Spelling East Cree (Southern) – Standard Roman Orthography (SRO)

Definition

A standard roman orthography (SRO) is one that exactly matches the syllabic standard orthography. It is useful for typing tools, for computers and for automatic conversions from roman to syllabics and from syllabics to roman. You can find an automatic convertor at: http://syllabics.atlas-ling.ca/.

Vowel length: hats or double vowels

Long vowels in syllabics are marked with a dot above the syllabic character. In roman, there are several options for indicating vowel length by using either double vowels or a hat over the vowel:

In other variants of Cree a macron (for example ā, ī, ū) is used, but not in East Cree. The double vowel is often easier to type but makes the word look longer.

The ᐁ (e) is always long, but never written with a dot above in syllabics, or in roman, as ee or ê, although in some other variants of Cree, it is written ê.

Combination of finals

When finals combine it is important to distinguish the sequence of characters that corresponds to two different syllabic characters from the ones that correspond to just one syllabic character. This is why in roman orthography, the hyphen (-) is used to make this distinction:

The hyphen is only used when there is a possibility for ambiguity.

See also: Spelling East Cree – Northern Dialect – Standard Roman Orthography (SRO)