Download Cree notes 2014 - U of L Class Index

© 2014 by Donald G. Frantz
Notes for
An Introduction to the Structure of Plains Cree
Donald G. Frantz
Outline:
Preface
0. Introduction
I. The sounds of Cree and the Cree alphabet
II. Noun Inflection
A. Plural
B. Locative
C. Possessive forms
III. Demonstratives
IV. Verb Inflection - Independent Clauses
V. Verbless sentences
VI. Negation and Yes/No questions
VII. Complex Verb Stem Formation - Part 1: Pre-stems
VIII. Verb Inflection - Dependent Clauses
IX. Verb Inflection - Imperative verb forms
X. Complex Verb Stem Formation - Part 2: Derivational Finals
Preface
This manuscript was developed over a period of 20 years. it grew out of lecture notes prepared
for a course I teach at the University of Lethbridge. In that course I use a discovery approach to
the structure of Cree as a way of presenting that structure. In so doing, linguistic constructs and
terminology are introduced without assuming significant background on the part of the students.
By and large, these notes retains that approach. They are best used under the tutelage of a
linguist, but can be studied independently.
0. Introduction
Plains Cree, which itself comes in several areal variants, is one of the four major dialects of
Cree Proper. Plains Cree is spoken in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The other dialects of Cree
Proper are Woods Cree (northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba), Swampy Cree
(Manitoba and Ontario), and Moose Cree (Ontario). These four dialects are notably distinguished
by the realization in each language of a consonant that was probably something like <L> in the
parent language from which these dialects descended. This putative <L> shows up in Moose
Cree as an<l>, in Woods Cree as a voiced interdental fricative <th>, in Swampy Cree as an <n> ,
and in Plains Cree as a <y>. Note these correspondences in the word for ʻyouʼ in the four dialects:
English
Moose Cree:
Woods Cree:
Swampy Cree:
Plains Cree:
“you(sg)”
kila
kitha
kina
kiya
Looking further back in time (thousands of years, probably), Cree is a descendent of what is
termed Proto-Algonquian. Cree and these other languages which apparently also descended
from this same hypothetical parent language (based on comparative linguistic methodology) are
said to belong to the Algonquian family. Some of the other Algonquian languages are Cheyenne,
Blackfoot, Arapaho, Ojibwa, Miʼgmaq (aka Micmac), Delaware, Massachusett, Shawnee,
Maliceet, and Fox.
I. The sounds of Cree and the Cree alphabet
Some parameters of speech sound production
Voicing
As air flows from the lungs to the mouth and nose, it passes through the larynx ("voice box")
where the glottis ("vocal chords") may be nearly closed and tensed so that the cartilages at the
opening vibrate, imposing an audio signal on the air stream. Sounds made without this glottal
vibration are said to be voiceless. A good contrast between voiced and voiceless sounds in
English is found in the pair <lazy> and <lacy>. The <z> of <lazy> represents a voiced sound,
while the <c> of <lacy> represents a voiceless sound. There are no such contrasts in Cree, but
voicing is an important feature nevertheless. (See Generalizations for Cree, below.)
Shape of the oral cavity
The quality (timbre) of vowels and semivowels is determined by the complex patterns of the
audio signal carried by the air flow leaving the mouth. As stated above, an audio signal is
imposed on the air flow as it passes through the larynx. The oral cavity acts as a filter which
more readily passes certain harmonics of this audio signal; the shape of the oral cavity
determines which harmonics are passed and which are attenuated.
The primary determinant for the shape of the oral cavity is the position of the tongue. It is
common to describe vowels with respect to the location of the highest point on the tongue. So,
e.g., the vowel of English <she> is produced with the blade of the tongue high and to the front of
the mouth, so it is described as a high, front vowel. Cree has the following vowels: high front [i],
mid front [e], low central [a], and mid to high back [o]. These are similar to English vowels as
follows: [i] is like the vowel of English <she>; the vowel of English that is most like the [e] of Cree
is that of <pay>, though Cree [e] lacks the glide to high front that is characteristic of the English
vowel; Cree [a] is about the same as the vowel of English <on>, and Cree [o] is about half way
between the vowels of <go> and <do>, and like those vowels, involves lip rounding. (This
description of these vowels is simplified, in the sense that their basic quality has been described.
The vowels [i] and [a] have predictable variants in well-defined environments, as will be described
below under Generalizations for Cree.)
The shape of the oral cavity is also the determining factor for the quality of semivowels. These are
like vowels except for their duration and consequently their position in the syllable: semivowels
involve a gliding movement of the tongue into and out of a high front or high back position. They
are never the nucleus of syllables, always occuring next to vowels. Cree has a high front
semivowel [y] and a high back semivowel [w]. Like the back vowel [o], the lips are rounded for [w].
Point of air flow constriction in the mouth.
The description of consonants makes reference to the point in the mouth where the air flow is
constricted, such as at the lips, or at various points along the roof of the mouth as the tongue
touches it. These points are sometimes referred to as "points of articulation". The important points
for a description of Cree are the lips, alveolar ridge (behind the teeth), the front portion of the
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palate, and the velum ("soft palate"). Consonants articulated at these points are described as
labial, alveolar, alveopalatal, and velar, respectively.
Degree of air flow constriction in the mouth.
Air flow in the mouth may be completely blocked, as in stops and nasals (see below), or
constricted to the extent that the air being forced through makes a noise; the latter sounds are
called fricatives. Vowels (see above) are produced with virtually no constriction in the mouth.
Velic status (open or closed)
The velic is a valve at the back of the roof of the mouth. It may be open, allowing air to flow
through the nasal passage, or closed.
Classes of consonants
It is useful to recognize groups of sounds which have features in common, because this allows us
to make generalizations about those groups, as we will see just below and later when describing
phonological rules.
Stops:
When there is complete blockage of air flow in the mouth and the velic is closed so no air
can escape through the nasal passage, then as soon as the air pressure in the mouth matches
the air pressure from the lungs, air flow completely stops. E.g., if the lips are closed and the velic
is closed, the air flow is halted as pressure builds up behind the lips. The resulting consonant is
called a labial stop. Cree has labial stop [p], alveolar stop [t], and velar stop [k].
Nasals:
If there is an oral closure but the velic remains open, then the entire air flow exit will be
via the nasal passage. The point of closure in the mouth is still significant, however, because
shape of the oral cavity will affect the quality (timbre) of the sound as it does for vowels (see
below), especially if they are voiced, as they almost always are. Cree has labial nasal [m] and
alveolar nasal [n].
Fricatives:
The oral closure is not complete, and air being forced through produces noise. The velic
is closed, else the pressure in the mouth could not be great enough to force air through the
constriction. Plains Cree has only an alveolar fricative [s], about like the sound represented by
<s> in English <say>. Certain other dialects of Cree have an additional fricative at the
alveopalatal point of articulation; it is about like the sound usually represented by <sh> in English.
Affricates:
If the closure for a stop is not opened abruptly and completely, but rather the closure is
only partially opened so as to allow air to pass through with difficulty, then the release will be
heard as a fricative. The resulting complex sound is called an affricate. Cree has only an
alveopalatal affricate [č], which is much like the sound usually represented by <ch> in English.
Definitions:
stop = oral closure & velic closed
nasal= oral closure & velic open
fricative = friction noise produced as air flows through a constriction & velic closed
affricate = stop with fricative release
vowel = sound produced by resonance within the oral cavity; occurs as the nucleus of a syllable
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semi-vowel = glide of tongue into a high front or back position; occurs as part of a syllable
margin
Generalizations for Cree:
Stops, fricatives, and the affricate are voiceless and only slightly aspirated if at all.
Nasals are voiced.
Vowels are voiced and non-nasalized (i.e., the velic is closed).
Semivowels are voiced and non-nasalized.
Contrast with English:
Much less aspiration (if any) of stops in Cree than in English.
Cree [e] and [o] are not glided.
Vowel length (duration) is distinctive in Cree; i.e. Cree vowels come in two distinct lengths.
<e> is always long.
Predictable variation in Cree:
<a> is higher (central; like <u> in English <up>) if it is both short and in a closed
syllable.
<i> is lax (like the <i> of English <kiss> if it is both short and in a closed syllable.
Non-predictable variation in Cree:
<o> may sound like [u] (like <o> of English <do>).
Stops may be lightly voiced when between vowels.
Voicing may continue through an [h] that is between vowels, making it inaudible, yet
the vowels which were on either side of it remain in separate syllables.
Accent
Accent (location of major word stress) is largely predictable, but there is
some variation, as well as interaction with vowel reduction. In general, the third syllable
from the end of the word will be stressed. In words of two syllables, the final syllable
seems to be slightly more stressed than the first.
The Cree alphabet
There are two commonly used writing systems for Cree, the alphabet and the
syllabary. The former uses one letter for each of the distinctive sounds described
above. It will be described here and used to represent Cree words for the remainder of
these notes.
The syllabary is so-called because it uses symbols for simple syllables made up of a
vowel alone or of a single consonant plus a vowel. Additional symbols are added to the
simple syllable symbols to represent the consonants of more complex syllables. This
latter system is widely used by Cree speaking peoples, and has been modified for other
languages as well. It will be described in an appendix.
The alphabet uses the same letters as were introduced above for the distinctive
sounds of Cree, except that a plain <c> is used for [č] (some writers use <ch> as in
English). Thus there are four vowels: <i, e, a, o>. Distinctively long counterparts of
these vowels are most commonly represented by adding a macron to the vowel symbols,
as follows: <î, â, ô>. (Since <e> is always long, it is common to not indicate its length, a
practice followed in these notes.) There are seven true consonants in the Cree alphabet:
<p, t, k, c, s, m, n>. (In dialects which have the additional alveopalatal fricative [š], either
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that symbol or a digraph, <sh> is used.) Finally, there are the two semivowels (<y, w>),
plus <h>; the last is basically aspiration, though as we shall see, behaves as a semivowel
with regard to certain rules of Cree.
II. Noun Inflection
A. Plurals
Compare the singular and plural forms of the following nouns:
nâpew
acimosis
cîpay
sîsîp
minôs
piyesîs
‘man’
‘puppy‘
‘ghost’
‘duck’
‘cat’
‘bird’
nâpewak
‘men’
acimosisak
‘puppies’
cîpayak
‘ghosts’
sîsîpak ‘ducks’
minôsak
‘cats’
piyesîsak
‘birds’
It seems obvious that ak marks nouns as plural, while the singular is unmarked. We will
describe this by saying that the singular of a noun uses only the stem, while the plural is
made up of the stem and a suffix -ak. Stems and suffixes are elements which carry
meaning, and which cannot be further broken down into meaningful parts; i.e. they are
morphemes. A morpheme has both a form and a meaning or grammatical function. There
are seven morphemes represented in the set of data above: six stems (each with its
meaning) and the suffix -ak ‘plural’.
Now consider these singular and plural forms:
oyâkan
ôtenaw
misit
miskotâkay
mipwâm
ispacinâs
‘dish’
‘town’
‘foot’
‘coat’
‘thigh’
‘small hill’
oyâkana
ôtenawa
misita
miskotâkaya
mipwâma
ispacinâsa
‘dishes’
‘towns’
‘feet’
‘coats’
‘thighs’
‘small hills’
These nouns take a different plural suffix: -a. It appears that there are at least two
classes of nouns; one the members of which take -ak when plural, and the other the
members of which take -a when plural; we can temporarily refer to these to classes as
the ak class and the a class.
We should consider whether there is anything that determines which class a noun
belongs to. Phonological shape of the stem does not seem to be a factor; the number of
syllables in the examples is from two to four, and there is overlap in the distribution of
the stem-final consonants; i.e., we can't predict which plural suffix a stem will take based
upon its final consonant.
The next thing we might consider is the meaning of the stems. There does seem to be a
correlation: note that the ak stems above all make reference to animals, people, or
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spirits, and none of the a stems refer to these categories. So we can consider that a
working hypothesis. But here are a few more ak stems:
âsokan
ospwâkan
ahtay
sehkepayîs
askihk
asikan
astis
apoy
îyihkos
‘bridge’
‘pipe’
‘pelt’
‘car’
‘kettle’
‘sock’
‘mitt’
‘paddle’
‘tonsil’
âsokanak
ospwâkanak
ahtayak
sehkepayîsak
askihkak
asikanak
astisak
apoyak
îyihkosak
‘bridges’
‘pipes’
‘pelts’
‘cars’
‘kettles’
‘socks’
‘mitts’
‘paddles’
‘tonsils’
So it does not seem to be true that only stems refering to people, animals, and spirits
are ak stems.
When the noun stems of a language fall into a small number of partially arbitrary classes,
the traditional term for this is grammatical gender. So Cree has two grammatical
genders, and because it is true that all (but not only) stems which refer to animals,
people, or spirits are ak stems, that class is traditionally called animate; the class of a
stems is called inanimate. Again, if a stem refers to an animal, person, or spirit, we can
predict that it will be of animate gender; however, if it does not refer to an animal,
person, or spirit, we must learn from hearing it used in the language (or looking it up in a
Cree dictionary) to know which class it belongs to.
Consider now the following singular and plural forms:
maskwa
niska
‘bear’
‘goose'
maskwak
niskak
‘bears'
‘geese’
Here it appears that we will have to complicate our analysis above by saying that the
animate plural suffix is -k after a stem which ends in a. But is it necessary to complicate
the analysis? Suppose that the apparent missing a could be explained by a rule of Cree
that has wider application than for plurals; in fact, one which is totally general, and is in
effect in all words of Cree? If so, we could say that the plural of ‘bear', e.g., is formed
as follows:
maskwa + ak » maskwak.
The putative rule might say that whenever two occurrences of the vowel a come
together, one is dropped. Or it might say that whenever any two vowels come together,
one (we can't say which at this time) is dropped. The latter rule, if we can determine
whether it is the first or second vowel which is dropped, is much more general and
makes stronger claims about the language; therefore it is to be preferred. This is true
because it makes a wider range of predictions than a rule which reduces a+a to a;
consequently, it is more easily falsified. Science proceeds by positing hypotheses to
explain a range of data, and the more general the hypothesis, the more highly valued it
is; if data are not found which falsify it, despite its greater claims, then of course it can
be viewed as more of an explanation for the facts at hand. So we will look at additional
data, accepting the more general hypothesis, which we will call Vowel Loss (V-Loss),
until data are found which force us to abandon or modify it.
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The plurals of the following inanimate gender nouns throw further light on the situation:
wâti
wâwi
‘hole/den’
‘egg’
wâta
wâwa
‘holes/dens’
‘eggs’
Here again we find only one vowel where we expect two. However, these data show us
which vowel is removed by V-Loss. Clearly, the plural of ‘egg’ is formed as follows:
wâwi + a » wâwa.
So we can state V-Loss as follows: whenever two vowels come together at a morpheme
boundary in Cree, the first is deleted.
Consider now the following data:
ôhô
asinî
micihcî
nîpî
‘owl’
‘stone’
‘hand’
‘leaf’
ôhowak
‘owls’
asiniyak ‘stones’
micihciya ‘hands’
nîpiya
‘leaves’
Here is evidence that our rule about losing the first of two adjacent vowels must be
modified to account for cases where the first of the two vowels is a long, high vowel. In
these cases, a semivowel matching the tongue position of the long vowel replaces the
length of that vowel. We will call this Glide Insertion (G-Insertion). We then need to
assure that this rule, rather than V-loss, applies in the proper cases. We can do this
either by revising V-loss so that it applies only if the first vowel is short, or by making GInsertion take precedence over V-Loss. We will tentatively choose the former; i.e.
restrict V-Loss to cases where the first vowel is short.
There is an alternative treatment which may be simpler in the long run. Many Cree
teachers transcribe the singular of these stems as ending in a glide, even though
phonetically they end in a long vowel. Given that interpretation of the data, the glide is
already there when a suffix is added, so there is then no need for G-Insertion. Instead, a
"pronunciation" rule is required, saying that iy and ow are, respectively, [i:] and [o:] at
the end of words. We will follow this alternative practice for the remainder of these
notes. For example, we will spell ‘owl’ as ôhow and ‘stone’ as asiniy. We will then no
longer need the rule of G-Insertion.
The following data lead us to posit another rule:
atim
mistik
wâpos
pahkekin
môteyâpisk
‘dog’
‘tree’
‘rabbit’
‘leather’
‘bottle’
atimwak
mistikwak
wâposwak
pahkekinwa
môteyâpiskwa
‘dogs'
‘trees’
‘rabbits’
‘leathers’
‘bottles’
At first glance, it appears that we will have to posit plural suffixes which begin with w.
But if we do this we will also have to indicate which noun stems take these suffixes
rather than -ak or -a. There is a better solution. If we say that these particular stems end
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in w, then we kill two birds with one stone: we get the w in the plural, and we
automatically get it with the correct stems. But then, of course, we need to explain why
that w is not present in the singular form. Suppose Cree does not allow a w at the end of
words; that would explain why there is no w at the end of the singular forms. Let's call
this constraint w-Loss. The singular of ‘dog’ would then be formed as follows;
atimw » atim.
But note that there are words which end in w: nâpew ‘man’ and ôtenaw ‘town’ are
examples seen above. So we cannot simply say that Cree does not allow w at the end of
a word. Can we complicate the hypothesis slightly to make it work? Is there anything
different about the environments of the cases where word-final w is allowed, and the
cases where we want to say it is not? Yes. The cases where word-final w remains have a
vowel before the w, whereas the w we need to account for the loss of is always
preceded by a consonant. So w-Loss removes a w at the end of a word only if it is
immediately preceded by a consonant.
To be consistent with the statement that the more general hypothesis consistent with
the data is to be preferred, we will hypothesize that any glide will be lost in word-final
position if preceded by a consonant, even though so far we have no examples to
demonstrate that the more general rule is correct. So instead of w-Loss, we will call the
rule Glide Loss (G-Loss).
B. Locatives
Whenever a noun functions as a location in a Cree sentence, that noun is marked as
such:
sîsîp ‘duck’
minôs ‘cat’
oyâkan ‘dish’
sîsîpihk ‘on the duck(s)’
minôsihk
‘on the cat(s)’
oyâkanihk
‘on/in the dish(es)’
Clearly, we have a new morpheme -ihk ‘locative’. And based upon the glosses of the
examples, if this suffix is added to a noun stem, it eliminates the possibility of adding a
plural suffix; hence we cannot tell whether the noun as location is singular or plural,
unless something else in the context indicates this.
Now we consider what happens if this suffix is added to stems which do not end in a
consonant:
niska
wâwi
‘goose’
‘egg’
niskihk ‘on the goose/geese’
wâwihk ‘in the egg(s)’
Just as the rule of V-loss predicts, the final vowel of the stem is dropped. This further
supports V-loss as a hypothesis.
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Here is an example of a locative form in a sentence:
nitayân
ôma keyâpic nîkihk.
nit-ayâ-n ôma keyâpic n-îki-ihk
I-have-suff this more my-home-loc
‘I have another one at home.’
Next we look at stems which end in a glide:
ôtenaw
cîpay
apoy
‘town’
‘ghost’
‘paddle’
ôtenâhk
cîpâhk
apôhk
‘in town’
‘on the ghost’
‘on the paddle’
Here we see loss of a glide and of the i of the expected suffix -ihk, with compensatory
lengthening of the last vowel of the stem. For example, the locative of ‘paddle’ is formed
as follows: apoy + ihk » apôhk. We will call this Contraction. Here are more examples:
asiniy
micihciy
ôhow
‘stone’
‘hand’
‘owl’
asinîhk ‘on the stone(s)’
micihcîhk
‘in the hand(s)’
ôhôhk
‘on the owl(s)’
These last three examples show that, given the interpretation of word-final [i:] and [o:]
as short vowels plus glides, the rule of Contraction applies appropriately to these stems.
Now we consider the locatives of stems which we earlier analyzed as ending in a
consonant plus w:
atimwak
wâposwak
pahkekinwa
môteyâpiskwa
‘dogs’
‘rabbits’
‘leathers’
‘bottles’
atimohk
‘on the dog(s)’
wâposohk
‘on the rabbit(s)’
pahkekinohk
‘on the leather(s)’
môteyâpiskohk ‘in the bottle(s)’
Interestingly, all these nouns have o rather than i in the locative. This confirms that it is
something about the phonological shape of these stems that resulted in the w in the
plural, for that same "something" results in an o in the locative. To explain the w in the
plurals, we posited a stem-final w. This same w can help explain the unexpected o in the
locative forms if we posit a rule which says that w plus i become o. Thus the locative of
‘dog’, e.g., would be formed as follows: atimw + ihk » atimohk. This new rule is called
Coalescence, since the lip rounding and tongue position of the w combine with the
syllabicity of the i to give a single segment; i.e., two segments coalesce into one.
The statement of Coalescence is too general as it stands, else every wi sequence would
become o. If that were the case, we would never find words like wâwi ‘egg’. But if we
restrict Coalescence to wi sequences which follow consonants, then there are no
counterexamples to this hypothesis.
As confirmation for much of what we have posited above, consider the locative of ‘bear’:
maskwa ‘bear’
maskohk
‘on the bear(s)’
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While this may be surprising at first glance, it is exactly the result which our hypotheses
above predict, given that such rules apply whenever the conditions for their application
arises. Adding the locative -ihk to the stem maskwa would bring two vowels together, so
the final vowel of ‘bear' is lost as predicted by V-loss: maskwa + ihk » maskwihk. But
this leaves us with wi after a consonant, and Coalescence predicts that we will get an o:
maskwihk » maskohk.
It is important to realize that these phonological rules such as V-loss, G-loss, and
Coalescence are not intended just to account for the singular, plural, and locative forms
of nouns, though we posited them to cover those examples. We are hypothesizing that
these rules are applicable whenever morphemes are joined in Cree words.
Definitions
Morpheme: a minimal meaningful form.
Grammatical gender: an at least partly arbitrary classification of nouns with
regard to grammatical rules.
Phonological rules
The rules will be given here using a formalism that is common in linguistics. This
formalism follows the following rule schema:
A » B / X_Y
In this schema, the portion to the left of the slash (/) tells what happens (or what is
true), and the portion to the right of the slash tells what environment is necessary for
the rule to apply. Put into words, the schema would read: "An A is a B when preceded by
an X and followed by a Y". Note that the underline (_) marks the position where A must
be for the rule to apply. Sometimes the preceding or following environment is not
relevant to the rule; in such cases, there will be nothing in the rule position held by the
variable X or Y. So, for example, a hypothetical rule [not a Cree rule] which changes a to
o before a w would have this form: a » o / _w. In this hypothetical example, only the
following environment is relevant, so the preceding environment is not specified.
For this formalism, there are a number of abbreviatory symbols which we will use.
These are defined as follows:
C = a true consonant (i.e., other than glides)
V = vowel
G = glide (y, w, and h)
# = word boundary (i.e. the beginning or end of a word)
+ = morpheme boundary (i.e. the beginning or end of a morpheme)
Ø = null (i.e. nothing; this will be used in rules which insert or delete; see below)
We are now in a position to formalize the rules described above:
V-Loss:
G-Loss:
Coalescence:
V1 » Ø / _V, where V1is not long.
G » Ø / C_#
wi » o / C_ , where i is not long.
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Contraction:
V1G+i »
V1
(where [+long] is a feature of the vowel)
[+long]
C. Possessive forms
Consider the following:
astotin
‘hat’
nâpew otastotin ‘man's hat’
nâpew otastotina ‘man's hats’
nâpewak otastotiniwâw ‘men's hat’
nâpewak otastotiniwâwa ‘men's hats’
nitastotin
nitastotina
kitastotin
kitastotina
‘my hat’
‘my hats’
‘your hat’
‘your hats’
Notice that the possessed noun, astotin ‘hat’, is marked with prefixes and suffixes which
vary depending upon the person and number of the possessor. (See Appendix A at the
end of this section for a discussion of person categories.) With a third person possessor,
the possessed noun has prefix ot-, and if that third person possessor is plural, a suffix
-iwâw is added to the stem. If the possessor is first or second person, prefix nit- or kitis added, respectively. Marking of plurality of the possessed noun follows any possessive
suffix. We can generalize these findings as follows:
Grammatically possessed nouns are marked to indicate the person and
number of their possessors. This marking is added to the stem before any
other inflectional affixes such as plural or locative.
There is no special marking on nouns as possessors themselves. (Contrast this
with English, where the possessor is usually marked by <’s> or <es>, and the possessed
noun is not marked at all for features of the possessor.)
There is a complete set of affixes for doing this marking of possessed nouns. It will be
presented below.
Note that when the possessor is expressed by a noun, it immediately precedes the
possessed noun. When the possessor is not expressed by a noun, the person and
number marking on the possessed noun signals the same information that would be
carried by a pronoun. If a pronoun is used, it serves an emphatic purpose. So the
following example, in which the pronoun nîya ‘I’ appears, might be used to counter the
claim made by someone else that the hat mentioned is his or hers:
nîya nitastotin
‘(it’s) my hat’
11
Minor Third Person
Compare the form of an animate gender noun when possessed by third person to that
of a possessed inanimate gender noun as seen above:
asikan
‘sock’
nâpew otasikana
‘man’s sock(s)’
nâpewak otasikaniwâwa ‘men’s sock(s)’
There are two things to notice about these new forms. First, notice that in both
possessed forms the noun for ‘sock’ carries a suffix -a. This looks like the inanimate
gender plural suffix seen above, but it cannot be that because we already know that the
Cree stem for ‘sock’ belongs to the animate gender class. This new suffix marks a
grammatical category of Cree for which there is no English equivalent. We will call it
Minor Third Person (4). Animate gender nouns which are not classed as minor third
person we will refer to as being Major Third Person (3). The classification as minor third
person in the cases we have seen so far is obligatory: any animate gender noun
possessed by third person is automatically minor third person. Every minor
third person carries suffix -a ‘4’, unless it is marked by the locative suffix; note the lack
of that suffix on the following: otasikanihk ‘in his sock(s)’.
The second thing to notice is that the minor third person nouns can be translated as
either singular or plural. This is because as far as the grammatical marking is concerned,
number of minor third person nouns is neutralized; it is impossible to mark a noun as
plural if it is also minor third person.
Second Person Plural
The second person pronouns in English (you and your) can refer to one or more
persons. Cree grammar, however, distinguishes singular and plural second person. So
there are two forms which translate English ‘your knife’: kimohkomân and
kimohkomâniwâw ; the first would be used when addressing a single possessor of the
knife, while the second form would be used when the knife belongs to the addressee and
some other person or persons.
“exclusive we” vs. “inclusive we”
The English pronouns we, us, and our may or may not include the addressee in their
reference. Cree grammar, however, distinguishes exclusive first person plural (excludes
the addressee) and inclusive first person plural (includes the addressee). So there are
two forms which translate English ‘our knives’: nimohkomâninâna and
kimohkomâninawa; the first would be used if referring to knives which belong to the
speaker and someone else, but not to the addressee(s); the second form would be used
if referring to knives which also belong to the addressee(s).
A complete set of possessive forms is called a "paradigm"; here is the full paradigm for
inanimate singular gender noun astotin ‘hat’.
12
1s
nitastotin
‘my hat’
1p
nitastotininân
‘our hat’
21
kitastotininaw11
‘our hat’
2s
kitastotin
‘your hat’
2p
kitastotiniwâw
‘your hat’
3s
otastotin
‘his hat’
3p
otastotiniwâw
‘their hat’
4
otastotiniyiw
‘his/their hat’
Note that there is also a form which is used when the possessor is minor third person
(4). This would be required, e.g. in a phrase such as ‘man’s son’s hat’.
To the forms of the above paradigm we add the usual suffix -a if the possessed noun is
plural. For example, ‘their hats’ is otastotiniwâwa.
Note that the paradigm is arranged according to person and number categories of the
possessor (see Appendix A near the end of this section for a brief explanation of person
categories): 1s = first person singular; 2s = second person singular; 3s = major third
person singular; 1p = first person plural, excluding second person; 21 = first person
plural, including second person; 2p = second person plural; 3p = major third person
plural; 4 = minor third person
From this we can abstract the affixes, which can then be used with most any noun stem.
Possessive Affixes:
1s
n-/ni(t)-
1p
n-/ni(t)-...-inân
21
k-/ki(t)-...-inaw
2s
k-/ki(t)-
2p
k-/ki(t)-...-iwâw
3s
w-/o(t)-
3p
w-/o(t)-...-iwâw
4
w-/o(t)-...iÿiw
The prefix alternatives signaled by “/” and parentheses in the chart above are governed
by the morphemes to which the prefixes are added. While there are exceptions to any
attempted generalizations in this regard, we can state rules of thumb. The shortest
forms (n, k, w) are used on relational nouns and body parts. Relational nouns are classed
as NAR or NIR in the lexicon, depending upon whether their grammatical gender is
animate or inanimate, respectively. These are mostly kinship terms, and must be marked
for a possessor. Most other nouns call for the longer prefixes: nit- if the morpheme
begins with a vowel, and ni- otherwise.
The prefix w- is involved in evidence for the addition of a new phonological rule, and in
revision of one of our existing phonological rules. The following examples illustrate:
13
nôhkom
ôhkoma
‘my grandmother’
‘his grandmother’
nitânis
otânisa
‘my daughter’
‘his daughter’
The two stems here are ôhkom ‘grandmother’ and itânis ‘daughter’. Both of these are
typical relational stems and take the short prefixes. The prefix n- ‘1’ is readily seen, but
where is the prefix w- that is supposed to mark a 3 as possessor? The expected w- in
ôhkoma is missing because of a Cree constraint against wo at the beginning of a word. A
new rule, which we will call w-Drop, accounts for this: w » Ø / #_o . The absence of a
w in otânisa is due to Coalescence, which needs to be generalized so that it applies at
the start of words as well as after consonants: wi » o / {C,#}_ . (The use of curly
brackets in rules serves to indicate a choice; it is an abbreviatory device that collapses
two rules into one.)
Derived relational stems
Many nouns cannot be marked for possession without the addition of a suffix –im, which
reclassifies them as relational. The great majority of nouns that take this suffix are the
names of animals. Here are some examples:
niminôsim
kiwâposom
otokimâma
‘my cat’
‘your rabbit’
‘his chief/boss’
The suffix in these examples is clearly -im in the first example. Phonological rules have
applied in the other two which mask the i of the suffix. The stem for ‘rabbit’ is wâposw,
so Coalescence applies: wâposw + im » wâposom. And the stem for ‘chief’ is okimâw,
so Contraction applies: okimâw + im » okimâm.
Though such derived stems are relational, and so require marking for a possessor, they
take the long prefixes, contrary to the rule of thumb that (other) relational stems take
the short prefixes.
Two layers of inflection
It is important to recognize that possessed nouns have two layers of inflection. There is
an inner layer marking person and number of the possessor, and an outer layer marking
the noun itself as locative or minor third person or plural, as required by the grammar or
reference. For example, consider the following, repeated from above:
nâpewak otasikaniwâwa
‘men’s sock(s)’
The stem asikan is first marked for the person (3) and number (pl) of the possessor by
prefix ot- and suffix -iwâw. Then because asikan is of animate gender and is possessed
14
by third person, it is obligatorily classed as minor third person, calling for the outer layer
suffix -a. Here is another example:
kitôtenânâhk ‘our21 town’
The stem ôtenaw ‘town’ is first marked for person & number (21) of the possessor as
follows: kit + ôtenaw + inaw. To this inner layer is added the locative suffix to give kit +
ôtenaw + inaw + ihk. Contraction applies twice to this "underlying form" and the result is
kitôtenânâhk.
Ranking of suffixes
We saw in section B that nouns marked by locative suffix -ihk cannot also be marked
for number. Then we saw that nouns marked by the locative suffix cannot be marked as
minor third person. And just above we saw that minor third person nouns cannot be
marked for number. So these three inflectional suffixes are mutually exclusive, and there
is apparently a ranking system for choosing between them: locative outranks minor third
person, which in turn outranks number. If the grammar calls for two of these suffixes on
the same stem, only the higher ranked suffix will appear.
Appendix A: Person Categories
Person categories in grammar generally correlate with speech situation participants or
combinations of participants. Most grammars require a first person category (1) that
generally refers to the speaker, a second person category (2) most often refering to the
addressee(s), and at least one third person category (3) which, with some common
exceptions, refers to neither the speaker nor the addressee(s). For example, the
nominative pronouns of English are defined as follows: I ‘1s’; we ‘1p’; you ‘2’, he, she, it
‘3s’; and they ‘3p’. Cree needs these same categories, but makes additional distinctions:
2s (‘you[sg]’) is distinct from 2p (‘you guys’). ; 1p (‘we but not you’) is distinct from
21 (‘we including you’); and 3 (major third person) is distinct from 4 (minor third
person). And as we have seen earlier, because Cree nouns are classified as animate or
inanimate gender, there are two kinds of third persons; we will reserve the abbreviation
‘3’ for animate gender; for inanimate nouns we will use ‘in.’. This gives us five third
person categories: ‘3s’, ‘3p’, ‘4’, ‘in.s’, and ‘in.p’.
Appendix B: Unpossessed Body Parts
Most nouns which refer to body parts, as well as a few other nouns, begin with m when
not inflected for a possessor. Consider the following set of forms for ‘foot’:
misit
nisit
kisit
osit
‘foot’
‘my foot’
‘your foot’
‘his foot’
The initial m begs interpretation as a prefix, since all the forms then would share a stem
isit. In fact, it is common among Cree grammarians to describe the m as a prefix
15
marking ‘unspecified possessor’, and to describe such nouns as "obligatorily possessed".
However, this prefix is used even when the noun is not, and never has been, possessed
or been a part of any entity. For example, a clay model of a foot would still be referred
to as a misit, even though there is no possessor, even an unspecified one, nor is there
any body of which the foot is, or ever was, a part. Furthermore, any morpheme which is
added before the stem eliminates the m, suggesting that the m is not itself a morpheme
but simply part of the stem; the unusual thing about these stems is that they have two
forms: one, beginning with m, which follows a word boundary, and another, without the
m, which is used elsewhere. This is the analysis I will follow in these notes.
new or revised phonological rules:
w-Drop:
Coalescence (revised):
w » Ø / #_o
wi » o / {C,#}_ , where i is short
III. Demonstratives
Consider the following phrases:
awa niska
ôki niskak
ana niska
aniki niskak
‘this goose’
‘these geese’
‘that goose’
‘those geese’
Based on these data, Cree is apparently like English in having two sets of
demonstratives, differing in the relative proximity to the speaker, which they signal. But
while English demonstratives reflect only the number (singular of plural) of their
referents, Cree demonstratives reflect number, gender, and in the case of animates,
major versus minor third person. Compare these examples:
ôma astotin
ôhi astotina
anima astotin
anihi astotina
‘this hat’
‘these hats’
‘that hat’
‘those hats’
Here is the set of demonstratives:
near
not near
3s
awa
ana
3p
ôki
aniki
4/in.p
ôhi
anihi
ôma
anima
in.s
As indicated, the same forms (in the third row) are used for both minor third person (4)
and inanimate plural (in.p). (Recall that the suffix -a was seen earlier to mark both ‘4’
16
and ‘in.p’ on nouns; so at some level, these two categories are equated in Cree.)
Compare these examples to the examples with astotina ‘hats’ above just above:
ôhi ospwâkana
anihi ospwâkana
‘this/these pipe(s)4’
‘that/those pipe(s)4’
Demonstratives immediately precede the nouns they modify. Here are some more
examples:
ana kiseyiniw
anihi otospwâkana
ôhi nicayiwinisisa
‘that old man’
‘that pipe of his’ (lit: that his-pipe)
‘these clothes of mine’ (lit: these my-clothes)
As the last two examples illustrate, Cree demonstratives may modify a noun which is
possessed.
Cree demonstratives may be used not only to modify nouns, as in all the examples
we have seen to this point, but they may be used alone as nominals. Here are some
examples with demonstratives as subject of sentences:
Ana pâmipayiw.
Anihi wâwiyeyawa.
‘That one rides about.’
‘Those are round.’
Cree also has a demonstrative pronoun which apparently functions to predicate identity;
it has three forms: ewako ‘3s/in.s’, ekonik ‘3p’, and ekoni ‘4/in.p’. Here are examples
from Ahenakew (1987b) [I have added the bold print]:
ekwa, ewako awa peyak nisis
‘and this one was my uncle’
ekoni ôhi k[â]-âyimisit ketwet
‘there was this one which he had said was wild’
ewako awa ekwa tiyehtapiyân
‘it was the one I rode’
ewako ekwa kik[a]-ôtehtapîwatimomin ‘you will have this one as your horse now’
(Note that in all but the last of theses examples, the predicating demonstrative [in bold
print], precedes one of the other demonstratives.)
IV. Verb Inflection - Independent Clauses
A. Animate intransitive verbs (VAI)
Compare the following sentences:
Ana nâpew nikamow.
Aniki nâpewak nikamowak.
Ana nâpew okosisa nikamoyiwa.
‘That man sings / is singing.’
‘Those men sing /are singing.’
‘That man’s son sings / is singing.’
(The verbs in these examples are not marked for any tense. They could even be
translated as past tense in the proper contexts. From this point on, I will give only one
17
gloss to such examples, with the understanding that they can be translated into English
with different tenses (present or past) and/or aspects (neutral or progressive).)
From these examples, we can see that changing the person or number of the subject of
a Cree verb requires corresponding changes in the inflectional endings on the
accompanying verb. This is similar to what we saw with possessed nouns, where nouns
were marked for the person and number of their possessors. We now see that verbs are
marked for the person and number of their subjects. Here are more examples:
Ninikamon.
Kinikamon.
‘I’m singing.’
‘You2s are singing.’
Comparing these last two forms with those above, we note that first and second person
are marked by prefixes (as we saw on possessed nouns), whereas third person
categories are marked by suffixes. Furthermore, the first and second person forms have
an -n after the stem which is not present on the third person forms. Here are some
forms with plural subject:
Ninikamonân.
Kinikamonânaw
‘We1p are singing.’
‘We21 are singing.’
Kinikamonâwâw.
‘You2p are singing.’
The affixes we have seen in this section are used on certain classes of verbs. Those we
have seen so far are intransitive; i.e., are verbs which occur with a syntactic subject
but without a syntactic object. (In sections C. and D. we will look at verbs, such as ‘find’
and ‘leave behind’, which take both a subject and an object.) The verbs we are looking
at in this section are a sub-type of intransitive verbs: those which are used with a
subject of animate gender; this type is called animate intransitive; I will designate
them as VAI (AI in the lexicon). Here is the complete set of the VAI inflectional suffixes
used in independent clauses:
VAI inflectional affixes (Independent)
1s
ni(t)-...(i)n
1p
ni(t)-...-(i)nân
21 ki(t)-...-(i)nânaw
2s
3s
ki(t)-...(i)n
-w
2p ki(t)-...-(i)nâwâw
3p
4
-wak
-(i)ÿiwa
The parenthesized letters in the chart are present if necessary to avoid impossible
consonant or vowel clusters when they are added to stems. So the prefixes are nit and
kit if the next morpheme begins in a vowel, and all but the ‘3s’ and ‘3p’ suffixes are
preceded by i when added to stems which end in a consonant.
18
VAI stems ending in e
Compare the forms for atoske ‘work’:
Atoskew.
Atoskewak.
Atoskeyiwa.
‘He/she is working.’
‘They are working.’
‘He4/she4/they4 is/are working.’
Based on these forms, the stem for ‘work’ is apparently atoske. However, compare the
remainder of the paradigm:
Nitatoskân.
Kitatoskân.
‘I am working.’
‘You2s are working.’
Nitatoskânân.
Kitatoskânânaw.
‘We1p are working.’
‘We21 are working.’
Kitatoskânâwâw.
‘You2p are working.’
Here we see that the stem has another shape in the non-third person portion of the
paradigm: atoskâ. While this is an obvious irregularity when compared to other verb
stems, it is a relatively straightforward one, since all VAI stems which end in e behave
the same way: this e is replaced by â in non-third person forms when those verbs are in
Independent clauses.
Summary
Intransitive verbs are marked for person and number of their subjects by affixation. If
a verb stem ends in e, this e is replaced by â with non-third person subjects, but only in
Independent forms (Dependent ["Conjunct"] forms will be discussed in section VII.)
B. Inanimate intransitive verbs (VII)
Cree has verb stems which are used only with an inanimate gender subject. Here
are some examples:
Anima mîkiwâhp wâpâstew.
Anihi mîkiwâhpa wâpâstewa.
Pâhkihtin.
Pâhkihtinwa.
‘That tipi is faded.’
‘Those tipis are faded.’
‘It is falling.’
‘They are falling.’
Comparing these forms, we can discern that an inanimate singular subject calls for a
suffix -w on the verb (just like that for animate intransitive verbs), while a plural subject
calls for suffix -wa. (The w of the singular forms is lost after stems ending in
consonants, such as pâhkihtin ‘fall’, as predicted by Glide-loss.) Of course, inanimate
intransitive verbs can have only these two categories (‘in.s’ and ‘in.p’) as subject, for all
the other person categories are animate.
19
To make it clear that Cree distinguishes VAI stems from VII stems, compare the stem of
the following example to the stem just above:
Pâhkisin.
‘He/she is falling.’
While the two stems share a common root (study of roots is beyond the scope of these
notes), they clearly are different, and choosing between them is a function of the gender
of their subjects.
There is one additional wrinkle to discuss with regard to inanimate intransitive verbs. If
the subject of a VII is possessed by third person, the suffix marking the verb for number
of the subject will be preceded by a suffix -(i)ÿi:
Ana nâpew otastotin pâhkihtiniyiw.
Ana nâpew otastotina pâhkihtiniyiwa.
‘That man’s hat is falling.’
‘That man’s hats are falling.’
Summary
Intransitive verbs with inanimate gender subjects are marked for number of that subject
by -w ‘in.s’ or -wa ‘in.p’; if the subject is possessed by third person, the agreement suffix
is preceded by -(i)ÿi.
C. Transitive inanimate verbs (VTI)
Next we consider verbs which occur with an object as well as a subject.
In this section we look only at those which take an object of inanimate gender. Here are
some forms of the verb meaning "find":
Ana atim miskam ôma maskisin.
Aniki atimwak miskamwak ôma maskisin.
Anihi atimwa miskamiyiwa ôma maskisin.
‘That dog found this shoe.’
‘Those dogs found this shoe.’
‘That dog4 found this shoe.’
Comparing these three sentences we see that the verb is marked for person and number
of the subject, just as were intransitive verbs. Comparing the following examples shows
that number of the object is not reflected in the verb marking:
Ana atim miskam ôma maskisin.
‘That dog found this shoe.’
Ana atim miskam ôhi maskisina. ‘That dog found these shoes.’
Here are some forms with other person and number subject combinations:
Nimisken ôma maskisin.
Nimiskenân ôma maskisin.
‘I found this shoe.’
‘We1p found this shoe.’
Kimiskenânaw ôma maskisin.
Kimisken ôma maskisin.
‘We21 found this shoe.’
‘You2s found this shoe.’
Kimiskenâwâw ôma maskisin.
‘You2p found this shoe.’
20
Again, the person and number of the subjects are marked on the verb by the same
affixes that were used on the VAI verbs. The only complication is that the stem shape is
changing; it is miskam with a third person subject, but miske otherwise. In fact, we will
want to say that the former shape (miskam) is basic, as the latter shape (miske) is found
only in Independent clauses. Most TI (and even a few AI) verb stems have this variation
(am ≈ e) in the shape of their last syllables; however, several TI stems, like that
exemplified next, do not end in am. Such verbs are classified as TI2 in the lexicon. Here is
one example:
petâw otastotin
nipetân otastotin
‘he brings his hat’
‘I bring his hat’
Summary
Transitive inanimate verbs are marked for person and number of their subjects using the
same affixes as were used by the animate intransitive verbs. If a verb stem ends in am
with a third person subject, this syllable is replaced by e in Independent clauses with
non-third person subjects.
D. Transitive animate verbs
Up to this point we have seen three kinds of verbs, distinguished by transitivity and
gender: VAI, VII, and VTI. VAI and VII are both intransitive, and differ in that the former
takes subjects of animate gender, while the latter takes subjects of inanimate gender.
Transitive verbs are not distinguished according to gender of their subjects, because of
an overriding constraint in Cree about subjects of transitive verbs: they must be capable
of exercising will. (So a noun, whatever its gender, used as subject of a transitive verb
carries with it the presupposition that that noun has a will.) Transitive verbs of Cree
are subcategorized according to the gender of their objects. We have already
discussed those with inanimate objects in section E. Now we are ready to look at the
complex VTA paradigm. It is much more complex because all the animate categories are
potential subjects and objects. We begin with the following examples:
Nimiweyimâw ana iskwesis.
Nimiweyimâwak aniki iskwesisak.
‘I like that girl.’
‘I like those girls.’
Comparing these two sentences, we can see that the verbs (in bold print) reflect the
number of the objects (‘that girl’/‘those girls’); furthermore, they make use of
morphemes which we have seen before. Comparing these to the next forms show that
number and person of the subject are relevant as well:
Nimiweyimânân
ana iskwesis.
Nimiweyimânânak aniki iskwesisak.
‘We1p like that girl.’
‘We1p like those girls.’
Kimiweyimâw
‘You2s like that girl.’
ana iskwesis.
Kimiweyimâwak
aniki iskwesisak.
‘You2s like those girls.’
Kimiweyimâwâw
ana iskwesis.
‘You2p like that girl.’
Kimiweyimâwâwak
aniki iskwesisak.
‘You2p like those girls.’
21
Kimiweyimânaw
ana iskwesis.
Kimiweyimânawak aniki iskwesisak.
‘We21 like that girl.’
‘We21 like those girls.’
All of these forms use affixes which are also used in the VAI and VTI paradigms. What is
new is that there seem to be two positions for suffixes on these verbs. In the examples
we have seen so far in this section, the plural marker for the subject (e.g. -nân) precedes
the third person suffix (e.g. -(w)ak). We can also observe that when a suffix which ends
in w is followed by one which begins with w, only one w appears. E.g., in the last example
above, the expected naw+wak gives nawak. We can account for this with the following
phonological rule:
w-Reduction : w » Ø / w_
So far, it looks as if the stem for ‘like’ is miweyimâ. But notice what happens if we
reverse the subjects and objects in our examples:
Nimiweyimik ana iskwesis.
Nimiweyimikwak aniki iskwesisak.
Nimiweyimikonân ana iskwesis.
‘That girl likes me.’
‘Those girls like me.’
‘That girl likes us1p.’
Nimiweyimikonânak aniki iskwesisak.
‘Those girls like us1p.’
‘That girl likes you2s .’
Kimiweyimik
ana iskwesis.
Kimiweyimikwak
aniki iskwesisak.
Kimiweyimikowâw
ana iskwesis.
Kimiweyimikowâwak
Kimiweyimikonaw
aniki iskwesisak.
ana iskwesis.
Kimiweyimânawak aniki iskwesisak.
‘Those girls like you2s .’
‘That girl likes you2p.’
‘Those girls like you2p.’
‘That girl like us21.’
‘Those girls like us21.’
Now the stem seems to be miweyimikw (the final w shows up in the ‘1p’, ‘21’, and ‘2p’
forms where it combines with i of the suffixes by Coalescence). Let’s compare two forms
more directly:
Nimiweyimâwak aniki iskwesisak.
Nimiweyimikwak aniki iskwesisak.
‘I like those girls.’
‘Those girls like me.’
Given the rule of w-Reduction, the only difference in the two forms seems to be â vs. ikw
at the end of the stem, yet this difference is responsible for reversal of the subject and
object roles, according to the English translation. Forms with â are called "direct", and
those with ikw are called "inverse". We will see next that the â and ikw are not part of
the stem, but are suffixes.
In VTA forms with only third persons involved, at least one of them must be minor third
(4); this is due to the constraint that allows only one major third person per clause. Here
are examples in which ‘girl’ is major third person and ‘boy’ is minor third person:
Ana iskwesis miweyimew anihi nâpesisa.
Aniki iskwesisak miweyimewak anihi nâpesisa.
‘That girl likes that boy4.’
‘Those girls like that boy4.’
22
Without changing which noun is major third, we can, in the proper contexts, reverse the
syntactic relations simply by changing the verb form; compare the next two sentences
with the preceding two:
Ana iskwesis miweyimik anihi nâpesisa.
‘That boy4 likes that girl.’
Aniki iskwesisak miweyimikwak anihi nâpesisa.
‘That boy4 likes those girls.’
So with only third persons as subject and object, the direct suffix is -e rather than -â.
There are also forms used when both the subject and object are minor third person (I am
using ‘5’ to indicate an even more minor third person):
Ana nâpew okosisa miweyimeyiwa otôtemiyiwa.
‘That man’s son4 likes his4
friend5.’
Ana nâpew okosisa miweyimikoyiwa otôtemiyiwa.
‘His4 friend(s)5 like(s) the
man’s son.’
We next consider forms with only non-third persons as subject and object:
Kimiweyimin.
‘You2s like me.’
Kimiweyiminâwâw.
‘You2p like me.’
Kimiweyiminân.
‘You2s/2p like us1p.’
Corresponding to these forms are the following in which the subject and object relations
are reversed:
Kimiweyimitin.
‘I like you2s.’
Kimiweyimitinâwâw.
‘I like you2p.’
‘We1p like you2s/2p.’
Kimiweyimitinân.
There is no clear reason to call either of these sets direct or inverse, but clearly the
same kind of relationship exists.
There are a number of observations to make about TA forms. These can be stated as
generalizations if we first describe the structure of TA verbs, as follows:
There are four affix positions, which we will label AGR1, REL, AGR2, and AGR3. Only
certain affixes can occur in each of these positions:
Only two affixes occur in AGR1: ki(t)- ‘2’ and ni(t)- ‘1’. Since only one of these can fill
the position at a time, there must be a principled way to decide which is chosen in cases
where both first and second person are involved. We can see from the examples above
that in all such cases, ki(t)- takes precedence. So we can say that if second person is
involved as subject or object, AGR1 is filled by ki(t)-; otherwise, if first person is involved
as subject or object, AGR1 is filled by ni(t)-.
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In the REL position we find -â ≈ -e ‘direct’, -ikw ‘inverse’, -In ‘2:1’, or -itin ‘1:2’. To
understand the use of ‘direct’ or ‘inverse’, we need to recognize an inherent ranking
sytem in which 1 and 2 outrank 3 which outranks 4 which outranks 5. ‘Direct’ then
describes a situation in which the subject outranks the object, and ‘inverse’ describes
the opposite. Recall that the variants of ‘direct’ are distributed as follows: -e is used if 1
and 2 are not involved as subject or object, and -â is used in other direct combinations.
In the AGR2 position we find -nân ‘1p’, -(â)wâw ‘2p’, or -naw ‘21’. As with the affixes in
AGR1, there is a principled way to decide which of these is chosen in cases where more
than one is called for. As we saw above in the ‘we like you’ and ‘you like us’ examples, if
‘1p’ is involved, then ‘2p’ cannot be marked. So -nân takes precedence over -(â)wâw. If
neither of these is called for, then -naw can occur if ‘21’ is either subject or object.
In AGR3 position, we find -wa ‘3s’, -wak ≈ -ak [the latter after nân] ‘3p’, or -(i)ÿiwa ‘4’. If
more than one of these categories is called for, that which is earlier in the listing just
given gets the call.
Additional Complications
I vs. i
Notice the apparent change in the stem of the following verb when followed by In vs.
itin:
Kipiminawatitin (< ki+piminawat+itin)
kipiminawasin (< ki+piminawat+In)
‘I cook for you2s’
‘ you2s cook for me’
Where the first form has t at the end of the stem, the second form has s. We could
substitute any TA stem which ends in t, and we would see the same t ≈ s variation. And
the apparent change of t to s happens before several other suffixes which seem to start
with i. Rather than say that such stems have two forms, we account for this as follows:
There are two high front vowels in Cree, and although both are realized as <i>, they
behave differently with regard to two phonological rules, Contraction (which we have
already seen) and Sibilation (seen here). When writing underlying forms, we will
symbolize the two vowels as I and i. Contraction does not apply if I is involved (so it
must be remembered that the i in the formulation of Contraction is distinct from I), and
Sibilation applies only with I.
Here is the new phonological rule that changes t to s just when it precedes I:
Sibilation: t >> s / _ I
Additional transitive verb person combinations
There are still other VTA forms which we have not covered and which are not completely
accounted for by the analysis above. These include non-third person subjects with a
minor third person object, and a 3 subject with a 5 object. Instead of the expected suffix
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-(i)ÿiwa in these forms, we find an -a in the AGR3 position, and in addition there is a
suffix -im between the stem and the AGR1 position. Here are examples:
Nimiweyimimâwa iskwesis ominôsima.
Nimiweyimimânâna ana iskwesis ominôsima.
‘I like that girl’s cat.‘
‘We1p like that girl’s cat.’
Kimiweyimimâwa ana iskwesis ominôsima.
‘You2s like that girl’s cat.’
Kimiweyimimâwâwa ana iskwesis ominôsima.
‘You2p like that girl’s cat.’
Kimiweyimimânawa ana iskwesis ominôsima.
‘We21 like that girl’s cat.’
Ana nâpew miweyimimew iskwesisa ominôsimiyiwa. ‘That man3s likes the girl4’s
cat5.’
Note what these all have in common: a subject which is two ranks above the object. So
marking this two-degree outranking is apparently the function of the suffix -im in these
verbs.
Summary
Transitive animate verbs (VTA) are marked for person and number of both subject and
object, with certain restrictions as discussed. To translate sentences calling for TA
verbs, the correct affixes can be chosen based on the analysis above, or selected from
the VTA Paradigms in the Appendix.
New phonological rules
w-Reduction:
Sibilation:
V.
w » Ø / w_
t»s/_I
Verbless Clauses
When one nominal (noun, pronoun, or noun phrase) is used to identify another, the
identifiying nominal may precede the one being identified. This most commonly involves
a demonstrative as one of the nominals, but not always.
Here are some examples; note the order of the nominals:
Nitânis awa.
Aspapiwin anima.
Nikosis ana maskihkîwiyiniw.
‘This is my dautghter.’
‘That is a saddle.’
‘That doctor is my son.‘
VI. Negation and Yes/No Questions
A. Negation
Negation of an independent clause is accomplished by placement of namôya at the
beginning of that clause:
Namôya kimiwan.
‘It’s not raining.’
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Namôya nimiweyimimâwa ana iskwesis ominôsima.
Namôya nikosis ana.
‘I don’t like that girl’s cat.’
‘That’s not my son.’
In dependent clauses (see section VIII.) and with Imperatives (see IX), the negator is
ekâ(ya) instead of namôya.
B. Yes/No questions
Questions which ask about the truth of a proposition are called "yes/no" questions
because they call for "yes" or "no" as an answer. In Cree, such questions are marked by
the particle ciy, accompanied by a slightly higher pitch on the preceding syllable than
would otherwise be the case. Here are some examples:
Kimiwan ciy?
Apisîsisiw ciy?
‘Is it raining?’
‘Is he small?’
So far, it appears that ciy is always at the end of a question. But notice that the two
examples we have seen so far both have only one word other than the question particle.
If longer sentences are considered, we find that the most common place for ciy is in
second position:
Apisîsisiw ciy kitem?
Kitânis ciy ana iskwesis.
‘Is your dog small?’
‘Is that girl your daughter?
"Second position" is not always after the first word, but may be after the first
constituent, as the following example shows:
Ana misatim ciy wîyipâtisiw?
‘Does that horse look dirty?’
In the last example, ciy occurs after the entire nominal as subject; the two-word nominal
(demonstrative plus noun) is a constituent.
Since an entire sentence can be considered a constituent of itself, ciy is permissible at
the end of an entire sentence:
Aniki kiseyiniwak ayâwak mîciwin ciy?
‘Do those old people have food?’
Summary
Yes/no questions are formed by placing the particle ciy after the first constituent
of the corresponding statement, or at the end of the sentence.
VII. Complex Verb Stem Formation - Part 1
Pre-stems (PRS)
Pre-stems may be added to existing noun or verb stems to form new stems. They
contribute to the meaning of the new stem, but do not determine the category of that
stem. So, e.g., adding a pre-stem to a TA verb gives a new TA stem, and adding a prestem to an inanimate noun gives a new inanimate noun. Not every pre-stem can be
26
added to any existing stem, of course; only those which form a new stem which makes
sense. So, PRS misti- ‘big’ can be added to many different nouns to create new stems
(e.g. misti+atimw » mistatimw ‘big-dog / horse’) but does not produce a meaningful
stem when added to most verb stems.
Here are examples of some very useful pre-stems for forming complex verb stems. Each
is listed with its gloss, and followed by at least one example. Note that pre-stems are
generally followed by a hyphen when written, though they are clearly part of the stem,
as one can see by the position of person prefixes:
kakwe- ‘try’ Nikakwe-atoskânân. ‘We are trying to work.’
ka- ≈ (ki)ta- ≈ kikâ- ‘future’ [Second variant in word-initial position?]
Ta-kimiwan. ‘It’s going to rain.’
Kikâ-atoskânâwâw ciy? ‘Will you work?"
ki- ‘able’
Niki-kitohcikân.
‘I can play music.’
kî- ≈ ohci- ‘perfective’ [Second variant in some negative constructions.]
Kî-kîsisam.
‘She has cooked it.’
Namôya ohci-kîsisam. ‘She hasn’t cooked it.’
kîs- ‘finish’ Kîs-kîsisamwak. ‘They finished cooking it.’
kîwe- ‘homeward’ Nika-kîwe-mostohten. ‘I will walk home.’
mâci- ‘begin’ Mâci-nîmihitowak.
‘They are starting to dance.’
miyo- ‘well/good’ Kimiyo-nipân ciy? ‘Do you sleep well?’
nohte- ‘want’ Kinohte-kapesin ciy? ‘Do you want to camp?’
ohci- ‘source/means linker’
Ekote nipe-ohci-nâtitisahokawin ‘They sent me from there.
Ohci-pimipahtâw wîkihk. ‘He is running from his house.’
Paskwâwimostoswa kî-ohci-pimâtisiwak. ‘They lived on buffalo.’
pe- ‘destination linker’ Wî-pe-itohtew nikihk. ‘He will go toward my home.’
peci- ‘in direction of speaker’ ?? Peci-pimohtew. ‘He’s walking this way.’
pisci- ‘accidentally’ Nipisci-pakamahwik. ‘He accidentally hit me.’
wî- ‘intend/want’ Niwî-kâsîcihcân. ‘I want/intend to wash my hands.’
Notice that some of the above examples have more than one pre-stem. There is no
principled limit to the number of pre-stems which may be added. Here are more
examples of verbs containing more than one pre-stem:
Nikakwe-kîs-kîsiswâwak kinosewak.
Nohte-ki-wîkîwew.
... ka-pe-kîwe-mostohtêyân
‘I’m trying to finish cooking the fish.’
‘She wants to be able to go home.’
‘... it will be a long walk home for me’
The pre-stem boundary presents anomalies with regard to phonological rules. The
boundary sometimes blocks phonological processes that otherwise apply at morpheme
boundaries, but also may be the site of some deletions or contractions that aren’t
expected at other boundaries.
The most practical approach for students is to write the pre-stem in full and apply no
phonological rules at the boundary represented by the hyphen, as has been done in the
examples above.
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VIII. Verb Inflection - Dependent Clauses
Cree has another set of verb paradigms called Conjunct forms. These are used in clauses
which are dependent within the discourse. This dependency includes a wide range of
situations. It includes all of what are termed "dependent clauses" in English, but much
more besides. A clause may be dependent upon a particle, upon the previous sentence
of the discourse (in which case use of the Conjunct helps to tie the discourse together),
or even upon the previous statement or question spoken by the other party in the
conversation.
As we will see, Conjunct paradigms use very few morphemes which we have seen in the
Independent paradigms. One very noticeable difference is that the Conjunct paradigms
have no person prefixes.
Before presenting the full paradigms, we look at some examples of Conjunct forms
arranged according to the kind of dependency that triggers their use. First we will look
at three cases which would usually translate as dependent clauses in English, then at
other cases.
Adverbial clauses
These are clauses which set the scene for the main clause. They will often translate as
‘when’ clauses in English:
(ôma) kâ-otâkosihk
nipekîwân.
‘When it was evening, I came home.
(ôma) kâ-otâkosin-k
ni-pekîwe-n
sub-eve.(II)-in.s(C) 1-come^home(AI)-suff
In this example, the first verb otâkosin ‘be evening’ has Conjunct inflection (n+k » hk).
Wâpamew
nâpewa
e-tapasîyit.
wâpam-e-w nâpew-a e-tapasî-yit
see(TA)-dir-3s man-4 sub-flee(AI)-4(C)
‘He saw the man fleeing.’
Here the last verb tapasî ‘flee’ has Conjunct inflection.
Relative clauses
These are clauses which help identify a referent:
Ni-wâpahten
ni-wâpahte-n
1-see(TI)-suff
ôma
ôma
that
kâ-petâyan.
‘I see the one (which) you brought.’
kâ-petâ-yan
sub-bring(TI)-2s(C)
In this example, petâ ‘bring’ has Conjunct inflection.
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Wâpamew
e-tapasîyit
wâpam-e-w
e-tapasî-yit
see(TA)-dir-3s sub-flee(AI)-4(C)
nâpewa.
nâpew-a
man-4
‘He saw the fleeing man.’
Comparing this example to the second adverbial example above, it appears that position
of the Conjunct clause determines whether it is interpreted as adverbial or relative.
However, the context will be the major factor involved in distinguishing the function of
many such clauses.
Clauses as constituents of a main clause
These are clauses as subject, object, or complement:
Miywâsin
kimiwahk.
miywâsin-w kimiwan-k
good(II)-in.s rain(II)-in.s(C)
‘It is good that it is raining.’
Nikiskeyihten (ôma) e-wî-kîweyan.
ni-kiskeyihte-n ôma
e-wî-kîwe-yan
1-know(TI)-suff that sub-intend-go^home-2s(C)
‘I know you are going home.’
Namôya
nikaskihtân
kâ-nipâyân.
namôya
ni-kaskihtâ-n
kâ-nipâ-yân
neg
1-able(TI2)-suff sub-sleep(AI)-1s(C)
‘I can’t sleep.’
In each of these three examples, the last word has Conjunct inflection.
The reader may have noted that all but one of the Conjunct forms presented carry prestems e- or kâ-. Neither of these seems to carry much meaning; their primary function
seems to be to mark Conjunct forms. (Note that a listener does not otherwise know that
a verb is dependent until hearing the inflectional ending.) It is not clear how speakers
choose between these pre-stems.
Clauses dependent upon a particle
Tânite
e-wîkit
tânite
e-wîki-t
where sub-dwell(AI)-3s(C)
kimis?
k-imis
2-ol.sis
‘Where does your older sister live?’
Here the clause e-wîkit kimis is dependent upon tânite ‘where’.
Tâpiskôt e-nitaweyihtahkik anihi.
tâpiskôt e-nitaweyihtam-kik anihi
seem
sub-want(TI)-3p(C) those
‘It seems they want those.’
Here tâpiskôt is the particle that translates as ‘seem’.
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Discourse dependent clauses
Answers to content questions usually have a verb with Conjunct inflection. Here are
some examples:
Q: Tânite (e-)itohteyan?
tânite e-itohyte-yan
where sub-go-2s(C)
‘Where are you going?’
Q: Tânisi e-itôhtahk?
tânisis e-itôhtan-k
‘What is he doing?’
A:
E-wîkîweyân.
e-wîkîwe-yân
sub-go^home-1s(C)
‘I’m going home.’
A: E-atosket.
e-atoske-t
‘He’s working.’
In addition, there are long sequences of what would be independent clauses in English
text but which have verbs with Conjunct inflection in Cree, apparently to tie them
together. The reader can confirm this by study of the Text Fragment in the Appendix,
where Conjunct suffixes have a parenthesized C as part of their gloss.
The Conjunct Paradigms
A. Conjunct animate intransitive verbs (VAI)
1s
-yân
1p
-yâhkw
21
-yahkw
2s
-yan
2p
-yekw
3s
-t ≈ -k
3p
-cik ≈ -kik
4
-(i)ÿit
The variants of the 3s and 3p suffixes are distributed as follows:
The suffixes which begin with a k are used after stems which end in a nasal;
subsequently, nasals become h according to the following phonological rule:
nasal aspiration:
[nas] » h /_k
Notice that all of the non-third person suffixes begin with y. When these are added to
stems which end in a consonant (always m or n), either the y is deleted, or a connective
I is inserted (the remains of the suffixes are in bold print):
Tânsi e-tâpeyihtamek
‘What do you2p guess (about it)?’
Tânspi kâ-kî-pâhkisin(iy)ân
... e-pimisin(iy)ân
‘When did I fall?’
‘... that I lie down’
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As no Cree words have a y after a consonant, we can account for the loss of y in the
above cases by means of the following new phonological rule:
y-Loss: y » Ø / C_
In the cases where the y remains, this is of course due to the presence of the connective
I. Note that as stated earlier, Contraction does not apply with connective I.
B. Conjunct inanimate intransitive verbs (VII)
in.s
-k
in.p -ki
e-wâpiskâk
‘(that) it is white’
??e-mihkwâki
‘(that) they are red’
Observe that meteorological verbs are VII:
e-kimiwahk
‘(when) it is raining’
As with Independent VII, if the subject is possessed by third person, then these suffixes
are preceded by -(i)ÿi:
... e-wâpiskâyik otastotin ‘... that his hat is white’
C. Conjunct transitive inanimate verbs (VTI)
As with independent VTI forms, the Conjunct VTI paradigm uses the same affixes as
Conjunct VAI verbs. Since most VTI stems end in am, the y of the non-third person
forms will be dropped, as in the following examples:
kâ-otinamân ôma minihkwewin
ekâ ka-wepinamâhk ôhi maskihk
(SHP)
‘when I took this drink’
‘we were not to give up any of these medicines’
In the third person conjunct forms of stems ending in am, nasal aspiration applies before
the k, of course:
kå-otinahk ôma minihkwewin ‘when he took this drink’
D. Conjunct transitive animate verbs (VTA)
This paradigm has as many forms as does its Independent counterpart. I will not present
an analysis of the forms into morphemes, but simply refer the student to the complete
TA Conjunct Paradigm in the Appendix. Here are a few examples (from SHP):
ekwa e-wîhtamawakik ‘and I told them (about it)’
isi e-wîhtamawicik ‘thus they told me (about it)’
ekwa e-kâhkweyimâyâhk ‘and we were jealous of him’
kîkwây ekwa wâ-asamacik ‘and what would you feed them?’
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Subjunctive
Subjunctive inflection is Conjunct inflection plus an additional segment i; in addition, the
-ik ‘3p’ portion of Conjunct suffixes is replaced by -wâw. It is used in clauses which are
conditional or presumptive. This includes "if" clauses, as well as “when" clauses which
refer to the future.
Here are some examples (the Subjunctive inflection is in bold print):
takwâmoyani ekote
kîspin pehtawiyani
wâpamitâhko
takwâmokwâwi
‘when you get there’ (Wolfart 1973.46)
‘if you hear me’
‘when we see you’ (note that Coalescence has applied)
‘when they get there’
Summary
Conjunct verb forms are used in clauses which are dependent within the discourse. The
Conjunct paradigms are almost totally different from the Independent paradigms. The
initial y of suffixes is dropped after stems which end in consonants by the rule of y-Loss.
New Phonological Rules
Nasal Aspiration:
y-Loss:
[nas] » h /_k
y » Ø / C_
IX. Verb Inflection - Imperative verb forms
Imperative forms are used as the most straightforward way of telling someone to do
something; i.e. they are used in commands. There are three sets: two are used with AI
and TI verbs, and a third is used with TA verbs.
A. VAI and VTI stems which end in am
Before adding these suffixes, the am of the stem is removed.
2s
-a
2p
-amok
21 -etân
Examples:
pôna
otinetân
‘Make fire!’
(cf. pônam ‘he makes fire’)
‘Let’s take it!’ (cf. otinam ‘he takes it’)
B. VAI and VTI stems which do not end in am
2s
Ø
2p
-k
21 -tân
Examples:
32
tâpasi
‘Flee!’ (cf. tâpasiw ‘he flees’)
pîkiskwâtitok ‘Speak to each other!’
(cf. pîkiskwâtitowak ‘They speak to each other’)
ekâya nânitaw itwek ‘Don’t say anything!’ (cf. itwew ‘he says’)
C. VTA imperatives
Object ➔
1s
1p
3s
3p
-Ik
Subject ↓
2s
-In
-Inân
-I/Ø
2p
-Ik
-Inân
-ihk
-ihkok
21
----
----
-âtan
-âtanik
Examples:
pîkiskwâsin
askôwik
asamâtanik
posciskâhkok kitasikanawâwak
‘Speak to me!’
‘Follow them!’
‘Let’s feed them!’
‘Put on your(2p) socks!’ (note
Contraction: posciskâw + ihkok)
X. Complex Verb Stem Formation - Part 2
Derivational Finals
There are suffixes which, if added to verb stems, determine the syntactic category of
the new stem so formed; i.e., they determine whether it is VAI, VII, VTI, or VTA. They
are thus the Heads of stems. Such suffixes are finals in the terminology used by
Algonquianists, since the final portion of almost every verb stem determines its
syntactic category.
Reflexive
An examination of the VTA paradigms in the appendix will reveal that there are no forms
at the points where the same person and number intersect as subject and object; i.e.,
there are no forms in the chart for situations where the logical subject and logical object
are the same referent. In English, if the logical object is the same as the logical subject,
the object is expressed by a so-called reflexive pronoun. Thus we have sentences such
as the following:
I see myself.
Did you bite yourself?
That politician loves himself too much.
These dealers promote themselves.
33
To express situations in which the logical subject and the logical object are the same,
Cree uses a totally different approach. Instead of replacing the object with a reflexive
pronoun, the object is eliminated entirely, and the verb is changed. The expected VTA is
replaced by a VAI, the stem of which is derived from the TA stem by addition of the
reflexive final -iso; i.e., TA + iso = AI(refl). For example, adding this final to the TA stem
pamih ‘look after’ derives AI stem pamihiso ‘look after oneself’. (Note that Contraction
does not apply, because that rule does not operate at derivational boundaries.) Here are
sentence examples, with the reflexive final in bold print:
Nipiminawatison.
Kî-iyinîhkahisow
Kiki-asamison ciy?
Kitotisow.
‘I cook for myself.’
‘He has healed himself.’
‘Can you feed yourself?’
‘He talks to himself.’
Reciprocal
This final, like the reflexive final, derives AI stems when added to TA stems. However,
the subject of the derived stem must be a set with more than one member (i.e. plural),
and the members of that set are understood as acting reciprocally. Such verbs always
translate into English with reciprocal pronouns one another or each other. The shape of
the reciprocal final has two forms: -to ≈ -ito. The former follows stems which end in
nasals (and Nasal Aspiration applies, of course), while the latter occurs elsewhere. Here
are some examples (the final is in bold print):
pamihitowak
kikitâpahtonânaw
kika-kisiwâhitonâwâw
nitasahtonân
‘They look after one another.’
‘We are looking at each other.’
‘You will make each other angry.’
‘We feed each other.’
Inanimate Ergative
In Cree, the subjects of transitive animate verbs (ergatives) are generally presupposed
to be capable of exercising will. This means, for example, if a speaker uses a noun as
subject of a transitive verb, that speaker is acting as if he/she believes that the referent
of the noun as subject is capable of acting "on purpose". So if the logical subject of a
transitive verb is not one to which the speaker wishes to ascribe willfulness, a derived AI
verb stem is used which has the logical object as subject; the logical subject is neither
subject nor object of the derived verb. The new stem is derived from TA stems by
addition of the final -iko. So e.g. kisiwâh ‘make angry’ + iko would produce an AI stem
which takes animate logical objects as subjects:
Kikisiwâhikon ciy tâpwewin?
‘Did the truth make you angry?’
Here are other such verbs:
Kîkway mâkwakikow.
‘Something bothers him.’
34
Ninôhtehkatewin nipahikow.
Mohkomân oma nimanisikon nicihcisi.
‘My hunger killed him.’
‘The knife cut me on the finger.’
It is apparently sometimes alright to have an inanimiate subject of a TI verb, according
to the following example at least:
Mohkomân oma kiskisam pîminahkwan.
‘The knife cut the rope.’
Unspecified Ergative
If speaker is unable or unwilling to identify the logical subject of a transitive verb, Cree
grammar provides different ways of dealing with this, depending upon the category of
the logical object.
If the logical object is of inanimate gender, and the verb stem ends in am, then the final
-ikâte replaces the am portion and the resultant stem is II. E.g., according to Ahenakew
(1987a.138), miskam ‘find’ becomes miskikâte, an II stem meaning ‘be found’.
akohpa miskikâtewa
‘The blankets are found.’
However, the final -ikâte is used only in Independent verbs. In dependent verbs (i.e.
those which will take Conjunct inflection), the final -(i)hk is used (as it is with AI stems in
dependent clauses; see section below titled Other Unspecified Subjects).
If the logical object is an animate gender third person, TA forms are used which simply
do not indicate the logical subject; these are included in the TA paradigms (in the
appendix) in the row labeled ‘unspec’. So e.g. ‘they were seen’ is simply wâpamâwak, in
which the TA stem is followed by the direct relator and inflection for the person and
number of the object.
If the logical object is non-third person, then a final -ikawi is added to the TA stem to
derive an AI stem which takes the logical object as subject. For example, adding this final
to VTA asam ‘feed’ produces asamikawi ‘be fed’. Thus nitasamikawin means ‘I am fed’.
Here are more examples:
kika-pamihikawinâwâw
nikî-wîcewikawinân
kikî-miyikawinânaw wîyâs
‘you2p will be looked after’
‘we1p have been accompanied’
‘we21 have been given meat’
Other Unspecified Subjects
Cree also provides ways of leaving the subject of intransitive verbs unspecified. Finals
are added which derive what are apparently II verbs. To the stems of AI verbs in
Independent clauses are added the final -niwi ≈ -(i)nâniwi; the former to stems which end
in â and the latter to others (the parenthesized i is present after stems which do not end
in vowels).
nipâniwiw
‘unspecified sleeps / there’s sleeping’
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âcimonâniwiw
pimisininâniwiw
‘story-telling is happening’
‘unspecified lies down’
Stems which end in e have the e replaced by â before this final:
atoskâniwiw
‘there’s work going on’
But to the stems of verbs in dependent clauses is added -(i)n (and Nasal Aspiration
applies, of course):
kiskeyihtam e-nipâhk ‘he knows there’s sleeping (going on)’
miywâsin e-acimohk ‘it’s good there is story-telling / it’s good there has been
revelation’
tâpiskot e-atoskehk
‘it seems work is going on’
kâ-pimisinihk
‘while {someone is / people are} lying down’
?? The same means is used for TI stems which do not end in am (TI2 stems in the
lexicon). [This needs to be checked:
?? kiskeyihtam e-osohk ‘he knows there’s boiling’
cf. the independent form: ?? osonâniwiw
‘there’s boiling’]
[Do AI stems in am act the same as TI stems?
?? tâpiskot e-pônihk ‘it seems a fire is being made’
cf. the independent form: ?? pônikâtew ‘fire-making is going on’]
REFERENCES
Ahenakew, Freda. 1987a. Cree Language Structures. Pemmican Publications. Winnipeg.
Ahenakew, Freda. 1987b. Stories of the House people. University of Manitoba Press.
Winnipeg.
Blain, Eleanor. 1997. WH-Constructions in Nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree). PhD thesis.
University of British Clumbia.
Cook, E.-D. 1991. "Lexical derivation and stress in Cree", Papers of the Twenty-Second
Algonquian Conference, 21-29.
Goddard, Ives. 1990. Stem derivation in Algonquian. International Journal of American
Linguistics 56.4, 449-483. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
Wolvengrey, Arok. 2003. The function and word order of Plains Cree demonstratives.
Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics 28.2, 22-25.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ahenakew, Freda. 1987. Stories of the House people. University of Manitoba Press.
Winnipeg.
Ahenakew, Freda. 1987. Cree Language Structures; a Cree approach. Pemmican
Publications. Winnipeg.
Hunter, Emily, Mathilda Brertton, and Stan Cuthand. 1975. Part III of the Blue Quills
Native Education Council Western Cree Revision of C. Douglas Ellis' Spoken Cree (1962).
Alberta Department of Education.
LeClaire, Nancy, and George Cardinal.1998. Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary. (Edited by
Earl Waugh.) University of Alberta Press and Duval House Publishing. Edmonton.
See the Online Cree Dictionary (www.creedictionary.com) based on Alberta Elders’
Cree Dictionary and Wolvengrey 2001.
Wolfart, H. Christoph. 1973. Plains Cree: a grammatical study. American Philosophical
Transactions. New series, vol. 63, pt. 5. Philadelphia.
Wolfart, H. C., and Freda Akenakew.1998. The Student’s Dictionary of Literary Plains
Cree. Mem.15, Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics.
Wolvengrey, Arok. 2001. nēhiýawēwin: itwēwina / Cree: Words. Compiled by Arok
Wolvengrey. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2001.
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