Canadian Aboriginal syllabics facts for kids

Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is an alphabet created by a Christian missionary to write down the languages of some of the First Nations of Canada. This one alphabet later became many alphabets.

Each letter represents a syllable. The letters look like triangles and curves. Different languages have some different letters to represent the sounds in their own language best.

By the late 19th century the Cree had achieved what may have been one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

History

James Evan was a Methodist missionary from England. He wanted to create an alphabet to teach the Cree and Ojibwe about Christianity. He got inspiration from the Devanagari alphabet from India.

Principles

Every consonant has the same shape. For example, the syllables that start with a "p" sound look like a V. To show that they have different vowels, the shapes are rotated. So "pe" would look like ᐯ whole "pa" would be ᐸ.

Final consonants

In some languages, words end in a final consonant, like the "t" in "cat." To show this, a small letter is added to the end of the word.

Diacritics

In some languages, diacritics are added to indicate things like vowel length.

Languages

Blackfoot

Carrier

Cree

Inuktitut

Syllabics is one of the official writing systems of Nunavut. That means that government forms in Inuktitut can be written either in the Latin alphabet (ABCs) or in syllabics.

Naskapi

Ojibwe

Slavey

Images for kids

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  Devanagari combining forms compared to syllabics

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  A modern typeface, 2005

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

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  Evans' script, as published in 1841. Long vowels were indicated by breaking the characters. The length distinction was not needed in the case of e, as Cree has only long ē.

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  The orientation of a perfectly symmetrical vowel triangle may be difficult to discern. In the type of this Ojibwe sign, left-pointing a is an isosceles right-angled triangle, but upright i is acute-angled and isosceles.

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  Presentations style variations of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics SH-series in commonly available typefaces.

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  Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics—Round form and Square form comparison

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

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

See also

In Spanish: Silabarios indígenas canadienses para niños