Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics

Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
An unpointed inscription in Plains Cree, using the conventions of Western Cree syllabics. The text transliterates to Êwako oma asiniwi mênikan kiminawak ininiwak manitopa kaayacik. Êwakwanik oki kanocihtacik asiniwiatoskiininiw kakiminihcik omêniw. Akwani mitahtomitanaw askiy asay êatoskêcik ota manitopa.
Type	Abugida
Languages	alg: Cree, Naskapi, Ojibwe/Chippewa, Blackfoot (Siksika) esx: Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun ath: Dane-zaa, Slavey, Chipewyan (Denesuline)/Sayisi, Carrier (Dakelh), Sekani
Time period	1840s–present
Parent systems	Devanagari, Pitman shorthand Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Cans, 440
Unicode alias	Canadian Aboriginal
Unicode range	U+1400–U+167F Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, U+18B0–U+18FF Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Extended

Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of abugidas (consonant-based alphabets) used to write a number of Aboriginal Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. They are valued for their distinctiveness from the Latin script of the dominant languages and for the ease with which literacy can be achieved; indeed, by the late 19th century the Cree had achieved what may have been one of the highest rates of literacy in the world.

Canadian syllabics are currently used to write all of the Cree languages from Naskapi (spoken in Quebec) to the Rocky Mountains, including Eastern Cree, Woods Cree, Swampy Cree and Plains Cree. They are also used to write Inuktitut in the eastern Canadian Arctic; there they are co-official with the Latin script in the territory of Nunavut. They are used regionally for the other large Canadian Algonquian language, Ojibwe in Western Canada, as well as for Blackfoot, where they are obsolete. Among the Athabaskan languages further to the west, syllabics have been used at one point or another to write Dakelh (Carrier), Chipewyan, Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib) and Dane-zaa (Beaver). Syllabics have occasionally been used in the United States by communities that straddle the border, but are principally a Canadian phenomenon.