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Concept
Cree language
Summary
Cree (ˈkriː ), also known as Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi, is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. The only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories, alongside eight other aboriginal languages. There, Cree is spoken mainly in Fort Smith and Hay River.
Endonyms are:
nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ (Plains Cree)
nīhithawīwin ᓃᐦᐃᖬᐑᐏᐣ (Woods Cree)
nêhinawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐌᐎᐣ (Western Swampy Cree)
ininîmowin ᐃᓂᓃᒧᐎᓐ (Eastern Swampy Cree)
ililîmowin ᐃᓕᓖᒧᐎᓐ (Moose Cree)
iyiniu-Ayamiwin ᐄᓅ ᐊᔨᒨᓐ (Southern East Cree)
iyiyiu-Ayamiwin ᐄᔨᔫ ᐊᔨᒨᓐ (Northern East Cree)
nehirâmowin (Atikamekw)
nehlueun (Western Montagnais, Piyekwâkamî dialect)
ilnu-Aimûn (Western Montagnais, Betsiamites dialect)
innu-Aimûn (Eastern Montagnais)
Cree is believed to have begun as a dialect of the Proto-Algonquian language spoken between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago in the original Algonquian homeland, an undetermined area thought to be near the Great Lakes. The speakers of the proto-Cree language are thought to have moved north, and diverged rather quickly into two different groups on each side of James Bay. The eastern group then began to diverge into separate dialects, whereas the western grouping probably broke into distinct dialects much later. After this point it is very difficult to make definite statements about how different groups emerged and moved around, because there are no written works in the languages to compare, and descriptions by Europeans are not systematic; as well, Algonquian people have a tradition of bilingualism and even of outright adopting a new language from neighbours.
A traditional view among 20th-century anthropologists and historians of the fur trade posts that the Western Woods Cree and the Plains Cree (and therefore their dialects) did not diverge from other Cree peoples before 1670, when the Cree expanded out of their homeland near James Bay because of access to European firearms.
Official source
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