Spelling East Cree – Northern Dialect

Introduction

People have been writing syllabics using their own style, depending on where they learned the system, which community they come from, how old they are and what pronunciation they use. These web pages have been prepared to help people write the Cree syllabics in a more consistent way.

Cree Language and Culture teachers and linguists together with the Education Consultants in Cree Programs have been working toward a consistent spelling system for the Southern and for the Northern dialects for many years. The process of standardizing the orthography (roman and syllabic) is still ongoing and these pages are updated periodically. There have been spelling revisions since the first Cree Lexicon was published in 1987, and these revisions have been incorporated into all the dictionaries published in 2004, 2012, 2013 as well as the web version: dictionary.eastcree.org, which contains the latest revisions.

Although each Cree community in the James Bay area has its own distinct style of speaking the language, there are two main dialects of Cree with different pronunciations, so there are two main ways of spelling – Northern and Southern.

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See also: Spelling East Cree – Southern Dialect