Atikamekw language

Atikamekw
Atikamekw
Native to Canada
Region Quebec
Native speakers
5,900 (2011 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 atj
Glottolog atik1240[2]
Linguasphere 62-ADA-c

Atikamekw (also known as Attikamek, Tête de Boule, Attimewk, Atihkamekw, Atikamek), a variety of the Algonquian language, Cree, is the language of the Atikamekw people of southwestern Quebec. It is spoken by nearly all the Atikamekw, and therefore it is among the indigenous languages least threatened with extinction according to some studies.[3] The Atikamekw reflex of Proto-Algonquian liquid ("L" sound) *l is [ɾ] (spelled 'r'). The corresponding sound in other Cree dialects is [n], [j], [l], or [ð] (it is consistently one of these depending on the dialect). Another way in which Atikamekw is distinctive among dialects of Cree is in having many loanwords from the Anishinaabe language.

Classification

Atikamekw is a dialect of Cree, and as such belongs to the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi dialect continuum, which in turn is classified in the Central branch of the Algonquian languages of the Algic family of languages.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Atikamekw are listed below in the standard orthography and with IPA equivalents in brackets:

  Bilabial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Velar Glottal
Nasal   m  /m/   n  /n/      
Stop   p  /p/   t  /t/   tc  /tʃ/   k  /k/  
Fricative     s  /s/   c  /ʃ/     h  /h/
Tap     r  /r/      
Approximant         w  /w/  

Vowels

The vowels of Atikamekw are listed below:

Front Back
long short long short
Close î /iː/ i /i/
Mid ê /eː/ ô /oː/ o /o/
Open â /aː/ a /a/
  • Vowel length (shown above with a circumflex accent) is typically not indicated in the written language.

Notes

  1. Atikamekw at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Atikamekw". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. "Cultures et traditions" (in French). Conseil des Atikamekw d'Opitciwan. Retrieved 2010-03-09.

References

  • Béland, Jean-Pierre. 1978. Atikamekw Morphology & Lexicon. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 20, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.