Spelling East Cree (Southern) – Punctuation

ᒋᐸᐦᐄᑲᓂᔥ Period

The end of a sentence is marked with ᙮ used as a period.

• ᓂᒥᔥᑕᒥᔦᔨᐦᑌᓈᓐ ᔖᔥ ᐁ ᒌᔅᑖᑲᓅᐦᒡ ᐆ ᒪᓯᓇᐦᐄᑲᓐ᙮

ᐃᔅᑯᑖᒧᐧᐋᑲᓐ, ᓇᐦᐊᑖᒧᐧᐋᑲᓐ Comma

The comma is used to mark when you take a breath.

• ᐁᓛ, ᕉᕪ, ᑌᐃᓰ ᑲᔦᐦ ᒪᕐᑲᕇᑦ ᒥᔥᑖᐸᑎᓰᐅᒡ᙮

Question mark

The English question mark is not used when the sentence begins with a question word such as ᑖᓐ, ᐊᐧᐁᓐ, ᒉᐧᑳᓐ, ᑖᐃᔅᑉ or ᑖᓂᑌᐦ.

• ᐊᐧᐁᓐ ᑌᑯᔑᐦᒃ᙮
• ᒉᐧᑳᓐ ᑳ ᒥᓂᐦᐧᑫᔨᓐ᙮
• ᑖᓐ ᒋᒪᔅᒋᓯᓐ᙮
• ᑖᐃᔅᑉ / ᑖᐃᔥᐱᔥ ᒉ ᑕᑯᔑᐦᒃ᙮
• ᑖᓂᑌᐦ ᐁᐦᑖᑦ ᕈᕪ᙮

The question marker ᐋ is added to make a yes-no question and is written separately.

The question marker ᐋ is written after the word to which you would like the answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Quotation marks

These are not used in writing Cree syllabics. Instead, verbs like ᐃᑌᐤ, ᐃᓈᓅ and ᐃᑖᑲᓅ are used to indicate that someone else is speaking, or that someone’s words are being reported.

• ᐧᐄᐸᒡ ᓂᑲ ᒦᒋᓱᓐ ᐃᐧᑌᐤ ᒣᕇ᙮

See also: Spelling East Cree – Northern Dialect – Punctuation