Want to learn Cree?

Cree is a language spoken by the Cree First Nation. This is the largest First Nation in Canada; wikipedia says there are over 200,000 members. Unfortunately many of the native languages of Aboriginal people are dying. In an effort to keep these languages alive a friend of mine is currently developing software to teach Cree. It is a work in progress, so the capacity is limited, but the focus is definitely there. If you’re interested in trying out the software all you have to do is download it to your computer, extract the zip files, and run it. It does run on a Java platform though, so you will need Java installed first.

The program is called Nikamo, it is open source software, so it is free for anyone to use. Although the catch is because it’s free, there is not a very big budget to work with. The original intent of the software was to be a Cree language teaching program, but it can be built to suit, and will eventually expand to include other Aboriginal languages.

The way it works is when you run the program you have 2 choices. You can “click and hear” or “drag and drop”. The click and hear option shows you a picture and a phrase, for example you will see a picture of rain, then the English phrase “It is raining”, then when you click on the picture you will hear the correct pronunciation of the phrase in the Cree language as well as see the correct spelling “kimowan”.

The drag and drop option has pictures on the side, and when you drag the picture over to the scene, the translated object is heard. For example you’ll see a farm background and when you drag the cow over you will hear the correct pronunciation for cow “mʌsdus”.

The software is unique, I found no other programs like this. I especially like the pronunciation feature of it. You actually hear a Cree person saying the word, so the accent is authentic. Another thing I should note is the Cree language has some special symbols that aren’t in our alphabet, so the pronunciation can get tricky.

Top photo courtesy of www.greatcanadianlakes.com