Spelling East Cree (Northern) – Syllabic Finals

How the syllabic finals change when an ending is added

Words ending with ᑉ, ᑦ, ᒃ, ᒡ, ᒻ, ᓐ, ᔅ, ᔥ

Animate plural suffix ᒡ

When you add this ending change to ᐱ, ᑎ, ᑭ, ᒥ, ᓂ, ᓯ, ᔑ then add ᒡ

Locative suffix

When you add the locative ending, used for the English prepositions “in, at, to, on, etc.” change the small ᑉ, ᑦ, ᒃ, ᒄ, ᒡ, ᒻ, ᓐ, ᔅ, ᔥ, to big ᐱ, ᑎ, ᑭ, ᑯ, ᒋ, ᒥ, ᓂ, ᓯ, ᔑ.

Note that another ending which sounds exactly like the locative can be added to nouns. This is the simulative suffix and is translated as “like a” as in this sentence: ᐧᒫᐦᒡ ᓈᐹᐦᒡ ᐄᑖᔨᐦᑖᑯᓯᔨᐤᐦ ᐅᑳᐧᐄᐦ.

Diminutive suffix

When you add the diminutive ending, meaning “small or young”, you usually change the small syllabic ᑉ, ᑦ, ᒃ, ᒄ, ᒡ, ᓐ to big ᐱ, ᑎ, ᑭ, ᑯ, ᒋ, ᒥ, ᓂ.

In many words there is often an additional change so that ᑖ becomes ᒑ, ᑎ and ᑦ become ᒋ, ᑏ becomes ᒌ, ᓵ becomes ᔖ, and ᔅ becomes ᔥ. In these cases there may be two pronunciations of the diminutive word, as seen in the examples below.

An exception is the change of final ᒃ to ᒋ in this word:

Possessive suffix

When the possessive endings are added, little ᑉ, ᑦ, ᒃ, ᒄ, ᒡ, ᒻ, ᓐ, ᔅ, ᔥ become big ᐱ, ᑎ, ᑭ, ᑯ, ᒋ, ᒥ, ᓂ, ᓯ, ᔑ.

Here is a summary of how the finals change:

Words ending with ᒄ

The little ᒄ changes to big ᑯ when an ending is added.

Words ending with ᐤ

If the word ends in ᐤ, and an ending is added, the ᐤ is kept only if the suffix is ᐦ.

When the animate plural ending is added to a noun, the ᐤ becomes ᐅ.

When the animate plural ending is added to a verb, the ᐤ becomes ᐎ.

When the diminutive, locative or possessive ending is added to a noun, the ᐤ is dropped.

Some exceptions

Be careful of the following words where ᒻ becomes ᒧ, ᔅ becomes ᓱ, and ᔥ becomes ᔓ when an ending is added.

More examples of words with these endings

See also: Spelling East Cree – Southern Dialect – How the small syllabic symbols change when an ending is added