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Cree Syllabics

 

A Cree Syllabics[1] font called Maagonigan is used by the Social Studies/Native Studies Department on some pages at this website.

 

Installation: See below for a step-by-step procedure for downloading this Cree Syllabic font onto your computer.

Cree Syllabics : Additional information on the font itself, including a pronunciation guide.

 

Installation

To see the syllabics on this website, you must install the Maagonigan font.

1. Maagonigan is a compressed font file; therefore, if you do not already have file compression software installed on your computer, you can download it for free from the internet. For example, WinZip, WinRar, Stuffit, etc., have free or trial/evaluation versions of their file compression software available on their websites.

2. Once you have installed the file compression software, you are ready to download the Maagonigan font, by clicking on this link.

3. A pop-up dialogue box will ask you to "confirm whether or not you wish to save this file." Select "Save File."

4. A second pop-up dialogue box will ask you to "enter the name of the file to save to." We recommend that you select "Desktop," so that the file will be easy to find for the next step.

5. A third pop-up dialogue box should now appear and ask if you wish to download the file. Select "Ok." If the pop-up doesn't appear or doesn't work, go directly to the "Cree Syllabics SFX" icon on your desktop.

6. Double click the "Cree Syllabics SFX" icon, and another dialogue box will pop-up asking if you wish to "Download Cree Syllabics." Click "Ok" to proceed. Or you can right click on the icon and select, "Extract to."

7. Download/"Extract to" your main font folder (this is usually located in C:\WINDOWS\Fonts).

8. That finishes the job. Once downloaded, the Cree syllabic font will henceforth be visible each time you visit the SS/NS website without ever having to download the font file again.

 

Maagonigan Font

 

The Maagonigan font was obtained from Aboriginal Languages of Manitoba and is available for educational use without copyright restrictions.

The Maagonigan font can be used to represent any of the sounds that are found in Cree, except "th" and "r," although the symbol for the final of "r" is included. It is occasionally used in borrowed words like the given name "Maria."

The Maagonigan font has one other limitation that needs explanation. If you look at the pronunciation guide below, you will see three columns where the symbols are in orange. There should be a dot over each of the syllabics in these three columns, but this cannot be done in Maagonigan. Therefore, whenever dotted syllabics are used in this website, they will be represented in the Roman orthographic equivalents by double vowels, like "ee" as in "machine," "oo" as in "food," or "aa" as in "cat."

For example, the name Muminawatum is the modern form of a Cree name at Norway House. In syllabic form, it was first written as asVRUg. When converted to Roman orthography, the syllabics become Mā-mi-nah-waa-tah-m. Notice that the fourth syllable is "waa," which is the pronunciation of a dotted syllabic (a syllabic with a dot directly above it).

As a point of clarification, any time a dot appears after a syllabic it adds a "w" sound. Thus, "kah" becomes "kwah," "ni" becomes "nwi," “mā” becomes “mwā,” and so on.

 

Pronunciation Guide for Cree Syllabics (except "r" and "th")
Initials
Syllables [2]
Finals
a
as in
ate
i
as in
it
ee
as in
Machine
oo
as in
foot
oo
as in
food
ah
as in
about
aa
as in
cat
a      
Q
W
W
E
E
R
R
"    h
wa      
Qn
Wn
Wn
En
En
Rn
Rn
N w
pa (ba)
q
w
w
e
e
r
r
t  p (b)
ta (da)
P
O
O
I
I
U
U
y  t (d)
ka (ga)
p
o
o
i
i
u
u
Y  k (g)
cha      
A
S
S
D
D
F
F
G ch
ma       
a
s
s
d
d
f
f
g m
na       
Z
X
X
C
C
V
V
B n
sa       
;
l
l
k
k
;
;
h s
sha       
J
K
L
:
:
L
L
L sh
ya       
z
x
x
c
c
v
v
b   y
la       
[
]
]
{
{
}
}
,  l
ra       


Only the final for the "r" syllabic (m) is included in this chart. It is used to represent the "r" sound in foreign words that have been adopted into Cree.

,  r

 

[1] Cree syllabics as developed by the Wesleyan missionary James Evans were designed for the purpose of writing the scriptures and hymn lyrics in the Cree language. However, the first use of the syllabics in 1840 was to transcribe the Cree names of the Christian converts at Norway House; as a result, many of those names were preserved.

[2] There are certain Cree syllabics, highlighted here in orange, that require a dot over them to alter their pronunciation. However, this is impossible to do in Maagonigan. To address this problem on this website, whenever dotted syllabics are required, they are represented in the Roman orthographic equivalents by double vowels, like "ee" as in "machine," "oo" as in "food," or "aa" as in "cat."