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| Montagnais | |
|---|---|
| Innu-aimun | |
 "Buckle up your children" sign in Innu-aimun, in the Nutashkuan reserve nearNatashquan, Quebec | |
| Native to | Canada |
| Region | Nitassinan (Quebec,Labrador) |
| Ethnicity | Innu |
Native speakers | 10,075, 36% of ethnic population (2016 census)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | moe |
| Glottolog | mont1268 |
| Linguasphere | 62-ADA-bb |
 Eastern Montagnais is classified as Vulnerable by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Innu, Ilnu / assi "person" / "land" | |
|---|---|
| Person | Innu / Ilnu |
| People | Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh |
| Language | Innu-aimun |
| Country | Nitassinan |
Innu-aimun orMontagnais is anAlgonquian language spoken by over 10,000Innu[3] inLabrador andQuebec in EasternCanada. It is a member of theCree–Montagnais–Naskapidialect continuum and is spoken in various dialects depending on the community.
Since the 1980s, Innu-aimun has had considerable exposure in the popular culture ofCanada andFrance due to the success of the rock music bandKashtin and the later solo careers of its foundersClaude McKenzie andFlorent Vollant. Widely heard hit songs with Innu-language lyrics have included "Ish-kuess" ("Girl"), "E Uassiuian" ("My Childhood"), "Tipatshimun" ("Story") and in particular "Akua tuta" ("Take care of yourself"), which appeared on soundtrack compilations for the television seriesDue South and the documentaryMusic for The Native Americans. The lyrics of Akua Tuta are featured on over 50 websites, making this one of the most broadly accessible pieces of text written in any native North American language. Florent Vollant has also rendered several well-knownChristmas carols into Innu in his 1999 albumNipaiamianan.[4]
In 2013, "a comprehensive pan-Innu dictionary, covering all the Innu dialects spoken in Quebec and Labrador [was] published in Innu,English andFrench."[5]
Innu-aimun has the following phonemes (with the standard orthography equivalents in angle brackets, this section discusses the Sheshatshit dialect):[6]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labial | |||||
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ||||
| Plosive | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | tʃ⟨tsh⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | kʷ⟨kᵘ/ku⟩ | |
| Fricative | s⟨ss⟩ | ʃ⟨sh/s⟩ | h⟨h⟩ | |||
| Lateral | l⟨l⟩[a] | |||||
The plosives are voiced to[bddʒɡɡʷ] between vowels./ʃ/ frequently merges with/h/ in younger speakers (shīshīp[ʃiʃip~ʃihip~hihip]'duck').
There are three pairs of so-called "long" and "short" vowels, and one long vowel with no short counterpart, though the length distinction is giving way to a place distinction.The column titles here refer chiefly to the place of articulation of the long vowel.
| HighFront | MidFront | Mid/LowCentral | HighBack | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Long" | i⟨ī⟩ | e⟨e⟩ | a⟨ā⟩ | o ~u[a]⟨ū⟩ |
| "Short" | ɨ ~ə ~j⟨i⟩ | ə ~ʌ[b]⟨a⟩ | ʊ ~w⟨u⟩ |
Macron accent marks over the long vowels are omitted in general writing.e is not written with a macron because there is no contrasting shorte.
Innu-aimun is apolysynthetic,head-marking language with relatively freeword order. Its three basic parts of speech arenouns,verbs, andparticles. Nouns are grouped into twogenders, animate and inanimate, and may carryaffixes indicatingplurality,possession,obviation, and location. Verbs are divided into four classes based on theirtransitivity: animate intransitive (AI), inanimate intransitive (II), transitive inanimate (TI), and transitive animate (TA). Verbs may carry affixes indicating agreement (with both subject and objectarguments),tense,mood, andinversion. Two different sets, ororders, of verbal affixes are used depending on the verb'ssyntactic context. In simple main clauses, the verb is marked using affixes of theindependent order, whereas in subordinate clauses and content-word questions, affixes of theconjunct order are used.
Innu-aimun is related toEast Cree (Īyiyū Ayimūn – Northern/Coastal dialect andĪnū Ayimūn – Southern/Inland dialect) spoken by theJames Bay Cree of theJames Bay region of Quebec andOntario and theAtikamekw (Nēhinawēwin andNehirâmowin) of theAtikamekw (Nehiraw,Nehirowisiw) in the upperSaint-Maurice River valley ofQuebec. Innu-aimun is divided into four dialects – Southern Montagnais (Mashteuiatsh, Betsiamites), Eastern Montagnais (Ekuanitshit, Nutashkuan, Unamen Shipu, Pakuashipi), Central Montagnais (Uashat and Maliotenam, Matimekosh) and Labrador-Montagnais (Sheshatshit).[8] The speakers of the different dialects can communicate well with each other. TheNaskapi language and culture are quite different from those of the Montagnais,[9] in which the dialect changes from y to n as inIiyuu versusInnu.
Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum | ||
|---|---|---|
| Classification |
|  |
| Western variants (Cree) |
| |
| Eastern variants (Montagnais-Naskapi) |
| |
| Contact languages | ||
| See also | ||
| ||
