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Cree Language

Cree
Native to Canada; United States (Montana)
Ethnicity Cree
Native speakers
120,000 (2006 census)
(including MontagnaisNaskapi and Atikamekw)
Latin, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics (Cree)
Official status
Official language in
Northwest Territories
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1 cr
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3 inclusive code
Individual codes:
crk – Plains Cree
cwd – Woods Cree
csw – Swampy Cree
crm – Moose Cree
crl – Northern East Cree
crj – Southern East Cree
nsk – Naskapi
moe – Montagnais
atj – Atikamekw
Glottolog cree1271
Crimapo.png
A rough map of Cree dialect areas
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Cree /ˈkr/ (also known as Cree–MontagnaisNaskapi) is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. Despite numerous speakers within this wide-ranging area, the only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories, alongside eight other aboriginal languages.

Endonyms are Nēhiyawēwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ (Plains Cree), Nīhithawīwin (Woods Cree), Nehirâmowin (Atikamekw), Nehlueun (Western Montagnais, Piyekwâkamî dialect), Ilnu-Aimûn (Western Montagnais, Betsiamites dialect), Innu-Aimûn (Eastern Montagnais), Iyiniu-Ayamiwin (Southern East Cree), Iyiyiu-Ayamiwin (Northern East Cree), Ililîmowin (Moose Cree), Inilîmowin (Eastern Swampy Cree), and Nēhinawēwin (Western Swampy Cree).

Cree is believed to have begun as a dialect of the Proto-Algonquian language spoken 2,500 to 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, after which time, the eastern group 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.


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Wikipedia

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