Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used with a number of indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Eskaleut, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. These languages had no formal writing system previously. They are valued for their distinctiveness from the Latin script and for the ease with which literacy can be achieved. Despite the name, syllabics are an abugida, where glyphs represent consonant–vowel pairs, determined by the rotation of the glyphs. They were created by linguist and missionary James Evans working with the Cree and Ojibwe.

Canadian syllabics are currently used to write all of the Cree languages, including Eastern Cree, Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Woods Cree, and Naskapi. They are used regionally for the other large Canadian Algonquian language, Ojibwe, as well as for Blackfoot. Among the Athabaskan languages further to the west, syllabics have been used at one point or another to write Dakelh (Carrier), Chipewyan, Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib), and Dane-zaa (Beaver). Syllabics have occasionally been used in the United States by communities that straddle the border. Among Inuit languages and dialects of the Canadian Arctic, they are used to write Inuktitut and are co-official with the Latin script in the territory of Nunavut.

History

250px|thumb|alt=A white man stands in front of a gathering of Cree people, teaching his writing system to them.|[[Artist’s impression by Charles William Jefferys of James Evans teaching syllabic writing to Cree Indians, in a 20th-century Canadian illustration.]]

Cree syllabics were created in a process that culminated in 1840 by James Evans, a missionary, probably in collaboration with Indigenous language experts. Canadian syllabics in turn influenced the Pollard script, which is used to write various Hmong–Mien and Lolo-Burmese languages. Other missionaries were reluctant to use it, but it was rapidly indigenized and spread to new communities before missionaries arrived.

A conflicting account is recorded in Cree oral traditions, asserting that the script originated from Cree culture before 1840. Per these traditions, syllabics were the invention of Calling Badger (, ), a Cree man. Legend states that Badger had died and returned from the spirit world to share the knowledge of writing with his people. Some scholars write that these legends were created after 1840. Cree scholar Winona Stevenson explores the possibility that the inspiration for Cree syllabics may have originated from a near-death experience of Calling Badger. Stevenson references Fine Day, cited in David G. Mandelbaum's The Plains Cree, who states that he learned the syllabary from Strikes-him-on-the-back, who learned it directly from Calling Badger.

Evans attempted to secure a printing press and new type to publish materials in this writing system. Here, he began to face resistance from colonial and European authorities. The Hudson's Bay Company, which had a monopoly on foreign commerce in western Canada, refused to import a press for him, believing that native literacy was something to be discouraged. Evans, with immense difficulty, constructed his own press and type and began publishing in syllabics.

thumb|A 1901 gravestone from Saskatchewan that included some writing in syllabics.

Evans left Canada in 1846 and died shortly thereafter. However, the ease and utility of syllabic writing ensured its continued survival, despite European resistance to supporting it. In 1849, David Anderson, the Anglican bishop of Rupert's Land, reported that "a few of the Indians can read by means of these syllabic characters; but if they had only been taught to read their own language in our letters, it would have been one step towards the acquisition of the English tongue." But syllabics had taken root among the Cree (indeed, their rate of literacy was greater than that of English and French Canadians), and in 1861, fifteen years after Evans had died, the British and Foreign Bible Society published a Bible in Cree syllabics. By then, both Protestant and Catholic missionaries were using and actively propagating syllabic writing.

Missionary work in the 1850s and 1860s spread syllabics to western Canadian Ojibwe dialects (Plains Ojibwe and Saulteaux), but it was not often used over the border by Ojibwe in the United States. Missionaries who had learned Evans' system spread it east across Ontario and into Quebec, reaching all Cree language areas as far east as the Naskapi. Attikamekw, Montagnais and Innu people in eastern Quebec and Labrador use Latin alphabets.

In 1856, John Horden, an Anglican missionary at Moose Factory, Ontario, who adapted syllabics to the local James Bay Cree dialect, met a group of Inuit from the region of Grande Rivière de la Baleine in northern Quebec. They were very interested in adapting Cree syllabics to their language. He prepared a few based on their pronunciation of Inuktitut, but it quickly became obvious that the number of basic sounds and the simple model of the syllable in the Evans system was inadequate to the language. With the assistance of Edwin Arthur Watkins, he dramatically modified syllabics to reflect these needs.

In 1876, the Anglican church hired Edmund Peck to work full-time in their mission at Great Whale River, teaching syllabics to the Inuit and translating materials into syllabics. His work across the Arctic is usually credited with the establishment of syllabics among the Inuit. With the support of both Anglican and Catholic missionary societies, by the beginning of the 20th century the Inuit were propagating syllabics themselves.

In the 1880s, John William Tims, an Anglican missionary from Great Britain, invented a number of new forms to write the Blackfoot language.

French Roman Catholic missionaries were the primary force for expanding syllabics to Athabaskan languages in the late 19th century. The Oblate missionary order was particularly active in using syllabics in missionary work. Oblate father Adrien-Gabriel Morice adapted syllabics to Dakelh, inventing a large number of new basic characters to support the radically more complicated phonetics of Athabaskan languages. Father Émile Petitot developed syllabic scripts for many of the Athabaskan languages of the Northwest Territories, including Slavey and Chipewyan.

Cree influenced the design of the Pollard script in China.

Cree oral traditions

Cree oral traditions state that the script was gifted to the Cree through the spirit world, rather than being invented by a missionary.

In the 1930s, Chief Fine Day of the Sweetgrass First Nation told Mandelbaum the following account: but abugidas, in which consonants are modified in order to indicate an associated vowel—in this case through a change in orientation (which is unique to Canadian syllabics). In Cree, for example, the consonant p has the shape of a chevron; in an upward orientation, ᐱ, it transcribes the syllable pi; inverted, so that it points downwards, ᐯ, it transcribes pe; pointing to the left, ᐸ, it is pa, and to the right, ᐳ, po. The consonant forms and the vowels so represented vary from language to language, but generally approximate their Cree origins.

Syllabic and final consonant forms

The original script, which was designed for Western Swampy Cree, had ten such letterforms: eight for syllables based on the consonants p-, t-, c-, k-, m-, n-, s-, y- (pronounced /p, t, ts, k, m, n, s, j/), another for vowel-initial syllables, and finally a blended form, now obsolete, for the consonant cluster sp-. In the 1840 version, all were written with a light line to show the vowel was short and a heavier line to show the vowel was long: ᑲ ka, ᑲ kâ; however, in the 1841 version, a light line indicated minuscules ("lowercase") and a heavier line indicated majuscules ("uppercase"): ᑲ ka, ᑲ KA or Ka; additionally in the 1841 version, an unbroken letterform indicated a short vowel, but for a long vowel, Evans notched the face of the type sorts, such that in print the letterform was broken. A handwritten variant using an overdot to indicate a long vowel is now used in printing as well: ᑕ ta, ᑖ tâ. One consonant, w, had no letterform of its own but was indicated by a diacritic on another syllable; this is because it could combine with any of the consonants, as in ᑿ kwa, as well as existing on its own, as in ᐘ wa. vowel, p-, t-, sp-, are rotated 90 degrees (a quarter turn) counter-clockwise, while those that are asymmetrical top-to-bottom, c-, k-, m-, n-, s-, y-, are rotated 180 degrees (a half turn). The lower front-vowel (-e) syllables are derived this way from the low back-vowel (a) syllables, and the high front-vowel (-i) syllables are derived this way from the higher back-vowel (-u) syllables.

The symmetrical letter forms can be illustrated by arranging them into a diamond:

::{|

| || ᐁ || || || || e || ||

| || ᐯ || || || || be/pe || ||

| || ᑌ || || || || te/de ||

|-

| ᐅ || || ᐊ || || o || || a ||   

| ᐳ || || ᐸ || || bo/po || || ba/pa ||   

| ᑐ || || ᑕ || || to/do || || ta/da

|-

| || ᐃ || || || || i || ||    

| || ᐱ || || || || bi/pi || ||    

| || ᑎ || || || || ti/di ||

|}

And the asymmetrical letter forms can be illustrated by arranging them into a square:

::{|

| ᑫ || ᑭ || || ge/ke || gi/ki ||   

| ᒉ || ᒋ || || je/ce || ji/ci ||   

| ᒣ || ᒥ || || me || mi ||   

| ᓀ || ᓂ || || ne || ni ||   

| ᓭ || ᓯ || || se || si ||   

| ᔦ || ᔨ || || ye || yi ||

|-

| ᑯ || ᑲ || || go/ko || ga/ka ||

| ᒍ || ᒐ || || jo/co || ja/ca ||

| ᒧ || ᒪ || || mo || ma ||

| ᓄ || ᓇ || || no || na ||

| ᓱ || ᓴ || || so || sa ||

| ᔪ || ᔭ || || yo || ya ||

|}

These forms are present in most syllabics scripts with sounds values that approach their Swampy Cree origins. For example, all scripts except the one for Blackfoot use the triangle for vowel-initial syllables.

By 1841, when Evans cast the first movable type for syllabics, he found that he could not satisfactorily maintain the distinction between light and heavy typeface for short and long vowels. He instead filed across the raised lines of the type, leaving gaps in the printed letter for long vowels. This can be seen in early printings. Later still a dot diacritic, originally used for vowel length only in handwriting, was extended to print: Thus today ᐊ a contrasts with ᐋ â, and ᒥ mi contrasts with ᒦ mî. Although Cree ê only occurs long, the script made length distinctions for all four vowels. Not all writers then or now indicate length, or do not do so consistently; since there is no contrast, no one today writes ê as a long vowel. In other Inuit areas, various Latin alphabets are used.

Inuktitut has only three vowels, and thus only needs the a-, i-, and o-series of Cree, the latter used for . The e-series was originally used for the common diphthong , but this was officially dropped in the 1960s so that Inuktitut would not have more characters than could be moulded onto an IBM Selectric typewriter ball, with -ai written as an a-series syllable followed by i. Recently the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami decided to restore the ai-series, and the Makivik Corporation has adopted this use in Nunavik; it has not been restored in Nunavut.

Inuktitut has more consonants than Cree, fifteen in its standardised form. As Inuktitut has no , the c series has been reassigned to the value g (). The y series is used for either y- or j-, since the difference is one of dialect; similarly with the s series, which stands for either s- or h-, depending on the dialect. The eastern Cree l series is used: la, lu, li, lai; a stroke is added to these to derive the voiceless lh () series: lha, etc. The eastern Cree f series is used for Inuktitut v-: va, etc. The eastern Cree r series is used for the very different Inuktitut sound, , which is also spelled r. However, this has been regularized in form, with vowels of like height consistently derived through counter-clockwise rotation, and therefore rai the inversion of ri:

::{|

| || ᕂ || || || || rai ||

|-

| ᕈ || || ᕋ || || ru || || ra

|-

| || ᕆ || || || || ri ||

|}

The remaining sounds are written with digraphs. A raised ra is prefixed to the k-series to create a digraph for q: qa, etc.; the final is -q. A raised na-ga is prefixed to the g-series to create an ng () series: nga, etc., and the na is doubled for geminate nng (): nnga. The finals are and .

In Nunavut, the h final has been replaced with Roman , which does not rotate, but in Nunavik a new series is derived by adding a stroke to the k-series: ha, etc.

In the early years, Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries used slightly different forms of syllabics for Inuktitut. In modern times, however, these differences have disappeared. Dialectal variation across the syllabics-using part of the Inuit world has promoted an implicit diversity in spelling, but for the most part this has not had any impact on syllabics itself.

Derived scripts

At least two scripts derive from Cree syllabics, and share its principles, but have fundamentally different letter shapes or sound values.

Blackfoot

thumb|A Blackfoot language text with both the syllabics and the Latin orthography

Blackfoot, another Algonquian language, uses a syllabary developed in the 1880s that is quite different from the Cree and Inuktitut versions. Although borrowing from Cree the ideas of rotated and mirrored glyphs with final variants, most of the letter forms derive from the Latin script, with only some resembling Cree letters. Blackfoot has eight initial consonants, only two of which are identical in form to their Cree equivalents, se and ye (here only the vowels have changed). The other consonants were created by modifying letters of the Latin script to make the e series, or in three cases by taking Cree letters but reassigning them with new sound values according to which Latin letters they resembled. These are pe (from ), te (from ), ke (from ), me (from ), ne (from ), we (from ). There are also a number of distinct final forms. The four vowel positions are used for the three vowels and one of the diphthongs of Blackfoot. The script is largely obsolete.

Carrier and other Athabaskan

thumb|A page from a prayer book written in the [[Carrier syllabics, an Athabascan adaptation of Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing]]

Athabaskan syllabic scripts were developed in the late 19th century by French Roman Catholic missionaries, who adapted this originally Protestant writing system to languages radically different from the Algonquian languages. Most Athabaskan languages have more than four distinct vowels, and all have many more distinct consonants than Cree. This has meant the invention of a number of new consonant forms. Whereas most Athabaskan scripts, such as those for Slavey and Chipewyan, bear a reasonably close resemblance to Cree syllabics, the Carrier (Dakelh) variant is highly divergent, and only one series – the series for vowels alone – resembles the original Cree form.

To accommodate six distinctive vowels, Dakelh supplements the four vowel orientations with a dot and a horizontal line in the rightward pointing forms: ᐊ a, ᐅ ʌ, ᐈ e, ᐉ i, ᐃ o, and ᐁ u.

One of the Chipewyan scripts is more faithful to western Cree. (Sayisi Chipewyan is substantially more divergent.) It has the nine forms plus the western l and r series, though the rotation of the l- series has been made consistently counter-clockwise. The k- and n- series are more angular than in Cree: ki resembles Latin "P". The c series has been reassigned to dh. There are additional series: a regular ch series (ᗴ cha, ᗯ che, ᗰ chi, ᗱ cho), graphically a doubled t; and an irregular z series, where ze is derived by counter-clockwise rotation of za, but zi by clockwise rotation of zo:

::{|

| || ᘚ || || || || ze ||

|-

| ᘕ || || ᘔ || || zo || || za ||

|-

| || ᘛ || || || || zi ||

|}

Other series are formed from dh or t. A mid-line final Cree t preceding dh forms th, a raised Cree final p following t forms tt, a stroke inside t forms tth (ᕮ ttha), and a small t inside t forms ty (ᕳ tya). Nasal vowels are indicated by a following Cree final k.

Pollard script

The Pollard script, also known as Pollard Miao is an abugida invented by Methodist missionary Samuel Pollard. Pollard credited the basic idea of the script to the Cree syllabics, saying, "While working out the problem, we remembered the case of the syllabics used by a Methodist missionary among the Indians of North America, and resolved to do as he had done".

Current usage

thumb|Syllabics is a co-official script in the territory of [[Nunavut, and is used by the territorial government, as here.]]

At present, Canadian syllabics seems reasonably secure within the Cree, Oji-Cree, and Inuit communities. They appear somewhat more at risk among the Ojibwe, and seriously endangered for Athabaskan languages and Blackfoot.

In Nunavut and Nunavik, Inuktitut syllabics have official status. In Nunavut, laws, legislative debates and many other government documents must be published in Inuktitut in both syllabics and the Latin script. The rapid growth in the scope and quantity of material published in syllabics has, by all appearances, ended any immediate prospect of marginalisation for this writing system.

Within the Cree and Ojibwe language communities, the situation is less confident.

Cree syllabics use is vigorous in most communities where it has taken root. In many dialect areas, there are now standardised syllabics spellings. Nonetheless, there are now linguistically adequate standardised Roman writing systems for most if not all dialects.

Ojibwe speakers in the U.S. have never been heavy users of either Canadian Aboriginal syllabics or the Great Lakes Aboriginal syllabics and have now essentially ceased to use either of them at all. The "double vowel" Roman orthography developed by Charles Fiero and further developed by John Nichols is increasingly the standard in the U.S. and is beginning to penetrate into Canada, in part to prevent further atomisation of what is already a minority language. Nonetheless, Ojibwe syllabics are still in vigorous use in some parts of Canada.

Use in other communities is moribund.

Blackfoot syllabics have, for all intents and purposes, disappeared. Present day Blackfoot speakers use a Latin alphabet, and very few Blackfoot can still read—much less write—the syllabic system.

Among the Athabaskan languages, syllabics are still in use among the Yellowknives Dene in Yellowknife, Dettah, and Ndılǫ, Northwest Territories. Recently, two major reference works on the Tetsǫ́t'ıné language were published by the Alaska Native Language Center, using syllabics: a verb grammar and a dictionary. Syllabics are also still in use at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Church in Dettah, where they use a revised version of the 1904 hymnbook. Young people learn syllabics both in school as well as through culture camps organized by the Language, Culture, and History Department.

No other Athabaskan version of the syllabics is known to be in vigorous use. In some cases, the languages themselves are on the brink of extinction. In other cases, syllabics has been replaced by a Latin alphabet. Many people—linguists and speakers of Athabaskan languages alike—feel that syllabics is ill-suited to these languages. The government of the Northwest Territories does not use syllabic writing for any of the Athabaskan languages on its territory, and native churches have generally stopped using them as well. Among Dakelh users, a well-developed Latin alphabet has effectively replaced syllabics. Very few people can read syllabics and none use them for routine writing. Syllabics are however popular in symbolic and artistic uses.

In the past, government policy towards syllabics has varied from indifference to open hostility. Until the late 20th century, government policy in Canada openly undermined indigenous languages, and church organisations were often the only organised bodies using syllabics. Later, as governments became more accommodating of indigenous languages, and in some cases even encouraged their use, it was widely believed that moving to a Latin alphabet was better, both for linguistic reasons and to reduce the cost of supporting multiple scripts.

At present, at least for Inuktitut and Algonquian languages, the Canadian government tolerates, and in some cases encourages, the use of syllabics. The growth of Aboriginal nationalism in Canada and the devolution of many government activities to native communities has changed attitudes towards syllabics. In many places there are now standardisation bodies for syllabic spelling, and the Unicode standard supports a fairly complete set of Canadian syllabic characters for digital exchange. Syllabics are now taught in schools in Inuktitut-speaking areas, and are often taught in traditionally syllabics-using Cree and Ojibwe communities as well.

Although syllabic writing is not always practical (for example, with computer hardware or software limitations), and in many cases a Latin alphabet would be less costly to use, many native communities are strongly attached to syllabics. Even though it was originally the invention of European missionaries, many people consider syllabics a writing system that belongs to them, and associate Latin letters with linguistic assimilation.

Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics in Unicode

The bulk of the characters, including all that are found in official documents, are encoded into three blocks in the Unicode standard:

  • Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (U+1400–U+167F)
  • Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Extended (U+18B0–U+18FF)
  • Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Extended-A (U+11AB0–U+11ABF)

These characters can be rendered with any appropriate font, including the freely available fonts listed below. In Microsoft Windows, built-in support was added through the Euphemia font introduced in Windows Vista, though this has incorrect forms for sha and shu.

See also

  • Inuktitut syllabics
  • Kaktovik numerals
  • Cree syllabics
  • Ojibwe syllabics
  • Carrier syllabics
  • Kamloops Wawa
  • Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing
  • Cherokee syllabary

Notes

References

  • Comrie, Bernard. 2005. "Writing systems." Martin Haspelmath, Matthew Dryer, David Gile, Bernard Comrie, eds. The world atlas of language structures, 568–570. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Murdoch, John. 1981. Syllabics: A successful educational innovation. MEd thesis, University of Manitoba
  • Nichols, John. 1996. "The Cree syllabary." Peter Daniels and William Bright, eds. The world's writing systems, 599–611. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Language Geek: All About Syllabics
  • Carrier Writing Systems
  • Paper on Carrier Syllabics
  • Inuktitut syllabary Braille code
  • Description of Evans' manner of casting type at the Rossville mission
  • Methodist Bible in Cree syllabics
  • Dene syllabic prayer book
  • Cree Origin of Syllabics
  • Cree Standard Roman Orthography to syllabics converter

Free font downloads

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  • ScriptSource entry for Cans script. Lists a few fonts.
  • GNU FreeFont. UCAS + UCASE range in sans-serif face.