Documentation:RelLex/itwêwina Plains Cree Dictionary
itwêwina Plains Cree Dictionary
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Language Name
Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi.
Alternate Language Names
Cree, Naskapi, Montagnais, ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ, Nēhiyawēwin.
Region
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Northwest Territories, Canada.
Who
Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission, First Nations University, and the University of Alberta (Alberta Language Technology Laboratory).
Others Involved
Antti Arppe, Atticus Harrigan (Authors and Computational Modeling).
Kobe Amoh, Diane Boytang, Atticus Harrigan, Daniel W. Hieber, Andrew Neitsch, Jolene Poulin, Aida Radu, Eddie Antonio Santos, Katherine Schmirler, Matt Yan (Authors).
Katherine Schmirler, Arok Wolvengrey, Lene Antonsen, Trond Trosterud, Sjur Moshagen, Miikka Silfverberg, Conor Snoek, Jordan Lachler, Eddie Antonio Santos, Dorothy Thunder, Jean Okimāsis (Computational Modeling)
Ryan Pineo, Sarah Shimizu, Wilton (Weichen) Wang (Original Development Team); Eleni Stroulia, Daniel Chui, Anna Kazantseva, Roland Khun (Special Thanks).
Tasha Powers (Logo creation).
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Funding).
Publishing Information
Based on the copyright information provided in the website’s footer, this online dictionary was published in 2019. This is a digital dictionary that doesn't display any information on when it was last updated. As of 2024 the copyright information is current.
How People are Cited
People involved in this project are cited on, or are linked from the About page of the website. This page can be found from the menu in the website’s footer.
Logos of the three organizations involved in this project (Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission, First Nations University, and the University of Alberta) are included on this page, along with information on funding. Individuals are cited on a separate, but linked GitHub page.
Recordings come from speakers who are cited on the Alberta Language Technology Laboratory’s website, which can be found linked from the About page:https://www.altlab.dev/maskwacis/Speakers/speakers.html
Speakers are cited in entries. More information about individual speakers can be found by clicking the more information about the speaker hyperlink in entries.
How Information is Cited
The source materials used for entries and computational modelling are cited on the About page. The source of recordings is also cited on this page.
Where is Information Coming from
Entries in this online dictionary come from multiple previously published resources, including: nêhiyawêwin: itwêwina/ Cree: Words (2011) which was compiled by Arok Wolvengrey; Maskwacîs Dictionary of Cree Words/ Nêhiyaw Pîkiskwêwinisa (2009), which was developed by the Cree Language Program of Maskwachees Cultural College; and the Alberta Elders' Cree Dictionary/ alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan (2002), compiled by Nancy LeClaire and George Cardinal.
The computation model for analyzing Plains Cree used in this dictionary is based on nêhiyawêwin: itwêwina/ Cree: Words (2011), compiled by Arok Wolvengrey.
The spoken Cree in this dictionary comes from first-language speakers in Maskwacîs, Alberta. Names and photographs of each of the speakers can be found on the Alberta Language Technology Laboratory’s website (https://www.altlab.dev/maskwacis/Speakers/speakers.html). Additional recordings come from Dr. Jean Okimâsis (a Cree speaker and scholar from Moswacîhk, Saskatchewan). This dictionary also includes synthesized Cree word-forms and phrases, which were generated with a speech synthesizer, based on recordings of Dolores Greyeyes Sand (a Cree speaker from Maskêko-sâkahikanihk, Saskatchewan).
Tools and Framework used
This is a multimedia online dictionary which includes audio. This dictionary was developed using a computational model which supports morphological parsing.
Access
This dictionary is open access.
Included Languages and Directionality
Entries can be search either by English or Cree. Entry headwords are Cree.
Dialects Included
This is a dictionary of the Y-Dialect, Plains Cree.
Type of Dictionary
This is an online bilingual dictionary.
How are Entries Organised
This dictionary can be searched using English or Cree, but cannot be browsed without searching. The search works with both short and long Cree words, as well as Cree written in the standard Roman orthography or syllabics.
Through the Settings tab the information displayed in entries can be customized. Users are able to choose a display mode for labels (Plain English, Linguistic, or nêhiyawêwin), whether or not they would like to see morpheme boundaries in entries, if they would like to see the inflectional categories in entries, and if they would like to see emojis in entries (which are used to represent animate nouns/awa words), as well as other settings. In the Settings users are also able to choose if they would like to see entries for all source dictionaries, or only one of the source dictionaries, and if they would like audio from one or both audio sources included.
The entries themselves include a Cree headword, part of speech labels, emojis which indicate animacy of the entry, multiple English translations/senses, and grammatical paradigms. Users can also toggle through and listen to multiple audio files from different speakers.
Other Features
| Feature | Included | More Information |
|---|---|---|
| Guide to use and understand | ✅ | Yes, including videos under Help, and a Legend of abbreviations |
| Audio | ✅ | |
| Images | ❌ | |
| Example phrases | ✅ | |
| Speakers marked | ✅ | |
| Dialects marked | ❌ | This is a dictionary of only one dialect |
External Links
Find the itwêwina Plains Cree Dictionary here: https://itwewina.altlab.app/