Spelling East Cree (Northern) – ᓯᐤ and ᓲ at the end of a word and other …iu …uu endings

Introduction

In the Northern dialects many of the VAI verbs in the dictionary now end in either ᓯᐤ or ᓲ. This is to reflect the pronunciation of elders, as well as the fact that the verbs ending in ᓯᐤ have ᓯ in most endings.

For example ᐋᐦᑯᓯᐤ conjugates as ᓂᑖᐦᑯᓯᓐ, ᒋᑖᑯᓯᓐ, ᑳ ᐋᐦᑯᓯᑦ,… etc. In the grammar, we say that this verb has a stem ending in short i.

On the other hand, ᒦᒋᓲ conjugates as ᓂᒦᒋᓱᓐ, ᒋᒦᒋᓱᓐ, ᑳ ᒦᒋᓱᑦ. In the grammar, we say that this verb has a stem ending in short u.

The spelling of ᐋᐦᑯᓯᐤ used to be ᐋᐦᑯᓲ but has been changed to make it much easier to write all the other endings for each verb.

Note that in the Southern dialect, people do not write the difference in the spelling of the dictionary form, and need to look up the stem to find out whether the verb conjugates with short i or short u.

ᓯᐤ or ᓲ are not the only endings that work this way. Here are some examples of the verbs in the dictionary which have a different ending in Northern and Southern, as well as ones that have the same ending.

Verbs ending in ᓯᐤ

Verbs ending in ᓯᐤ are illustrated below, with different endings which have ᓯ, along with other verbs that work the same way.

Verbs ending in ᓲ

Verbs ending in ᓲ are illustrated below, with different endings which have ᓱ, along with other verbs that work the same way. In these verbs you can still hear the ᓱ sound at the end when different endings are used. For a word like ᒦᒋᓲ you cannot say ᓂᒦᒋᓯᓐ or ᑳ ᒦᒋᓯᑦ so it will not take the ᓯᐤ ending. But you can still hear the ᐅ sound when you say ᓂᒦᒋᓱᓐ or ᑳ ᒦᒋᓱᑦ so it takes a ᓲ ending. The rule is the same for any of the other consonants ᑰ, ᒨ and so on.