Swampy Cree | |
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Descended from | Cree |
Language | Swampy Cree |
Western Swampy Cree | |
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Descended from | Cree |
Language | n-dialect |
Eastern Swampy Cree Omaškêkowak |
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Language | eastern dialect of the Swampy Cree language, which kept the s/š distinction |
Swampy Cree, known by themselves as Maskiki Wi Iniwak, Mushkegowuk (or Maškēkowak in common Cree spelling) or Maskekon therefore often known as Muskegon and Muskegoes. Sometimes also called West Main Cree or Lowland Cree, are a division of the Cree First Nation occupying lands located in northern Manitoba, along the Saskatchewan River in northeastern Saskatchewan, along the shores of Hudson Bay and adjoining interior lands south and west as well territories along the shores of Hudson and James Bay in Ontario. They are geographically and to some extant culturally split into two main groupings, and therefore speak two dialects of the Swampy Cree language, which is a "n-dialect":
Historically, the Cree nations in the central part of the Cree continuum were classified by their relationship to Hudson Bay and James Bay: Lowland (Homeguard) Cree who were found along the coast, Lowland (Half-Homeguard) Cree who seasonally transitioned between the coast and the interior, and the Upland Cree in the deep interior who often were intermixed with the Ojibwe. West of these Lowland and Upland Cree were the Woodland and Plains Cree. Linguistically, the Cree are divided by their general language features, where the Cree nations in the central part of the Cree continuum are classified as "th-Cree", "n-Cree" and "l-Cree", from west to east; Cree traditionally associated with the Woodland Cree make no distinction between "s" and "š", while the Lowland and Upland Cree do. Today, together with the "n-Cree" dialect-speaking Woodland Cree, those who live in the Lowlands and Uplands who speak the "n-Cree" dialect are called "Swampy Cree", but culturally Moose Cree (the Cree speaking the "l-dialect") and other peoples of the Upland including the Oji-cree occasionally self-identify as being "Swampy Cree".