Cree
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by more than 45,000 people across southern
Canada and into Montana. There are four major dialects of Cree which some linguists
consider distinct languages, but they are largely mutually intelligible. Cree
is written in a unique syllabary (each character represents a syllable) which
uses shapes to represent consonants and rotates them in the Four Directions
to represent vowels. It is a common belief that missionaries invented this syllabary,
but that is controversial. The Cree are Canada's largest native group, with
200,000 registered members and dozens of self-governed nations. "Cree"
is a French word of disputed origin. When speaking their own language the Cree
refer to themselves as Ayisiniwok, meaning "true men", or Eenou, Iynu,
or Eeyou, meaning simply "the people" The Cree as a whole have weathered
European colonization better than perhaps any other native people of North America.
Where the English tended to try to move Indian groups further away from their
civilization, the French tried to engulf them. The Cree, who had held a similar
attitude towards colonization before the French ever got there, engulfed back,
and the result was a more harmonious co-existence of French, Cree and mixed
(Metis) populations. Since Canadian nationhood, the Cree have faced the same
problems of self-determination and land control that every aboriginal group
does, but they remain better-equipped to face them than most, and the Cree language
is one of the few North American languages which is assured of surviving into
the next century.
Sources:
Information on Writing System:
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources: