227 rt Chimo Cree: A Case of Dialect Syncretism? Marguerite MacKenzie Memorial University of Newfoundland The dialect of Cree1 spoken by the Fort Chimo Indians, now resident at Schefferville, Quebec, today is considered to be one of the y dialects like those of the east coast of James and Hudson Bays (MacKenzie 19 77). However, as recently as 1935, Michelson (1936) stated that it was an n-dialect like those of Labrador and the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River. What is the explanation of this contradiction? Has there been a restructuring of the dialect or possibly a replacement of the population? The language of the present-day speakers and that of the neighbouring speakers will be examined in order to determine how this situation has come about. The group of palatalized2 dialects within the Quebec- Labrador peninsula has traditionally been sub-divided into three groups according to whether the present-day reflex of Proto-Algonquian *1 is realized as 1, n or y (Michelson 1936, Lefebvre 1953, Pentland 1974). Thus PA *ki:la 'you' (sg.) is respectively ci:l, ci:n or ci:y and 'it is windy' is nu:tin, lu:tin, or yu:tin. The same phenomenon occurs in the non-palatalized dialects of Cree, but there the additional reflexes r or 5 are possible (ki:la, ki:na, ki:ya, ki:ra, or ki:5a). On the basis of this three-way division Pentland (1974) proposes the terminology "Southern Montagnais" for those dialects with 1, "Eastern Montagnais" for those dialects with n and "Western Montagnais" for those dialects with y_. The divisions are shown on Map 1, where it can be seen that the Fort Chimo group is situated between the larger n- and y- groups. The Fort Chimo Indians have been resident at Schefferville only since 1956 when they were prevailed upon by the Department of Indian Affairs to leave the Fort Chimo area and to settle closer to medical and educational facilities (Cooke 1976:80). It seems clear that this group was previously part of a larger Barren Ground group of nomadic caribou hunters. These people exploited the resources of a broad expanse of the treeless interior of the northern Quebec-Labrador peninsula. It was the establishment of fur trading posts at Fort Chimo on the northern coast of the peninsula and at Davis Inlet on the Labrador coast1* that brought about the separation of this Barren Ground group into what are today the Fort Chimo and Davis Inlet dialects. That these are dialects of Cree is without dispute (Michelson 1939, MacKenzie 1977), although these two groups are most often referred to as Naskapi. The term Naskapi personaspearefeseemidentificatioWhekrs nat nlo Michelson-dialectbcommunicationthose aen culturawhfon or, state botlivhel) hed onrelie buForfurtheethat t usedt i Chimtdrth fo haebrinlanosy evidencIndianbecomansoutherd Davi(Jsee .n ao Mailhot sfon Indianter ForInlethmet tosfChim ,unpublishegroups selftoo -. d 228 notes of the ethnographer Lucien Turner who visited Fort Chimo in the late 1880's. The only published form given by Turner (1894) is the word for 'man, Indian' nenenots." This word is cognate with ininu:, ilinu: and iyinu: or iyiyu: in the n, 1 and y dialects respectively. iyinu: is used in inland communities of the y-group and iyiyu: in coastal communities. The form cited by Turner thus corresponds with the n-dialect of Davis Inlet rather than the y-dialect of James and Hudson Bays. However, present day Fort Chimo speakers use the form iyiyu: which is used in Great Whale River and Fort George. Unfortunately few other records of the speech of these Indians exist. They were first contacted in the Ungava area in the early 1830's by fur traders, but little in the way of linguistic records were kept by these men. In contrast, for the Montagnais to the south, several 17th century dictionaries compiled by missionaries are available (Fabvre 1970, Silvy 1974). Thus it is mainly through the study of present-day speech that the history of the dialect becomes evident. The phonology and the lexicon of the Fort Chimo speakers will be compared with that of the Great Whale River group to the west and the Davis Inlet group to the east. The following set of words illustrates a number of phonological features of the dialects. Examples 1 through 4 show phonological features shared with Great Whale while examples 5 through Grea13 shot wWhal those e shareFordt witChimh o DaviDavis sInlet Inle. t Gloss 1. na:pa:w na:pa:w na :pe: w man 2. nima:s nima:s names' fish 3. ni :y ni :y ni :n I, me 4. ni :hi: ni:hi: e :he: yes 5. miht mi :t mi : t firewood 6. atihkw ati:xw ati:xw caribou 7. mi:ciwa: hp mi:ciwa : f mi:ciwa:f tent, house 8. utihp uti:f uti :f his brain 9. ukus ukusa ukusa his son 10. ap api api sit' (s) 11. tu:hwa:n tu:wa:n tu:wa:n ball 12. ni:ya:n ni :na:n ni :na :n we (excl) 13. <5i :ya:nu: ci:na:n £i:na:n we (incl) The majority of Cree diale cts have a vowel system consisting of seven vowels, f our long i:, e:, a:, u: and three short i, a, u. In this paper, these vowels will be considered as the basic set, although some dialects have fewer vowels, because of the operation of historical rules which may collapse two vowels into one. Thus examples 1 and 2 show the collapse of e: with a: which is characteristic of the northern y-dialects TE astmain to Great Whale). These dialects then have a six vowe 1 system i:, a:, u:, i, a, u. For the purposes of this pape r I postulate a level of pre- Cree which contains the seven vowels mentioned above, the consonants p, t, i, k, m, n. s, S, h, w, y d/ r, 5) . 229 Changes which occur refer to this level, not to the PA level unless specifically noted. As well, the norther y-speakers collapse a and i in inter-consonantal position to i. There is a tendency in all the Montagnais dialects to collapse these two short vowels, particularly in unstressed position, to ±. Only the northern y-speakers have a distinct i as shown in example 2. Example 3 again illustrates the distribution of y and n which are reflexes of PA*1 while example 4 shows the only item in which e: becomes i: instead of a:. This form is used by the inland group within Fort George instead of the expected i:hi: used by the Fort George coasters.5 These four examples show how the phonology of the Fort Chimo people may have been influenced by the speech of groups from the east coast of James and Hudson Bays. The remaining examples illustrate rules shared by Fort Chimo and Davis Inlet speakers. Examples 5 through 8 show the occurrence of three historical phonological changes: lengthening of short vowels before pre-aspirated stops, fricativization of stops which were pre-aspirated and loss of the pre-consonantal h. The rule which fricativizes a pre-aspirated stop does not operate on all such stops. ht and he seem to be exempt as shown by these examples: GWR pimuhta:w FC pimu:ta:w he walks pi:hca:w pi:£a:w he enters miht mi:t firewood hp in medial position does not necessarily become f. I have recorded both pa:pu: and pa:fu: 'he laughs' for Fort Chimo vs. Great Whale pa:hpu:. But all examples of hk and hp in final position do undergo this rule. It would seem that the h triggers the fricativization and then is deleted. An intermediate stage of hx and hf could be postulated. he laughs his brain caribou knife pa:hpu: utihp atihkw mu:hkuma:n Length. - uti:hp ati:hkw mu:hkuma:n Fricat. pa:hfu: uti:hf ati:hxw mu:hxuma:n Drop. pa:fu: uti:f ati:xw mu:xuma:n Examples 9 and 10 illustrate the retention of final short vowels at Fort Chimo and Davis Inlet. This rule is characteristic of all the Montagnais dialects in Labrador and on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, just as the dropping of these vowels is characteristic of the y-dialects. The final a marks two different morphological categories: the plural of inanimate nouns or the obviative case of animate nouns. The y-dialects still mark these categories, but they use supra-segmental phenomena such as a change in stress and intonation pattern to do so. In example 11 the loss of intervocalic h from *h is pre-consonantaillustrated. lThi hs disappearsrule occur.s Onlin yal lbetwee thosne dialectvowels so fwher thee 230 same quality such as in u:hu: 'owl', e:he: ' yes' and a:ha:we:w 'oldsquaw duck' is the h retained. The retention of h in all positions is a feature of the y_-dialects. Examples 12 and 13 show the reflex of PA* 1 as n in two personal pronouns where y_ would be expected, as in example 3. There seems to be a certain amount of va riation at Fort Chimo as I have also recorded ci:ya:nu: for 'we' (incl) . dialect spoken These phonological features show that the atures of the by the Fort Chimo people has incorporated fe dialect at northern y-dialects to the west and of the n logical level Davis Inlet to the east. However, the phono Some lexical does not seem to be the only one affected.