Moose Cree language

As a dialect of the Cree language, Moose Cree is classified under the Algonquian branch of the Algic language family.

The term Moose Cree is derived either from the toponym {{Transliteration|crm|Môsoniy}}, meaning 'Moose Island' or {{Transliteration|crm|Môso-sîpiy}}, meaning 'Moose River'. The former is the historical name for the summering grounds of the speakers of this dialect, but has been appropriated by the modern municipality of Moosonee, leaving the island with the official English name of Moose Factory, a name that recalls the historical presence of a Hudson's Bay trading post, originally called 'factories'. The above-mentioned hydronym refers to the river where the said island is located.{{Cite book |last=Brousseau |first=Kevin |title=A Dictionary of Moose Cree |publisher=Moose Cree First Nation |year=2015 |edition=2nd |location=Moose Factory}} Speakers of the dialect refer to the language as {{Transliteration|crm|Ililîmowin}}.

In Ontario, the Cree language has no official status.

Moose Cree is traditionally written in the Eastern Syllabics, a variant of syllabics used by Cree dialects spoken in communities where the Anglican church once had a strong presence, namely Fort Albany and Moose Factory in Ontario, as well as the Cree communities in Quebec. The Latin alphabet is also in use locally, as a phonetic and non-standard script in hymnals and various locally produced materials and as a standardized script in pedagogical materials.{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Daisy |title=Moose Factory Cree |publisher=Highway Book Shop |year=1974 |location=Cobalt}} The latter use is based on standardization efforts for the Cree language at large.{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=C. Douglas |year=1973 |title=A Proposed Standard Roman Orthography for Cree |journal=The Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=1–37}}{{Cite book |last=Pentland |first=David |title=Nêhiyawasinahikêwin: A Standard Orthography for the Cree Language |publisher=Saskatchewan Indian Federated College |year=1977 |location=Regina}}

• Preservation of the Proto-Algonquian *k as {{IPA|/k/}}
• Preservation of the Proto-Algonquian *r as a distinctive consonant {{IPA|/l/}}
• Preservation of historical distinction between {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/ʃ/}} outside of consonant clusters
• Assimilation of {{IPA|/n/}} to {{IPA|[l]}} in presence of another intramorphemic {{IPA|/l/}}
• Preservation of the phonological status of all eight Proto-Algonquian vowels, except for Proto-Algonquian *e on occasion. For this phoneme, an incomplete change is apparent whereby in certain words and morphemes it has shifted to {{IPA|/i/}}, resulting in predictable morphophonological adjustments in the modern dialect.

{{Reflist}}

{{Cree language}}

Category:Cree language

Category:Central Algonquian languages

Category:Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands

Category:First Nations languages in Canada