Woods Cree Dictionary Database Management

This repository contains scripts and documentation for managing ALTLab's Woods Cree dictionary database.

This repository does not (and should not) contain the actual dictonary database. The ALTLab database, and the original sources it is based on, are located in the private ALTLab repo.

The database uses the Data Format for Digital Linguistics as its underlying data format—a set of recommendations for storing linguistic data in JSON.

Orthographies

Woods Cree uses two orthographies: the Colin Charles' Modified Roman Orthography (CMRO) and the Standard Roman Orthography (SRO). The following table shows each grapheme in Woods Cree in the Colin Charles' Modified Roman Orthography (CMRO) and its equivalent in the Standard Roman Orthography (SRO), also with its corresponding value in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

IPA	CMRO	SRO
ə	u	a
aː	a	ā
t͡ʃ ~ t͡s	ch	c
h	h	h
ɪ	i	i
iː	e	ī
k	k	k
m	m	m
n	n	n
o ~ ʊ	o	o
oː ~ uː	oo	ō
p	p	p
s ~ ʃ	s	s
t	t	t
ð	th	th
w	w	w
j	y	y

The internal orthography used by both the intelligent dictionary app and the FST is SRO. [This information is up to date as of 2021-08-27.]

Syllabics

Woods Cree uses graphemes in the Syllabic orthography in a slightly different way than other Cree dialects. Woods Cree does not use any of the graphemes for /iː/. Instead, Woods Cree uses /e/ graphemes for the /iː/ sound.

Consonant	i	î	o	ô	a	â	Final
N/A	ᐁ	ᐃ	ᐅ	ᐆ	ᐊ	ᐋ	N/A
w	ᐏ	ᐏ	ᐓ	ᐕ	ᐘ	ᐚ	ᐤ
p	ᐯ	ᐱ	ᐳ	ᐴ	ᐸ	ᐹ	ᑊ
t	ᑌ	ᑎ	ᑐ	ᑑ	ᑕ	ᑖ	ᐟ
k	ᑫ	ᑭ	ᑯ	ᑰ	ᑲ	ᑳ	ᐠ
c	ᒉ	ᒋ	ᒍ	ᒎ	ᒐ	ᒑ	ᐨ
m	ᒣ	ᒥ	ᒧ	ᒨ	ᒪ	ᒫ	ᒼ
n	ᓀ	ᓂ	ᓄ	ᓅ	ᓇ	ᓈ	ᐣ
s	ᓭ	ᓯ	ᓱ	ᓲ	ᓴ	ᓵ	ᐢ
y	ᔦ	ᔨ	ᔪ	ᔫ	ᔭ	ᔮ	ᐩ1
th / ð	ᖧ	ᖨ	ᖪ	ᖫ	ᖬ	ᖭ	ᙾ
h							ᐦ
hk							ᕽ

Other Symbols

SRO	Syllabary
l	ᓬ
r	ᕒ
.	᙮
w	ᐧ2
-	U+202F

Sources

ALTLab's dictionary database is / will be aggregated from the following sources:

• the Cree-to-English portion of Colin Charles' Cree Dictionary (a.k.a. the Lac La Ronge Dictionary) (LLR)

  • See Notes on the Lac La Ronge Dictionary

• an edited version of Arok Wolvengrey's Cree: Words dictionary database (referred to as simply the "Woods Cree" database) (CW)

  • See Notes on the Cree: Words Dictionary

Footnotes

1. Cree writers overwhelmingly prefer using this character, U+1429 CANADIAN SYLLABICS FINAL PLUS ⟨ᐩ⟩, to U+1540 CANADIAN SYLLABICS WEST-CREE Y ⟨ᕀ⟩.

2. Please always use composed characters (e.g., ᐘ ᑅ ᑢ ᑿ ᒷ ᓌ ᔁ ᒝ ᔺ ᙼ) rather than using the two code point sequence of syllabic followed by U+1427 CANADIAN SYLLABICS FINAL MIDDLE DOT.