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Translations Report 11 2010

Translations Report 11 2010

Canadian Assembly of Narcotics Anonymous ______Assemblée Canadienne Narcotiques Anonymes

Inuktitut Translation Project November 2010 Report

In 2008, as part of our efforts to reach out to addicts in far north, CANA initiated project to translate IP#1 (Who, What, How and Why?) into the . This was in accord with NAWS translation protocol which indicates that IP #1 is the logical first piece of literature to translated for any language group, as it contains the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions etc. It thus provides an effective resource for any further translation work within that language group.

Ideally, to ensure conceptual fidelity, translation work is performed by a committee of local NA members who are both fluent in the language and familiar with the NA program. Our efforts to organise such a committee were unsuccessful, so after consultation with NAWS it was decided to commission a professional translator to perform the work. This was done in 2009.

Unfortunately, although it looked amazing, in the absence of anyone who could actually read the finished product had no way of evaluating the work as, despite our best efforts, we were unable to find Inuktitut speaking NA members to participate and so again we turned to the services of a professional. Having consulted with NAHO (National Aboriginal Health Organisation) we were referred to a translator in Yellowknife. She was commissioned to perform a blind reverse translation of the previous work. Our hope was that we would then be able to fine tune it a bit and move on. However, what we got back was quite disappointing. The professional evaluation read as follows:

“ have completed the English back translation for you as requested.The

Inuktitut translation was not good. …. It is not written in proper form …I would

strongly suggest you get the original redone professionally. Although I have been able to decipher it, keep in mind, I am a translator of thirty some years and I have translated it back professionally in every way it should appear as the Inuktitut. The formatting and the many typos make it very hard to read. The Inuktitut is such that each represents about three letters with a in each, (ie: ᕕ = vi) thus if there are two mistakes in the same spelling of the word, you have pretty much lost what the word is supposed to say”.

Following this recommendation, a new translation was commissioned and produced, as well as a reverse translation to English. This new document was then evaluated and revised, with the invaluable participation and support of NAWS Translations.

CANA/ACNA 1 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

So, after all this, it is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the arrival the first Draft Version of IP#1 in Inuktitut. This can be used in our FDC efforts (mailouts to treatment centres etc.). This represents a huge step in our efforts to fulfill the Vision of CANA and Narcotics Anonymous as a whole. I am also pleased to announce NAHO has already requested copies of the printed version! This particular written form () is the one used in and . Elsewhere the language is spoken much the same way but is written using the roman .

There are 2 notices which have been added to the Draft Pamphlet.

1) Front Cover:

Draft Translation – distribution only within Narcotics Anonymous

This is for copyright protection. It does not restrict our use of the pamphlet for Fellowship Development purposes. It is meant to restrict unauthorized external reproduction of the pamphlet. Narcotics Anonymous groups and committees are free to reproduce and include this Draft pamphlet in mailouts to health professionals and treatment centres. We would be wise to request those distributing it to let us know where it goes in order for us to effectively evaluate its .

2) Back Panel:

English version

In order to help us finalize this pamphlet (IP#1) we encourage all

Inuktitut speaking NA members to join our translations working group.

Please contact the Canadian Assembly of Narcotics Anonymous through

our website at: http://www.canaacna.org/

Version français

Afin de compléter la rédaction de cette brochure (IP#1) nous invitons tous les membres de langue Inuktikut affiliés à 'ONSA à se joindre à notre groupe de travail sur les traductions. Vous pouvez contacter l'Assemblée par l'entremise de notre site Web au : http://www.canaacna.org/

CANA/ACNA 2 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org This notice has a dual function – To let non-Inuktitut speakers know what it is, AND to help us move to the final phase of this project in which IP#1 in Inuktitut becomes a piece of approved NA literature. In order to complete the process, we still require a committee of NA members who are both fluent in the Inuktitut language and familiar with the NA program, to work with CANA and NAWS Translations staff. This notice invites interested members to contact us through the CANA website. It is very important that any responses to this notice are channelled to a single point of accountability as established by this Assembly. There was not enough room for English AND French on the back panel so the versions have been printed separately.

Also the following note was sent to NAWS (Translations with a cc to Anthony):

“This is to express my personal gratitude as well that of the Canadian Assembly for all your hard work and support with this project. The typeset version of the IK pamphlet looks absolutely amazing!! The native communities in ’s far north have long possessed horrendous and heart-breaking addiction rate statistics. Thanks to this project we now have the ability to offer our message to those communities in their own language. We will certainly keep you informed as to our progress with this initiative.”

Finally, just a reminder that we only have one opportunity to create a good first impression and we need to be mindful of PR best practices in the way we distribute this new tool. I have read every single newsletter of the National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation newsletter and 12 Step Recovery not mentioned even once. We have a new opportunity here. Lets do it right.

Many thanks for all your support.

With gratitude in service, Ross Mackay – CANA Translations

CANA/ACNA 3 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org Stuff November 2010 Report Addendum A Cree (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ)

Origin , a Wesleyan missionary working at Norway House in Hudson's Bay, invented a syllabary for the language in about 1840. had tried to produce a -based orthography for Ojibwe, but eventually gave up and came up with a syllabary, based partly on shorthand.

Evans' syllabary for Ojibwe consisted of just nine symbols, each of which could be written in four different orientations to indicate different . This was sufficient to write Ojibwe, but Evans' superiors were not keen on his invention and would not allow him to use it.

About 20 years later, Evans learnt to speak Cree and set about the task of devising a way of writing that language. After encountering difficulties with using the , he dug out his Ojibwe syllabary and adapted it to the .

Thanks to its simplicity and the ease with which it could be learnt, the Cree syllabary was hugely successful with the Cree people. Within a short of time, virtually the whole community was literate in the syllabary and James Evans became known as "the man who made birchbark talk."

Source: www.nlc-bnc.ca/north/index-.html

According to Cree tradition, Evans adapted an existing which was invented at an earlier date, possibly by a member of the Blackfoot nation.

Notable Features:

• Most dialects of Cree can be written with just 12 basic signs

• Each sign can be written facing four different directions which indicate the vowel attached to it. As there are up to 7 vowels in some dialects of Cree, are used to indicate the extra vowels

• The finals are used to write stand-alone consonants

• There are various different versions of the Cree syllabary, which are used to write different dialects of the Cree language

CANA/ACNA 4 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org Used to write Cree, (Nēhiyawēwin / Ininīmōwin / Ililīmōwin / Īyiyō Ayāmōn) a group of closely related Algonquian spoken by about 60,000 people in Canada, especially in , , and Alberta.

Major varieties include:

• Central Cree (York Cree, West Shore Cree, West Main Cree) with 4,500 speakers.

Dialects include: Moose Cree, which is spoken in the southern tip of in Moosonee, Ontario, and , which is spoken northwestward across Ontario into north-eastern Manitoba.

• Coastal Eastern Cree (Coastal Cree, Eastern Coastal Cree) is spoken by about 5,000 people in on the east coast of James Bay.

• Inland Eastern Cree (Inland Cree, Eastern Inland Cree) has about 2,200 speakers in Quebec.

• Western Cree with about 53,000 speakers in the USA and in north central Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Dialects include: , Plains Cree and Western Swampy Cree.

Modified versions of this syllabary are used to write: Blackfoot, Ojibwe, Carrier, Slavey, Naskapi and Inuktitut.

CANA/ACNA 5 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

Cree syllabary (Plains/Swampy Cree)

Cree syllabary (Woodland Cree)

CANA/ACNA 6 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

Sample text in Swampy Cree______

Transliteration: misiwe ininiw tipenimitisowinik eshi nitawikit nesta peywakan kici ishi kanawapamikiwisit kistenimitisowinik nesta minikowisiwima. e pakitimamacik kaketawenitamowininiw nesta mitonenicikaniniw nesta wicikwesitowinik kici ishi kamawapamitocik.

Translation: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

[Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights]

Links______

Information on the Cree language and people http://www.creeculture.ca http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cree_language http://www.native-languages.org/cree.htm

Speak Cree – links to Cree language learning resources http://www.nisto.com/cree

Cree Syllabics Tutor http://io.acad.athabascau.ca/~jelica/projects/phptutor/

Universal Syllabic Translator http://www.nehiyo.com

Free Cree http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/cree.html http://www.creeculture.ca/e/language/fonts_kbds.html

Online Cree dictionary http://www.creedictionary.com

CANA/ACNA 7 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org Information about Plains, Swampy and Woodland Cree http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/cree.html

Cree Language Reader – texts in Cree with translations in English http://nexus.brocku.ca/rogawa/cree/

East Cree interactive grammar http://www.carleton.ca/ecree/en/

Plains Cree lessons http://198.161.103.254/nipisihkopahk/

Related languages: , Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Massachusett, Miami, Míkmaq, Montagnais, Naskapi, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Shawnee

CANA/ACNA 8 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

Cree Language & Dialects

Cree is the most widely spoken native language in Canada, Cree speakers forming an unbroken chain of dialects stretching across a vast area from to western British Columbia. As a member of the family of , Cree is related to other Algonquian languages such as Ojibwa, Micmac, etc.

We speak a branch of Cree referred to by linguists as or Montagnais, which we share with our (Montagnais and Naskapi) brothers and sisters in eastern Quebec and Labrador. Within Iiyiyuuschii, we distinguish two major dialects: the “northern dialect,” spoken in the northern and coastal communities (, Chisasibi, Wemindji, Eastmain and Waskaganish); and the “southern dialect,” which is spoken inland and in the more southerly communities (Nemaska, Waswanipi, Oujé-Bougoumou and Mistissini).

CANA/ACNA 9 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org Translation policy planning November 2010 Report Addendum

In accordance with our Vision Statement, CANA strives to make the NA message available to all addicts in the language of their own community. The following is a detailed list of native communities and language groups within Canada.

[From the largest to the lowest number of speakers] Aboriginal language # Speakers Mother tongue Home language Cree 99,950 78,855 47,190 Inuktitut 35,690 32,010 25,290 Ojibwe 32,460 11,115 11,115 Montagnais-Naskapi (Innu) 11,815 10,970 9,720 Dene Suline 11,130 9,750 7,490 Oji-Cree (Anishinini) 12,605 8,480 8,480 Mi’kmaq 8,750 7,365 3,985 Siouan languages (Dakota/Sioux) 6,495 5,585 3,780 5,645 5,245 4,745 Blackfoot 4,915 3,085 3,085 Tlicho or Dogrib 2,645 2,015 1,110 Algonquin 2,685 1,920 385 Carrier 2,495 1,560 605 Gitksan 1,575 1,175 320 Chilcotin 1,400 1,070 435 North Slave (Hare) 1,235 650 650 South Slave 2,315 600 600 Shuswap 1,650 250 250 Nisga’a 1,090 250 250 Malecite 790 535 140 Chipewyan 770 525 125 Inuinnaqtun 580 370 70 Kutchin-Gwich’in (Loucheaux) 570 355 25 Mohawk 615 290 20 Tlingit 175 0 0 Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population, Statistics Canada catalogue no. 97-555- CB2006010

Cree The Cree is one of the largest groups of /Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of the Cree population live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the , although 15,000 live in eastern Quebec. In the United States today, they live mostly in Montana, where they share a

CANA/ACNA 10 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org reservation with Chippewa (Ojibwa). The Cree Nation is generally divided into eight groups (some political, others cultural):

1) Naskapi (Innu) and 2) Montagnais (Innu) are inhabitants of an area which comprises most of eastern Quebec and Labrador. Their cultures are differentiated, as the Naskapi are still caribou hunters and more nomadic than the Montagnais. They have 2 dialects.

The total population of the two groups in 2003 was about 18,000 people, of which 15,000 lived in Quebec. Their dialects and languages are the most distinct from the Cree spoken by the groups west of Lake Superior.

3) Attikamekw are inhabitants of the area they refer to as Nitaskinan (Our Land), in the upper St. Maurice River valley of Quebec (about 300KM north of ). Their population is around 4500.

4) James Bay Cree – Grand Council of the ; approximately 16,357 Cree (Iyyu in Coastal Dialect / Iynu in Inland Dialect) of the James Bay and Nunavik regions of Northern Quebec.

5) Moose Cree – Moose Factory in the Cochrane District, Ontario; this group lives on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, at the southern end of James Bay.

6) Swampy Cree – This group lives in northern Manitoba along the coast and adjacent inland areas to the south and west, and in Ontario along the coast of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It has 4,500 speakers.

7) Woods Cree – Group in northern Alberta.

8) Plains Cree – 34,000 people in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Montana.

Cree (also known as Cree-Montagnais, Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi) is the name for a group of closely related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Labrador, making it by far the most spoken aboriginal language in Canada. Despite numerous speakers within this wide- ranging area, the only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories, alongside eight other aboriginal languages.

CANA/ACNA 11 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

Written Cree Cree dialects, except for those spoken in eastern Quebec and Labrador, are traditionally written using , a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, but can be written with the Roman alphabet as well. The easternmost dialects are written using the Roman alphabet exclusively. Cree dialects for the James Bay Cree are written using Cree syllabics.

Eastern Cree syllabics are a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write all the Cree dialects from Moosonee, Ontario to Kawawachikamach on the Quebec-Labrador border in Canada that use syllabics.

Western Cree syllabics are a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write Plains Cree, Woods Cree and the western dialects of Swampy Cree. It is used for all Cree dialects west of approximately the Manitoba-Ontario border in Canada, as opposed to Eastern Cree syllabics. It is also occasionally used by a few Cree speakers in the United States.

Inuktitut Inuktitut, is the name of some of the languages spoken in Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Québec, to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the territories of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and traditionally on the Arctic Ocean coast of Yukon.

It is recognised as an official language in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. It also has legal recognition in Nunavik – a part of Québec – thanks in part to the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement, and is recognised in the Charter of the as the official language of instruction for Inuit school districts there. It also has some recognition in Nunatsiavut (the Inuit area in Labrador) following the ratification of its agreement with the government of Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian census reports that there are roughly 35,000 Inuktitut speakers in Canada, including roughly 200 who live regularly outside of traditionally Inuit lands.

 See related maps at the end of this document.

Writing Inuktitut is written in several different ways, depending on the dialect and region, but also on historical and political factors.

CANA/ACNA 12 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org Moravian missionaries, with the purpose of introducing the Inuit peoples to Christianity and the Bible, contributed to the development of an Inuktitut writing in Greenland during the 1760s that was based on Roman orthography. They later travelled to Labrador in the 1800s, bringing the written Inuktitut with them. This roman alphabet writing scheme is distinguished by its inclusion of the letter .

The Alaskan Yupik and Inupiat (who, in addition, developed their own system of hieroglyphics) and the Siberian Yupik also adopted the system of Roman orthography.

Eastern Canadian Inuit were the last to adopt the written word when, in the 1860s, missionaries imported the written system Qaniujaaqpait they had developed in their efforts to convert the Cree to Christianity. The very last Inuit peoples introduced to missionaries and writing were the Netsilik Inuit in Kugaaruk and north Baffin Island. The Netsilik adopted Qaniujaaqpait by the 1920s.

The "Greenlandic" system has been substantially reformed in recent years, making Labrador writing unique to Nunatsiavummiutut at this time. Most Inuktitut in Nunavut and Nunavik is written using a scheme called Qaniujaaqpait or Inuktitut syllabics, based on Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. The western part of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories use a Roman orthography (alphabet scheme) usually identified as Inuinnaqtun or Qaliujaaqpait, reflecting the predispositions of the missionaries who reached this area in the late 19th century and early 20th.

In they use a Cyrillic script.

We have already produced a draft of IP #1 in this language.

Ojibwe Ojibwe (or Ojibwa, Ojibway, Chippewa) is an indigenous language of the Algonquian linguistic family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently, local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard that covers all dialects. The relative autonomy of the regional dialects of Ojibwe is associated with an absence of linguistic or political unity among Ojibwe-speaking groups.

The dialects of Ojibwe are spoken in Canada from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta, and in the United States from Michigan through Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as migrant groups in Kansas and Oklahoma.

CANA/ACNA 13 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org The aggregated dialects of Ojibwe comprise the second most commonly spoken First Nations language in Canada (after Cree), and the fourth most widely spoken in the United States or Canada behind Navajo, Inuit and Cree.

Writing system There is no standard writing system used for all Ojibwe dialects. Local writing systems have been developed by adapting the Roman alphabet, usually from English or French writing systems. A syllabic writing system not related to English or French writing is used by some Ojibwe speakers in northern Ontario and Manitoba. The Great Lakes Algonquian syllabary is based upon the French alphabet, with letters organized into syllables. It was primarily used by speakers of Fox, Potawatomi, and Winnebago, but there is indirect evidence of use by speakers of Southwestern Ojibwe.

A widely used Roman character-based writing system is the Double Vowel system devised by Charles Fiero. Although there is no standard orthography, the Double Vowel system is used by many teachers because of its ease of use. A wide range of materials have been published in this system, including a grammar, dictionaries, collections of texts, and pedagogical grammars. In northern Ontario and Manitoba, Ojibwe is most commonly written using the Cree syllabary, a syllabary originally developed by Methodist missionary James Evans around 1840 in order to write Cree. The syllabic system is based in part on Evans' knowledge of and his prior experience developing a distinctive alphabetic writing system for Ojibwe in southern Ontario.

Conclusion Hopefully we will be able to facilitate phase 2 with the Inuktitut IP #1 project.

Cree would seem to be the next logical project to consider but that is not as simple as it sounds. We can certainly support a project that originates within the community but if we wish to initiate one ourselves we must determine which of the dialects would be most useful to translate before launching into it.

CANA/ACNA 14 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

CANA/ACNA 15 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

CANA/ACNA 16 PO BOX 25073 RPO West Kildonan Winnipeg, MB. R2V 4C7 www.canaacna.org

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