Woods Cree language
| Woods Cree | |
|---|---|
|
Nīhithawīwin ᓀᐦᐃᖬᐍᐏᐣ |
|
| Native to | Canada |
| Region | Northern Manitoba, Northern Saskatchewan |
| Ethnicity | 53,000 Woodland Cree (1982) |
|
Native speakers
|
(35,000 cited 1982) |
| Latin, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics (Cree) | |
| Official status | |
|
Official language in
|
Northwest Territories |
|
Recognised minority
language in |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | wood1236 |
| Linguasphere | 62-ADA-ab |
A rough map of Cree dialect areas
|
|
Nīhithawīwin
Woods Cree is an spoken in Northern Manitoba and Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is part of the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi dialect continuum. The dialect continnum has around 120,000 speakers; the exact population of Woods Cree speakers is unknown, estimated between 20,000 and 35,000.
The Woods Cree language belongs to the Algic family, within the Algonquian subfamily, and the central Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi language group.
Western Woods Cree is the term used to refer to the Cree languages west of the Hudson Bay. This includes the languages Rocky Cree, western Swampy Cree, and Strongwoods or Bois Fort Cree. James G.E. Smith classified the linguistic nature of the languages of Woods Cree, Northern Plains Cree, western Swampy Cree, and the extinct dialect of Misinipi Cree to all fall under the Western Woods Cree languages.
Another name for Woods Cree is Rock Cree, translated by Rossignol (1939) from the Cree word asini•ska•wiðiniwak. Rock Cree is the -th dialect of Cree spoken by the group of people geographically located at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains.
In Alberta, Woods Cree is also known as Bush Cree.
Precise classification of the Woods Cree language has not been sufficiently documented. Many different names and terms have been used in the description of the -th dialect of Cree spoken in the forested area north of the Canadian prairies. A more general, all-encompassing term used to describe this dialect is Woodland Cree, which is also used to describe the cultural group living in the forested area north of the prairies. This term is used, for example, in separating the cultural groups of Cree people who live in the wooded area from the Plains Cree, who traditionally inhabited the prairies to the south. See Woodland Cree for more information.
The language portal of Canada has divided all Cree languages west of Ontario up until the Rocky Mountains into four main subgroups: Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree and Woods Cree. However, in referring to the Woods Cree language they use the terms Woodland and Rock interchangeably. Whether these terms are interchangeable when referring to the Cree -th dialect however has not been explicitly determined.
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Wikipedia