Editing Cree (section)

== Language ==
{{Main|Cree language}}

[[File:Cree type proof.jpg|thumb|Cree [[language]].]]
The Cree language (also known in the most broad classification as Cree-Montagnais, Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi, to show the groups included within it) is the name for a group of closely related [[Algonquian languages]],<ref name="ce" /> the mother tongue (i.e. language first learned and still understood) of approximately 96,000 people, and the language most often spoken at home of about 65,000 people across Canada, from the [[Northwest Territories]] to [[Labrador]]. It is the most widely spoken [[Native American languages|aboriginal language]] in Canada.<ref name="census">{{cite web|url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/lang/Table.cfm?Lang=E&T=41&Geo=01|title=Canada: 2016 Census|date=2 August 2017|publisher=Statistics Canada}}</ref> The only region where Cree has [[official language|official status]] is in the Northwest Territories, together with eight other aboriginal languages, French and English.<ref name="lang">{{cite web |title=Languages Overview |website=Indigenous Languages and Education Secretariat |publisher=Government of Northwest Territories |access-date=27 October 2019 |url=https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/en/services/le-secretariat-de-leducation-et-des-langues-autochtones/languages-overview}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Languages of Canada |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/CA |url-access=subscription |access-date=21 September 2008}} Note: The western group of languages includes Swampy Cree, Woods Cree and Plains Cree. The eastern language is called Moose Cree.</ref>

The two major groups: nehiyaw and Innu, speak a mutually intelligible Cree [[dialect continuum]], which can be divided by many criteria. In a dialect continuum, "It is not so much a language, as a chain of dialects, where speakers from one community can very easily understand their neighbours, but a Plains Cree speaker from Alberta would find a Quebec Cree speaker difficult to speak to without practice."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/cree/nehiyawewin.html |title=Cree |website=Language Geek |access-date=21 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041554/http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/cree/nehiyawewin.html |archive-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

One major division between the groups is that the Eastern group [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizes]] the sound {{IPA|/k/}} to either {{IPA|/ts/}} (c) or to {{IPA|/tʃ/}} (č) when it precedes [[front vowel]]s. There is also a major difference in grammatical vocabulary (particles) between the groups. Within both groups, another set of variations has arisen around the pronunciation of the [[Proto-Algonquian]] [[phoneme]] ''*l'', which can be realized as {{IPA|/l/, /r/, /y/, /n/,}} or {{IPA|/ð/}} (th) by different groups. Yet in other dialects, the distinction between {{IPA|/eː/}} (ē) and {{IPA|/iː/}} (ī) has been lost, merging to the latter. In more western dialects, the distinction between {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/ʃ/}} (š) has been lost, both merging to the former. "Cree is a not a typologically harmonic language. Cree has both prefixes and suffixes, both prepositions and postpositions, and both prenominal and postnominal modifiers (e.g. demonstratives can appear in both positions)."<ref>{{cite book|last=Bakker|first=Peter|chapter=Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree (Algonquian, Algic)|editor1=Folke Josephson |editor2=Ingmar Söhrman|title=Diachronic and Typological Perspectives on Verbs|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXNoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA223|series=Studies in Language Companion Series|volume=134|year=2013|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-7181-5|page=223}}</ref>

Golla counts Cree dialects as eight of 55 North American languages that have more than 1,000 speakers and which are being actively acquired by children.<ref>{{cite book |last=Golla |first=Victor |author-link=Victor Golla |chapter=North America |editor=Christopher Moseley |title=Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7007-1197-0 |pages=1–96 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p-7ON7Rvx_AC&pg=PA1}}</ref>