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Language Lineage

Cree–Innu

A continuum of Cree, Innu (Montagnais) and Naskapi dialects across Canada, famous for the different ways its dialects reflect Proto-Algonquian *r: y, n, th, l or r ('you': Plains Cree kīya, Swampy Cree kīna, Woods Cree kītha).

c. 1st millennium CE – presentAcross the Canadian subarctic, from the Rockies to Labrador
On this page
  1. One Language Across a Continent
  2. Syllabics and Michif
  3. In its own words
  4. Where it's spoken
  5. Turning points

01

One Language Across a Continent

Cree, Innu and Naskapi form a dialect continuum from Alberta to Labrador, spoken by more than 100,000 people, the largest Indigenous language group in Canada. The dialects are traditionally classified by how they pronounce one Proto-Algonquian consonant, *r. It is y in Plains Cree, n in Swampy Cree, th in Woods Cree, l in Moose Cree and r in Atikamekw, so 'you' is kīya, kīna, kītha and so on. Swampy Cree also confirmed Leonard Bloomfield's famous prediction: it keeps the reconstructed cluster *çk distinct, as htk.

02

Syllabics and Michif

In 1840 the Methodist missionary James Evans at Norway House devised a syllabary for Cree, in which the shape of a sign gives the consonant and its orientation gives the vowel. It spread rapidly through Cree communities, often ahead of the missionaries themselves, and was later adapted for Ojibwe and Inuktitut.

On the Plains, the Métis children of Cree mothers and French fur traders developed Michif, a mixed language with Cree verbs and French nouns, one of the clearest cases of a new language born of contact.

A sample

In its own words

Plains Cree

tânisi isiyîhkâsoyan?
tânisi
how
isiyîhkâsoyan?
be.called.so-2SG
‘What is your name?’
Sources (2)
  • Okimāsis, Jean L. 2018. Cree: Language of the Plains, 2nd ed. Regina: University of Regina Press.
  • Wolfart, H. Christoph & Freda Ahenakew. 1998. The Student's Dictionary of Literary Plains Cree. Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Canadac. 83,000

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Sound lawUndated; identified 1925

    Bloomfield's *çk: Swampy Cree htk

    PA *çk → Swampy Cree htk (Plains Cree sk, Ojibwe šk)

    Bloomfield reconstructed Proto-Algonquian *çk from a single correspondence set (Fox hk, Ojibwe šk, Menominee čk, Plains Cree sk) and predicted it would be kept distinct somewhere. Swampy Cree, recorded later, has htk, a result often cited as proof that sound change is regular.

    Figures · Leonard Bloomfield (1887–1949)

    Compare with other consonant shifts across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Bloomfield, Leonard. 1925. On the sound-system of Central Algonquian. Language 1(4).
  2. Sound law2nd millennium CEContested

    The y-, n-, th-, l- and r-dialects

    PA *r → y · n · ð · l · r by dialect (kīya, kīna, kītha 'you')

    Proto-Algonquian *r develops differently across the Cree continuum: y in Plains Cree, n in Swampy Cree, th in Woods Cree, l in Moose Cree, r in Atikamekw. The pattern is the standard way of classifying Cree dialects. Its dating is uncertain.

    Compare with other consonant shifts across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Goddard, Ives, ed. 1996. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 17: Languages. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
  3. Contact1670 onward

    The fur trade

    The Hudson's Bay Company's posts around Hudson Bay make Cree a language of the fur trade, and Cree and French intermarriage produces the Métis people.

    Sources (1)
    • Bakker, Peter. 1997. A Language of Our Own: The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French Language of the Canadian Métis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Writing1840

    Cree syllabics

    James Evans devises a syllabary for Cree at Norway House. Literacy in it spreads quickly among Cree speakers, and it is later adapted for Ojibwe, Naskapi and Inuktitut.

    Figures · James Evans (1801–1846)

    Sources (1)
    • Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Splitc. 1800 – 1850Contested

    Michif, a mixed language

    Among the Plains Métis a new language forms, Michif, with Cree verbs and grammar and French nouns and noun phrases. It is a rare example of a language with two parent languages.

    Sources (1)
    • Bakker, Peter. 1997. A Language of Our Own: The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French Language of the Canadian Métis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.