Innu-aimun

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Montagnais
Innu-aimun
Native to
Innu
Native speakers
10,075, 36% of ethnic population (2016 census)[1]
  • Old Montagnais
Language codes
ISO 639-3moe
Glottologmont1268
Linguasphere62-ADA-bb
Eastern Montagnais is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Innu, Ilnu / assi
"person" / "land"
PersonInnu / Ilnu
PeopleInnut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh
LanguageInnu-aimun
CountryNitassinan

Innu-aimun or Montagnais is an

Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum
and is spoken in various dialects depending on the community.

Literature

Natashquan, Quebec
.

Since the 1980s, Innu-aimun has had considerable exposure in the popular culture of

Christmas carols into Innu in his 1999 album Nipaiamianan.[4]

In 2013, "a comprehensive pan-Innu dictionary, covering all the Innu dialects spoken in Quebec and Labrador [was] published in Innu, English and French."[5]

Phonology

Innu-aimun has the following phonemes (with the standard orthography equivalents in angle brackets, this section discusses the Sheshatshit dialect):[6]

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Post-
alveolar 		Velar Glottal
plain labial
Nasal m ⟨m⟩
n
 ⟨n⟩
Plosive
 p ⟨p⟩
t
 ⟨t⟩ 		tʃ ⟨tsh⟩ k ⟨k⟩ kʷ ⟨kᵘ/ku⟩
Fricative
 s ⟨ss⟩ ʃ ⟨sh/s⟩ h ⟨h⟩
Lateral
l ⟨l⟩[a]
  1. ^ /l/ only exists in the southern dialects of Mashteuiatsh and Betsiamites. Other dialects, including the standard orthography, use /n/ in those positions.[7]

The plosives are voiced to [b d dʒ ɡ ɡʷ] between vowels. /ʃ/ frequently merges with /h/ in younger speakers (shīshīp [ʃiʃip ~ ʃihip ~ hihip] "duck").

Vowels

There are three pairs of so-called "long" and "short" vowels, and one long vowel with no short counterpart, though the length distinction is giving way to a place distinction. The column titles here refer chiefly to the place of articulation of the long vowel.

High Front
 Mid Front
Low Central
High Back
"Long" i ⟨ī⟩ e ⟨e⟩ a ⟨ā⟩ o ~ u[a] ⟨ū⟩
"Short" ɨ ~ ə ~ j ⟨i⟩ ə ~ ʌ[b] ⟨a⟩ ʊ ~ w ⟨u⟩
  1. ^ [u] particularly after i
  2. ^ [ʌ] particularly before m

Macron accent marks over the long vowels are omitted in general writing. e is not written with a macron because there is no contrasting short e.

Grammar

Innu-aimun is a

arguments), tense, mood, and inversion. Two different sets, or orders, of verbal affixes are used depending on the verb's syntactic context
. In simple main clauses, the verb is marked using affixes of the independent order, whereas in subordinate clauses and content-word questions, affixes of the conjunct order are used.

Dialects

Innu-aimun is related to

East Cree (Īyiyū Ayimūn – Northern/Coastal dialect and Īnū Ayimūn – Southern/Inland dialect) spoken by the James Bay Cree of the James Bay region of Quebec and Ontario and the Atikamekw (Nēhinawēwin and Nehirâmowin) of the Atikamekw (Nehiraw, Nehirowisiw) in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec. Innu-aimun is divided into four dialects – Southern Montagnais (Mashteuiatsh, Betsiamites), Eastern Montagnais (Ekuanitshit, Nutashkuan, Unamen Shipu, Pakuashipi), Central Montagnais (Uashat and Maliotenam, Matimekosh) and Labrador-Montagnais (Sheshatshit).[8] The speakers of the different dialects can communicate well with each other. The Naskapi language and culture are quite different from those of the Montagnais,[9]
in which the dialect changes from y to n as in Iiyuu versus Innu.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Canada, Government of Canada, Statistics. "Aboriginal Mother Tongue (90), Single and Multiple Mother Tongue Responses (3), Aboriginal Identity (9), Registered or Treaty Indian Status (3) and Age (12) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census - 25% Sample Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2018-06-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
  3. ^ Lewis, M. Paul; Gary F. Simons; Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2015). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (18th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  4. ^ "Kashtin". realduesouth.net. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  5. ^ Dooley, Danette (2013-09-21). "Linguistic defender". The Telegram. St. John's, Newfoundland. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  6. ^ Clarke, Sandra (1982). North-West River (Sheshatshit) Montagnais: A Grammatical Sketch (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  7. ^ "The process of spelling standardization of Innu-aimun (Montagnais)" (PDF)., p. 208
  8. ^ Sometimes the dialects are also grouped as follows: Nehilawewin (Western Montagnais, Piyekwâkamî dialect), Leluwewn (Western Montagnais, Betsiamites dialect), Innu-Aimûn (Eastern Montagnais)
  9. ^ "Montagnais and Naskapi – FREE Montagnais and Naskapi information | Encyclopedia.com: Find Montagnais and Naskapi research". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-07-31.

External links

Innu-aimun test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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