Learn Cree - PART 2
Vocabulary
Objectives: Learn Cree vocabulary and compose a short poem in group, to be presented in front of the class.
Materials:
Vocabulary
Objectives: Learn Cree vocabulary and compose a short poem in group, to be presented in front of the class.
Materials:
- Cree possession and body parts
- Animate and inanimate nouns
- Cree vocabulary lists
Cree Possession
On our parts of the body and kinship terms worksheets, you may notice that all the Cree words begin with N. Ni- or Nit- is a Cree prefix that means "my." Possessive prefixes can be used with almost any noun in Cree. For most nouns, the possessive prefixes are ni-, ki-, and o- before a noun that begins with a consonant, and nit-, kit-, and ot- before a noun that begins with a vowel.
However, certain nouns (including most body parts and kinship terms, and some words for personal objects like clothing) have inalienable possession in Algonquian languages like Cree. That means you must use a possessive prefix with one of those words. You cannot say *mis, "an older sister," or *askasiy, "a fingernail." It isn't grammatically correct. There is an indefinite prefix, M- or Mi-, which you can use to be abstract or if the possessor is unknown to you (i.e. if a body part has been severed, or has hit you from behind.) You could, for example, say "Mâna mimis kisewâtotawew," which means "usually one's older sister is nurturing." Or you could say "Maskasiy mohcihk," which means "somebody's fingernail is on the floor."
For these words, the possessive pronouns are slightly different. The pronouns are ni-, ki-, o-, and mi- before a root noun that begins with a consonant, and
n-, k-, w-, and m- before a root noun that begins with a vowel.
For these words, the possessive pronouns are slightly different. The pronouns are ni-, ki-, o-, and mi- before a root noun that begins with a consonant, and
n-, k-, w-, and m- before a root noun that begins with a vowel.
Three things to take note of:
1) When animate words use the third person form ("his or her"), there is not only a prefix (o-) but also a suffix (-a) at the end of the word. This is not true for inanimate words.
2) The "mi-" form is rarely used to refer to people in most Cree dialects. It's much more common to use the suffix -imâw, such as "ohkomimâw" ("she who is someone's grandmother"), or the word awiyak with the third-person form, such as "awiyak ohkoma" ("somebod
y or other's grandmother.")
3) Notice that "his or her grandmother" is ohkoma in Cree, not wohkoma. That's because w is never pronounced before an o in Cree. There are other exceptions to the prefix pattern on this page as well. Every language, including Cree, has irregular words. If you make a mistake, a Cree speaker will probably still understand you, just like an English speaker understands a person who says "fighted" instead of "fought."
1) When animate words use the third person form ("his or her"), there is not only a prefix (o-) but also a suffix (-a) at the end of the word. This is not true for inanimate words.
2) The "mi-" form is rarely used to refer to people in most Cree dialects. It's much more common to use the suffix -imâw, such as "ohkomimâw" ("she who is someone's grandmother"), or the word awiyak with the third-person form, such as "awiyak ohkoma" ("somebod
y or other's grandmother.")
3) Notice that "his or her grandmother" is ohkoma in Cree, not wohkoma. That's because w is never pronounced before an o in Cree. There are other exceptions to the prefix pattern on this page as well. Every language, including Cree, has irregular words. If you make a mistake, a Cree speaker will probably still understand you, just like an English speaker understands a person who says "fighted" instead of "fought."
Cree body parts - FaceCree body parts - BodyCree wordsCree animalsSource: http://www.native-languages.org/
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Animate and inanimate nouns
On the Cree colors worksheet, you can see that some adjectives have two different forms in Cree--for example, the white rock is wâpiskâw, but the white bird is wâpiskisiw. That's because there is a distinction in Cree between animate and inanimate nouns. If you're familiar with a European language like Spanish or French, nouns in those languages are divided by gender. In those European languages, adjectives describing masculine and feminine nouns have different endings. So if you want to use the word "old" to describe a man in Spanish, you say viejo, but if you want to describe a woman, you say vieja. For men and women, this is easy to remember, but for other nouns, you just have to remember their grammatical gender. In Algonquian languages like Cree, you use the same adjective and verb forms regardless of whether the subject is male or female. Instead, there are different word forms depending on whether the subject is animate or inanimate. All people and animals are considered animate in Cree, but for other nouns, you just have to remember whether they are animate or not--you probably wouldn't be able to guess that "feather" is animate and "river" is inanimate in Cree any more than you would be able to guess that "feather" is feminine and "river" is masculine in Spanish. Cree colors |