Cree language
From Wikinfo
Cree is an Algonquian language spoken in the northern Great Plains of Canada. It is also the basis for the Chinook Jargon trade language used until some point after contact with Europeans.
Like many Native American languages, it features a complex agglutinative morphology. It uses the Cree syllabary for writing; the same syllabary is also used in writing the various Inuit dialects of northern Canada, although it appears that the Latin-based orthographies for these languages are supplanting the various forms of the syllabary.
The word "Cree" is short for Keristenoag, which is their name for themselves (-ag is the animate plural ending). The 'r' can also be pronounced as 'l' or 'n' depending on dialect.
A unique kind of creole of Cree and Canadian French, called Michif, is spoken by some Canadian M�tis.
Cree is an official language of the Northwest Territories. Along with Ojibwa and Inuktitut, it is one of the few Aboriginal languages in Canada that is not in decline.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Cree_language" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cree_language, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
