“ah” like fatherWhen the vowel is longer, we put a dot over the Spirit Marker, like so. This represents the same sound, with the vowel held longer, like, “aaah.”
In SRO, this is represented as an “a” with either a circumflex (â), or line (ā) above it.
When a “w” sound appears before a vowel in cree, this is represented by a dot that comes after the Spirit Marker, even though the sound of the ‘w’ actually goes in front of the vowel. Therefore, the Spirit Marker for the sound “wa” is ᐘ for the short vowel and ᐚ for the long vowel.
In the word below, see if you can make sense of the Spirit Markers. The first one is ᐊ, which we know stands for the sound “ah”. The second Spirit Marker is ᐚ, which stands for the sound “waaah”, so we know that the two side-by-side must make the sounds “ah-waaa”.
We’ll learn more about the “sis” sound when we get to the southeast direction of the star chart. For now, just know that ᓯᐢ is the symbol for the sound “sis”.
What does awâsis mean?
In English, we would use the word “child” in place of “awâsis,” but “awâsis” doesn’t mean “child.”
My People are a spiritual people, and our language reflects that. So awâsis means, “A sacred gift on loan from Creation, for you to raise on behalf of Creation.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Think of the depth of meaning this word carries, all the cultural teachings that are embedded within it.
Think of this when you read about Cree communities finding the bones of their children on the grounds of residential schools. Europeans, it seems, didn’t see our children as sacred. Perhaps they didn’t even see their own children as sacred.
But all children are sacred.
hiy hiy!
Cree Lesson #2
tansi cuzzins!
Welcome to week two of our journey into the Cree language, or nehiyawewin! I have been taught that Cree is a spirit language. It is sacred, and when used in prayer can be used to talk to the spirits.
Each week, we will be looking at one of the Spirit Markers from the chart below and learning a bit about what it represents and how it sounds, as well as how to spell the sound in SRO, or Standard Roman Orthography.
Then we’ll learn one word that features this Spirit Marker.
| Today we’ll be looking at one new Spirit Marker and our second diminutive Spirit Marker ᐦ. In the star chart above, look at the row of smaller Spirit Markers along the bottom of the sheet. These are considered diminutive Spirit Markers and are never used on their own. Instead, they are used to add sounds to the other, main Spirit Markers. You’re already familiar with one of them –– the mid-dot that we use to elongate vowel sounds. This is the dot that goes after the Spirit Marker and puts a ‘w’ sound in front of the vowel, as with last week’s ᐘ which turned the ‘a’ sound into a ‘wa.’ You may also remember from last week that the star chart has eight limbs, each of which corresponds to a direction and that in this system, north is at the bottom. This week’s Spirit Marker is ᐸ which represents the sound ‘pa.’ It’s the second Spirit Marker in the east direction of the star chart, |
| The Cree ‘p’ is softer than the English ‘p.’ It sometimes sounds almost like a ‘b’. Another way to say this is that the Cree ‘p’ is not aspirated. More about aspiration below. When the vowel is longer, we put a dot over the Spirit Marker, like so. This represents the same sound, with the vowel held longer, like, “paa.” |
| In SRO, this is represented as an “a” with either a circumflex (pâ), or line (pā) above it. |
| As you know, when a “w” sound appears before a vowel, this is represented by a dot that comes after the Spirit Marker, but the sound of the ‘w’ actually goes in front of the vowel. In this case, because this Spirit Marker already has a consonant and a vowel sound together, the ‘w’ goes between them. The thing to remember is that the ‘w’ always goes directly before the vowel. |
| When we need to communicate the sound “pwaa,” with the long vowel, the Spirit Marker then has two dots around it –– one on top for the lengthened vowel and one behind it, the mid-dot for the ‘w’ sound. |
| Now for ᐦ, the new diminuitive Spirit Marker! This symbol represents aspiration, usually represented by ‘h in the English language. But we aspirate English words that have no ‘h’ in them too, like in the word, “pot.” If you place your hand or a small piece of paper in front of your mouth when you say this word, you will feel the puff of air or see the paper move. |
| While the ‘p’ sound in Cree does not have this aspiration, we often have ‘h’ sounds that come at then end of sounds. This is the case in our word of the week, “pahkisimon.” This is something we never do in English, so can be difficult at first for English speakers to hear and voice this sound ourselves. |
| Here is our word of the week. To hear a pronunciation of it, click the image. It will take you to a Cree dictionary, where you can click on the speaker icon to hear it pronounced by a Cree speaker. |
| You’ll notice that the ‘ki’ sound is barely pronounced by the speaker. That’s a very common thing that speakers of all languages do –– the dropping or compression of sounds in the middle of a word. Listen closely and see if you can hear the aspiration after the “pa” sound. Can you reproduce this sound yourself? pahkisimon is a beautiful word. The english equivalent would be either “West,” or “sunset.” Our ancestors taught us that we are related to all things in Creation –– every plant, every animal, even the clouds. Therefore, what Europeans called the sun is our Grandfather to us, and pahkisimon means, “Where the Grandfather makes the descent.” I’m grateful for my ancestors and my Cree teacher, Lloyd. hiy hiy! |
Cree Lesson #3
| tansi cuzzins! Welcome to week three of our journey into learning the Cree language, or nehiyawewin! Cree is a spirit language. It is sacred, and when used in prayer can be used to talk to the spirits. Each week, we will be looking at one of the spirit markers (also known as syllabics) from the chart below and learning a bit about what sound it represents and how to spell the sound in SRO, or Standard Roman Orthography. Then we’ll learn one word that features this spirit marker. |
Continuing on the Eastern limb of the star chart, today’s spirit marker is ᑕ, which represents the sound “ta.”
The Cree ‘t’ is softer than the English one. It sometimes sounds almost like a ‘d’.
Another way to say this is that the Cree ‘t’ is not aspirated.
| When the vowel is longer, we put a dot over the spirit marker, like so. This represents the same sound, with the vowel held longer, like, “taa.” |
| In Standar Roman Orthography (SRO), this is represented as an “a” with either a circumflex (pâ), or line (pā) above it. We’ll look at two words that start with this week. The first one is a very good word to know in Cree, as it is the main word for greeting someone. It means, “Hello” and “How are you?” all in one. To hear a pronunciation of it, click the image. It will take you to a Cree dictionary, where you can click on the speaker icon to hear it pronounced by a Cree speaker. |
| This next word doesn’t have a sound file I can share with you. It’s a big word, and I know that can be intimidating. Give it a go anyway: tapêmiciwak [da-pay-MEE-chee-wuk]. |
| nehiyawewin has spiritual truths embedded in it. Through our language, we learn that everything is living, everything has a spirt, everything is sacred –– because life itself is sacred. Water is sacred. It is our kin. We are related to water and it keeps us alive. We’ll learn the word for water in week seven. tapêmiciwak [ta-pay-MEE-chee-wuk] is a word that teaches us about water, and holds a teaching for us about water. It means “has to be flowing.” Why? Water that is not moving is not living. So, when you buy water, do not take a drink from that bottle until you shake it and wake it up. It’s dead in the bottle until you shake it. I’m grateful for my ancestors and my Cree teacher, Lloyd, for this reminder. hiy hiy! Aunty Eden |
We live in an age where technology allows us to more easily share Indigenous languages. There are many websites with amazing resources available to all.
1. VIDEOS.
Here are a few videos i’ve found helpful.
2. DICTIONARIES.
There are two that I use.
Itwewina is the better of the two, but I use both, since some words may appear in one but not the other.
3. WEBSITES
Cree Literacy is an amazing website that you can explore endlessly. It’s got stories, videos, sound files, teachings in Spirit Markers and SRO and more. There’s even a link to an free version of a textbook by Jean Okimasis.
The University of Regina Press has a wealth of books you can purchase about the Cree Language and by Cree people.
Lesson #4
| tansi cuzzins! Welcome to week four of our journey into learning the Cree language, which we call nehiyawewin! Each week, we are looking at one of the Spirit Markers from the star chart and learning a bit about the sound it represents and how to spell the sound in SRO, or Standard Roman Orthography. Then we’ll learn a word that features this Spirit Marker. |
This week is an opportunity for me to remind readers that I am not a fluent Cree speaker. I am on my own language-learning journey and taking you along with me.
Continuing on the Eastern limb of the star chart, today’s spirit marker is ᕍ, which represents the sound “la.” However, when I went looking for nehiyawewin words that started with this sound, I couldn’t find any. I switched to looking for words that just contained the sound, “la” but failed to find any of those either.
Confused, I reached out to a classmate of mine who is more knowledgeable than I. She’s been studying the language longer and is further along in her language-reclamation journey.
“I can’t find any words that contain ᕍ,” I said. “Am I missing something?”
| She was kind enough to get back to me right away, letting me know that the Y dialect, which is the dialect my family speaks, and the dialect I’m sharing with you here, does not contain an “L” sound at all. I hadn’t realized this! I began to understand that not every Spirit Marker in the Star Chart actually applies to me personally. In fact, my friend even sent me the picture below to help me understand this further. The highlighted Spirit Markers are for use in other dialects. “So if you do anything with that Spirit Marker, it’s not plains Cree,” she told me. |
| Let’s talk about dialects. In linguistics, Cree itself is sometimes considered a dialect of Algonquian, but that’s not how Cree people see it. Most people think of Cree as its own language, regardless of its official classification. So let’s start from the assumption that Cree is its own language, albeit one that shares a linguistic ancestor with Ojibwe and Mi’kmaq and some other Indigenous languages in Canada. There are five main dialects recognized in Cree: 1. The N dialect, also known as Swampy Cree. ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐌᐎᐣ, nêhinawêwin (W Swampy) ᐃᓂᓃᒧᐎᓐ, ininîmowin (E Swampy) 2. The Y dialect, also known as Plains Cree. ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ, nēhiyawēwin (Plains) 3. The TH dialect, also known as Woods or Woodland Cree. ᓃᐦᐃᖬᐑᐏᐣ, nīhithawīwin (Woods) 4. The L dialect, also known as Moose Cree. ᐃᓕᓖᒧᐎᓐ ililîmowin (Moose Cree) 5. The R dialect, also known as Atikamekw. ᐃᔨᓂᐤ ᐊᔭᒥᐎᓐ, Iyiniu-Ayamiwin (N Eastern) ᐄᔨᔫ ᐊᔨᒨᓐ, Iyiyiu-Ayamiwin (S Eastern) |
 This is map of Cree dialects from Wikipedia. These types of boundaries are probably only approximate. |
| There’s a simple way to explain what we mean when we say L-, R-, or Y-, dialects. Basically, where one would use a “y” sound in our dialect, they would replace that sound with a “th” in the TH dialect. Makes sense, no? So, in the Y dialect, our language is called nēhiyawēwin, whereas Woods Cree speakers say nīhithawīwin, and Swampy Cree speakers say nēhinawēwin. |
| I’m so grateful for my classmate Jenna, who was so generous with her time and her knowledge. I’m also grateful for each of you, for through the process of sharing my language journey with you, my understanding is growing so much deeper. hiy hiy! Aunty Eden |
Lesson #5
tansi cuzzins!
Welcome to week five of our journey into studying the Cree language, or nehiyawewin!
Each week, we are looking at one of the Spirit Markers from the chart below and learning a bit about the sound it represents and how to spell the sound in SRO, or Standard Roman Orthography. Then we’ll learn one word that features this spirit marker.
I am not a fluent speaker, but a student of my language. I’m sharing with you what I learn as I continue along my language reclamation journey. Thank you so much for coming with!
Last week we completed the Eastern limb of the star chart above. As you may remember, the star chart is oriented the opposite of how maps are – north goes on the bottom for us, and south on the top.
Moving in a clockwise direction, we now come to the southeast direction. This is the long diagonal limb on the top left of the diagram above, containing the Spirit Markers ᒥ ᑭ ᓂ ᔨ ᓯᒋ ᖋ.
This week, we’re looking at the Spirit Marker ᒥ, which represents the sound ‘mi.’
As written above, the vowel of this spirit marker is short – meaning it sounds like the ‘mi’ in ‘mittens.’
If we add a dot to the top of the Spirt Marker, the vowel changes. It now sounds like the ‘mee’ sound in the word ‘mean.’
Our word of the week is ᒦᑐᐢ (mîtos).
ᒦᑐᐢ is a poplar tree.
The poplar figures prominently in our creation story. I’m not at liberty to share cultural teachings here outside of the ones that live inside the words, so I won’t say more about it.
Maybe someday, when I’m older, I’ll be in a position to share what I know with people. But as someone who is still learning myself, who doesn’t yet “double understand” the teachings, I can’t do so.
I’m so grateful for my teacher of nehiyaw culture, Lloyd. I’m also grateful for each of you, for joining me on this sacred journey.
hiy hiy!
Aunty Eden
Cree Lesson #6
tansi my relations,
Welcome to week six of our shared journey into the Cree language.
Each week, we are looking at one of the Spirit Markers from the chart below and learning a bit about the sound it represents and how to spell the sound in SRO, or Standard Roman Orthography. Then we’ll discuss words that features this Spirit Marker.
As a student of my language, I’m taking you along my reclamation journey. Thank you so much for coming with me!
Last week we began our look at the southeastern limb of the star chart above, the long diagonal limb on the top left of the diagram.
This week, we’re looking at the Spirit Marker ᑭ, which represents the sound ‘ki.’
As written above, the vowel of this spirit marker is short – meaning it sounds like the ‘ki’ in ‘kiss.’
If we add a dot to the top of the Spirt Marker, the vowel changes. It now sounds like the ‘kee’ sound in the word ‘keep.’
ᑭ also has another, very important function. It is used as a prefix at the beginning of noun words to denotes person. Consider the following examples:
| I, me, mine | niya |
|---|---|
| you (singular), yours | kiya |
| him/his/her/hers/they/theirs | wiya |
From the chart above, you can see that the last half of each word indicates a person, and the first half of the word, the first sound, tells us who that person is.
Most nouns in Cree operate in this way. So, the word for ‘my grandmother’ is nôhkom, while the word for ‘your grandmother’ is kôhkom.
Another way of expressing this would be to say that possessiveness is built into the noun. We don’t have stand-alone words for “my” and “your” in nehiyawewin.
| My grandmother | nôhkom |
|---|---|
| Your grandmother | kôhkom |
| His/her/their (singular) grandmother | ohkoma |
I believe this is one reason why Cree is a more naturally relational language.
In our worldview, there is no such thing as a grandmother floating around in the universe, disconnected from others. A grandmother is inherently in relationship with her grandchildren.
In other words, our language doesn’t allow us to objectify living beings as easily as English does.
Culture formed our language, in the beginning.
Now, the language is revitalizaing our culture. It’s helping us remember who we are and how the universe works. It is like a lovingly-filled bundle of truth and knowledge, preserved for us by our Ancestors.
I am so grateful for this bundle.
hiy hiy!
Aunty, Eden
