English/French Bilingual - WordPress.com · translation. Bilingual dictionaries, especially, provide insight on the spaces of contact between two particular linguistic communities

TRAHIR Septièmeannée,septembre2016

Cree‐English/FrenchBilingualDictionaries:ananalysisofperitextualelementsMarie‐FranceBaveye,UniversitédeMontréal

Dictionary – opinion expressed astruthinalphabeticorder.

JohnRalstonSaul1

Introduction

Dictionarieshavelongbeenanimportanttoolusedinthenavigationbetweenlanguagesandculturesand,assuch,theyareabletoexposecertain power dynamics and inequalities inherent in the act oftranslation.Bilingualdictionaries,especially,provide insighton thespacesofcontactbetweentwoparticularlinguisticcommunitiesandthe influences and constraints therein. In this paper, I analyzebilingual dictionaries between the Native American Cree languageand a colonial language (either FrenchorEnglish) in theCanadiancontext. Through a focus on contemporary dictionaries, it may bepossible to illuminate new perspectives on historically andcontinuinglycomplexlinguisticandculturalrelationships.

Although the 2011 Canadian census recorded over 60 Indigenouslanguages in 12 distinct language families, only two Canadianterritories give official status to these languages: in Nunavut withInuktitutandInuinaqtun;andintheNorthwestTerritorieswhere11different languages (including English and French, as required byfederallaw)arelistedintheOfficialLanguagesAct.Otherthanthetwocoloniallanguages,onlythreeofthelistedlanguages(Cree,InuktitutandOjibway)haveenoughnativespeakerstobedeemedviableforlong‐termsurvival.Indeed,inCanada,therearefourtimesasmany

1JohnR.Saul,TheDoubter'sCompanion:ADictionaryofAggressiveCommonSense,NewYork,FreePress,1994.

Marie‐FranceBaveye:“Cree‐English/FrenchBilingualDictionaries”

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AbstractThis study analyzes the active players and influences involved in theproduction of contemporary Canadian bilingual dictionaries between theendangeredNativeAmericanCreelanguageandacoloniallanguage(eitherFrenchorEnglish).Thecorpus,consistingof10dictionariespublishedafter1990,wasanalyzedwitha focuson fundingsources, coordinatingbodies,and editorial decisions (including dialect, language used in explicativematerial,citedmotivations/purposesoftheproject,useofSROorsyllabicCree, etc.). Although the initial hypothesis of this study was that thedictionarieswouldbedividedwithlittleoverlapbetweengeneralCanadian‐governmentandCree‐communityinitiatives,therebymirroringahistoryofdetrimentalgovernmental interventionsandunderfinancedFirstNations‐centric projects, the corpus and analysis presented here indicate thatcooperation between Cree organizations, governmental bodies, anduniversities was a fundamental aspect of each project. Colonial‐languagedominanceinexplicativematerialandsurprisinglystrongChristianreligiousinfluences are also observed consistently throughout the corpus.Nevertheless,thepurposescitedforthecreationofthesedictionariescanbegrouped into 5 distinct categories, all of which indicate that thesecooperative projects, though influenced from many directions, focusunanimouslyonsupportingandvalorizingtheCreecommunity,cultureandlanguage.

nativespeakersofPunjabthanthereareofCree.Thepercentageofpeople reporting an Indigenous language as their mother tonguedeclined from87.4% in1951 to29.3% in1981(Norris,1998)– in2011, this percentage was less than 1%, with 0.3% being Creespeakers.FrenchandEnglishdominatelinguisticallyastherecordedmothertonguesof21.3%and56.9%ofCanadiansrespectively(2011census).Overall,theaverageageofIndigenousspeakerpopulationsinCanadahasincreased,indicatingthattheyoungergenerationsarenotlearningthelanguages,akeyelementoflanguagedeath.

AlthoughdiscussionoftheproblematicsinherenttolanguagelossandtheCanadianpoliciesthathaveprecipitatedorpreventedthistrendare extremely important, this article’s analysis focusesonbilingualdictionarieswithinthisgreatercontemporarylinguisticcontext.Asaphysicalboundarybetweentwo languagegroupsandtheirculturalbaggage,itisinterestingtoposethequestionofwhoiscreatingthese

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texts, and for whom? What linguistic groups manage (financially,linguistically, etc.) these translational projects, and are thereinformative or confounding influences to be found in the finishedproductsthatmayresultfromcertaineditorialbiases?

Before beginning this research, my initial hypothesis was that thedictionaries would fall into two distinct and opposing categories:eithertheywouldbelimited,region‐specific,andlocallyfundedtexts;or they would be large, general and potentially problematicgovernment‐fundedprojects.Ianticipatedadividedcorpustestifyingto little collaboration between the Canadian government and Creeorganizations,therebymirroringahistoryfraughtwithdetrimentalgovernment intervention and underfinanced First Nations‐centricprojects (as detailed inMilroy, 1999,Walsh, 2005, andMacMillan,1998). IalsothoughtthedictionarieswouldexhibitamovementofstandardizationbetweenCreedialects,sincelexicographictextshaveoftenbeenusedasinstrumentsofunificationandplanning(Fuertes,2011)andperhapsevenmoresoingovernment‐fundedprojects.Infact,thefollowinganalysisdoesnotseemtosupportanyaspectofthishypothesis and actually raises further questions based onobservations regarding, among other things, the continuing role ofreligion, patterns of combined authorship, and specific linguisticchoicesinparatextualelementsthathadnotbeeninitiallyanticipated.

I begin the discussion with background information on the Creelanguage,followedbyabriefexaminationofdictionariesandaspectsof lexicography in general that are relevant to this study. I thenintroduceandjustifythecorpusandbrieflydescribeeachdictionaryincluded. A subsequent analysis of corpus‐based patterns andobservationswill follow, based on a set of pre‐determined criteriaincluding dialect, project intent/purpose, size of compilation, andfunding sources and affiliations. Finally, the article closes with aconclusion recapitulating the insights gleaned in the analysis anddiscussion,aswellasproposalsforfurtherresearchideas.

OntheCreelanguage

Not only is the Cree language one of themost spoken IndigenouslanguagesinCanadawitharound70,000speakers,theCreearealsooneof the largestFirstNationsgroups–over220,000members in


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RésuméCetteétudeanalyse lesprincipauxacteurset influences impliquésdans laproduction de dictionnaires bilingues au Canada, entre le cri, une langueautochtonemenacée,etunelanguecoloniale(soitlefrançaisoul’anglais).Lecorpus de dix dictionnaires publiés après 1990 fut analysé en mettantl’accentsurlessourcesdefinancement,lesorganismesdecoordinationetlesdécisions éditoriales (dont le dialecte, les langues utilisées pour lespéritextes,lesmotivations/objectifsduprojet,l’utilisationducrisyllabiqueoul’orthographeromaine,etc.).Bienquel’hypothèseinitialedecetteétudeétaitquelesdictionnairesseraientdivisésavecpeudechevauchemententreles initiatives générales du gouvernement canadien et les initiatives decommunautés cries, reflétant ainsi une histoire néfaste d’interventionsgouvernementales et de projets autochtones sous‐financés, le corpus etl’analyse indiquent que la coopération entre les organisations cries, lesorganismes gouvernementaux et les universités était une caractéristiqueessentielledechaqueprojet.Ladominancede languescolonialesdans lespéritextesetlesinfluenceschrétiennesd’ampleursurprenantefurentaussiobservéesde façonuniformedans lecorpus.Cependant, lesobjectifscitéspourlacréationdecesdictionnairespeuventêtrerépartisencinqgroupes,tousindiquantquecesprojetscoopératifs,bienqueleursinfluencessoientdiverses,centrentunanimementleurseffortssurl’appuietlavalorisationdelacommunauté,lacultureetlalanguecrie.

Canada, about 38,000 of whom live in Québec. Though there is ashared culture, the population is spread across Canada and is nothomogenousinitshistoricalexperiencesandlinguisticdialect.Creeis an Algonquian language and is differentiated into five majormutually‐intelligible dialects: Eastern Cree, Central/Swampy Cree,Northern/WoodlandsCree,MooseCree,andWestern/PlainsCree.AllCree dialects are written in both standard Roman orthography(nēhiýawēwin: itwēwina), henceforth referred to as SRO, andsyllabically (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ: ᐃᑗᐏᓇ), using shapes rotated in fourdirectionstorepresentsyllables.

As we will see below, Cree bilingual dictionaries make differingchoicesinhowtorepresentthelanguage,eitherchoosingonlySRO,bothSROandsyllabics,or,inonecase,onlysyllabics.Alsodiscussedin the analysis is how these dictionaries navigate the differentdialects,anaspectofCreelanguagethatisaddressedbyallsources.

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AlthoughtheCreelanguageiscurrentlyspokenbyadangerouslylownumberofpeople,itisoneofthreeIndigenouslanguagesinCanadathatcouldeventuallysurvivewithsignificantlinguisticintervention(Magga, 2005).According to a list of essential requirements for aneffectivelanguageimmersionprogramforCreestudents,theprogramisdependentontheavailabilityofsufficientCreelanguageresourcematerials and specialized bilingual education resources (Fredeen,1988). As this list demonstrates, in the efforts of linguisticrevitalization and maintenance, relevant bilingual dictionaries areessentialbut,aswewillseefurtherbelow,languageeducationisonlyoneofthecitedpurposesforthecreationofthesedictionaries–theother reasons being no less important to Cree language and Creecultureingeneral.

Onlexicographictexts

Thefieldsof linguistics,translationandlexicographyare, likemanyotherfieldsofresearch,strifewithbinariesthatexist inoppositionand reaction to one another. One such stand‐off in the domain ofdictionary creation is between the prescriptivist and descriptivistviews of language; while the former seeks to normalize and“prescribe” formal rules and usage, the latter – deemed the more“liberal”andcontemporary–seekstoobjectively“describe”languagefacts, without comment or censure. The prescriptivist approach iscertainlyquestionable,asproblemsarisewheneveronepersontellsanotherhowtouselanguage,butdescriptivism,especiallywhentheinformation is offered with a neutral façade, can also be quiteproblematic.

In January 2016, anthropologist Michael Oman‐Reagan confrontedthe Oxford Dictionary of English regarding its numerous sexistformulations.Theseincluded:forshrill,“therisingshrillofwomen’svoices”;fornagging,“anaggingwife”;andforrabid,“arabidfeminist”;as well as female pronouns for words such as housework andpromiscuous but male pronouns for research and doctor (Oman‐Reagan,2016).Thisexampleillustratesaperspectivesharedbymanyin the linguistics and translation fields: that nodictionary, nor anyother text, can be purely descriptive – completely unaltered byeditors’,translators’,andotherplayers’personalpositionalities–and


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thattopositotherwisecanhavedetrimentaleffects.InthecaseoftheOxfordDictionaryofEnglish,someoneorsomegroupofpeople,alongwiththeiruniquecognitivebaggageandbiases,selected,codified,andeventually amplified the sexist language that was printed andcirculated. Dictionaries and other lexicographic texts are trustedsourcesof information in thedominantCanadiancultureand,withthisauthority,acertainneutralityisassumed.But,asWilliamFrawleyand colleagues state inWritingDictionaries: Preserving IndigenousLanguages of the Americas, “[…] it should be pointed out thatneutralityisalsoakindoftheory.Frequently,theostensibletheory‐neutral dictionaries of the European‐American tradition implicitlyembraceasociolinguisticcommitmenttoupper‐middle‐classliteratespeech and so reproduce an ideology of presumed neutrality.”(Frawley, 2002: 6)” It is therefore essential to consider thesedictionaries with reference to their authorial and socioculturalcontextsinordertobeawareofbiasesorinclinationsthatcouldaffectthematerialincluded.Althoughthisarticledoesnotexploretheactuallexicalcontentof thedictionaries, it is important torememberthatthere is consensusamong lexicographers that “dictionariespresenttheworld‐viewsoftheirlexicographersandthelanguageisdiscussedthroughthefilteroftheseworld‐views”(Benson,2012).

Thisbeingsaid,itisalsoimportanttoacknowledgethepersonallensthroughwhichthisstudyoccurs.IgrewupintheUnitedStatesandam of European nationality, I am not from Indigenous Americandescent.As a graduate student inTranslationStudies,mypersonalperspectiveisfromaprimarilyacademicangle.AlthoughIhavetriedtopresenttheinformationinthisarticlewithasmuchneutralityaspossible,Ibelievethatthisisinherentlyanimpossibletask.

Corpus

Theresearchcomponentofthisstudyisbasedontheanalysisof10lexicographictexts,asamplegroupwhosedelimitationrestsonasetofcriteriadetailedbelow.

Publishingdate.Onlytextspublishedorrepublishedafter1990wereincluded,therebyensuringtherelevanceofthematerialandofferingacontemporaryviewofthecurrentsituation.Althoughitispossiblethatmaterial dating from before this cutoff is still being used, this

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study isprimarily interested inmore recenteditingandpublishingdecisions.Additionally, according toHemingYongand JingPeng inBilingual Lexicography from a Communicative Perspective, the lifespan of a dictionary edition is generally assumed to be about tenyears. Working from this lexicographic norm, this corpus waswidenedtothelast26yearsinordertoachievealargersamplesize.

Dialect.ForCree,IhavechosentoincludedictionariesofalldialectsexceptMichif, a contact language thatmixes Cree and French. ForFrench,bothstandardizedandQuébécoistextswereincludedand,forEnglish, therewas no decision to bemade since none of the textsacknowledgedanyalternativetoastandardizedEnglish.

Typeoflexicographicresource.Alltextsofalexicographicnaturewereincludedaslongastheyweresomewhere(inthetitleorinperitextualelements)referredtoasa“dictionary”,“lexicon”,oranothergenerallyequivalenttermindicatingaprimarilylexicographiccompilation.

Online vs. printed sources. I had initially planned to treat onlinesourcesthesameaspapersourcesaslongastheywerepresentedasa complete text that clearly indicated relevant publishing andauthorshipinformationandfulfilledthepreviousconditionofbeingreferred to as a lexicographic compilation. In the end, no onlinesourceswereincludedinthecorpusfortworeasons:first,3ofthe4onlinedictionaries foundwerebasedonpaperdictionariesalreadyincluded in the corpus; and second, all 4 online dictionaries werebeingfrequentlyupdatedandthereforedidnotmeetthecomplete‐textqualification.

General vs. specialized dictionaries. I did not differentiate betweengeneralized and specialized dictionaries since the two examples ofspecializedtextsincludedinthestudy(thetrilinguallexiconandthepicturedictionaries)bothaddvaluableinsightandcommentary.

Firsteditionsvs.subsequenteditions.Onlythemostrecenteditionofatextwas included in thecorpus,except in thecaseof the2014and2015editionsoftheMooseCreedictionary,whichwerebothincludedbecausetheydifferedenoughfortheircomparisontobeinformative.


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Availability.ThisresearchtookplaceinMontréaland,ofthetwelveprintdictionariesfoundtoexistthroughextensivecross‐checkingofCree language bibliographies, dictionary references, andWorldCat,tenwereavailablelocallyorthroughinter‐libraryloans.Thetwothatwere unavailable are apparently quite difficult to locate, which issignificant in and of itself. Theywere nevertheless included in thecorpus(markedas*unabletolocate)inalimitedcapacity(i.e.withwhatinformationcouldbegleanedaboutthemthroughtheinternet).

Dictionnairefrançais‐cri–‘Image/pageforletter‘N’

Following is abriefdescriptionof eachdictionaryanalyzed,with afocus on information relating to authorship, publishing, funding,language/text organization, and peritextual elements. They areorganizedinchronologicalorder,beginningwiththeoldest.

Dictionnairefrançais‐cri,DialecteQuébécois[1992]

Includes approximately 16,000 unidirectional entries [QuébécoisFrenchword–itsdefinition(s)inFrench–Cree(SRO)equivalent].A

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preface by Éric Gourdeau (in French) thanks Louis‐PhilippeVaillancourt for his dedication in compiling and editing the text,referencing his religious background and intentions. The bookcontains4full‐pageillustrationsofChristianscenes(seeexampleatright).Theother22lettersarerepresentedbynature,huntingscenes,ordepictionsofdailylife.Inhisintroduction,Vaillancourtthanksbynameadozen“Indians”thatwerehismainsourcesofinformationintheVieuxComptoir2andinEastmain,aswellastheOblatmissionariesofMarieImmaculée,theBishopofMoosonee,andtheUniversitéduQuébecàChicoutimifortheirfinancialaidandtheireditinghelp.Fiveofthe17entriesinthebibliographyarebooksbytranslationtheorist(and Baptist minister) Eugene Nida, and ten are texts written byreverendsormissionaries.Vaillancourtwritesthathedidnotaimtocreate a complete and definitive Cree dictionary, rather, he simplywantedtohelpthosewhowantto learnQuébécoisCreeorwanttotranslatefromFrenchtoCree.Asfordialect,thisdictionaryislimitedtoQuébécoisCree,whichisspokenbyapproximately9,000people.

(PictureDictionary)[1993]

Two separate identical picture dictionaries, one in the James BaySouthern Dialect and one in the Northern Dialect. There are 304unidirectional entries (syllabic word – picture – short syllabicdefinition), including imagesofasoccerball,amosquito,ashotgunshell,4imagesinvolvingaquaplanesand20involvingcanoes.Alltext,except for an English translation of the publishing information, isentirely insyllabicCree.There isno introductionnoranyperitextsotherthantechnicalpublishingandcontactinformationontheinsidecover.Thebookswerepublishedby theCreeProgramsof theCreeSchoolBoardinChisasibi,Québec.Ashortsentenceincludedwiththepublishing information states that these books are to be used for

2AlthoughtheauthorreferencestheVieuxComptoir,aregionthathasnotofficiallyexistedsince1953,this1992editiondoesseemtobetheonlyandfirst edition of this text. Vaillancourt had published a number of Creelanguageresourcesinthe1980sand1990s.


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“Cree language educationalpurposes, for the preservation ofourcultureandlanguage.”

Cree‐English English‐Creedictionary = Nehiyawe minaAkayasimo – Akayasimo minaNehiyaweAyamiwini‐masinahigan[1995]

The title of this dictionary ispresentedinEnglishfirst,withtheCree translation below.Peritextual elements are all inEnglish and include anintroduction discussing differentCree dialects, pronunciation,spelling,andgrammar.Fr.GérardBeaudet, authorof thisdictionaryandaQuébécoispriest,isdepictedinafull‐pagepicture.Accordingtothedescription,hehas livedandworkedamongtheCreepeopleofnorthernManitobaandSaskatchewanfor55years,asamissionary,educator, translator and “friend to all.” He has also published atranslation of the New Testament in Cree as well asCree/French/Englishteachingmaterials.Theintroductionstatesthat“It’sinstudyingthelanguageofanationthatonecomestoknowitsvalues and character,” and goes on to say that the dictionary wascompiledforFr.Beaudet’sownpersonaluseandnotoriginallywiththeaimofpublication.ThedialectisthatofPlainsCree.Thefirsthalfof the book is CreeEnglishwith approximately 16,112 Cree SROwords, while the second half is EnglishCree with 8,370 Englishwords, although each entry in English often contains multipledifferentCreeequivalents.

(PictureDictionary)–Page3

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AlbertaElders’CreeDictionary[1998]

The title of this dictionary, which looks much like a textbook, iswritten in English and in SRO Cree, with the English first. A

continuationof theworkofSisterNancy LeClaire, a Samson Cree,andbasedonFr.AlbertLacombe’sFrench‐Cree dictionary of 1872,this dictionary is co‐authored byGeorgeCardinal,aCreetranslatorand elder. Editors are EarleWaugh,professorattheUniversityof Alberta, and Emily Hunter, aCree writer of Christian ministrybooks. The dictionary took 27years to compile andwas fundedbytheCanadaCouncilfortheArts,by the Canadian Government’sBook Publishing IndustryDevelopment Program, theSamson Cree Nation, and severalother governmental and

community grant organizations. Motivations for creating thedictionary,asstatedintheperitexts,are:aserviceablerecordoflocalCreewordswiththeirtranslations;atoolforstudentsofthelanguageuptoseniorhighschool;topreservethebeautifulCreelanguage;tohelpCreeteachers;andtohelpCreepeopleretaintheiridentity.Thedialectisstatedasamixtureofalldialects,mostlyPlainsCree.Onlythetitle,ashorterintroduction,andadedicationpageto“HonoringtheCreepeople”areinbothEnglishandCree.Allotherparatexts,ofwhich there are many, are in English. Thelma Chalifoux, a MétiswomanandCanadianSenator,wrotetheforewordthatstates,amongotherthings,theimportanceoflanguagetocultureandidentity,thegrowingdemandforCreelanguageandculturalknowledge,andtheCree influence on Canadian place names. Interestingly, appendicesinclude a Cree statement of commitment as a culturally‐relevantequivalenttotheswearingofanoath.Thereareapproximately9,520Creewords(allSRO)andapproximately12,640Englishwords.

AlbertaElders’CreeDictionary–Cover


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TheStudent’sDictionaryofLiteraryPlainsCree[1998]

This dictionary is based on spoken prose Cree from the last twodecades. The formal and descriptive introduction, written by co‐authorH.C.Wolfart,aprofessoroflinguistics at the University ofManitoba, states that thisdictionaryisprimarilyintendedasa key to the growing library ofauthenticCreeliterature,butalsoasaninitialreferenceworkfortheserious student and as a tool forbetter understanding Creeliterature and Cree culture ingeneral. Based on contemporarysources,itisdesignedtorepresentthe current formof the language.The dictionary draws primarilyfrom the Plains Cree dialect, in arelatively formalregisterusedbyolder speakers. The dictionarywascreatedwithsupportfromtheSaskatchewan Indian LanguagesInstitute and the Social SciencesandHumanitiesResearchCouncilof Canada, with editorial andresearchhelp fromtheUniversityofManitoba.Secondco‐author isFredaAhenakew,PlainsCreespeakerandacademic.Thefirstpartofthe text isaCree(SRO)dictionarywith3,451entries [Creeword–Englishequivalent–Creesynonyms].Thesecondpart isanEnglishIndexthat,accordingtoWolfart,ismeantonlyasaguidetothefirstpart,althoughitisquiteextensiveandseemslikeitcouldbeusedjustlike an English‐Cree dictionary – it includes approximately 2,200Englishwords.

TheStudent’sDictionaryofLiteraryPlainsCree‐Cover

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Nēhiưyawēwin: itwēwina = Cree: words: a Cree‐English Dictionary[2001]

*Unabletolocate.

This dictionary was compiled by Arok Wolvengrey, professor ofAlgonquian languages, authored by Freda Ahenaker, writer andacademicofCreedescent,andcontributed toandpublishedby theCanadian Plains Research Center at the University of Regina.AccordingtoGooglebooks,itisa“Detailed,painstakinglycompiled,2‐volumedictionary of over 15,000Plains Creewords. The formatand orthography are in the tradition of contemporary Creescholarship.VolumeOne:Cree‐to‐English;VolumeTwo:English‐to‐Cree.”

Castel’sEnglish‐CreeDictionaryandMemoirsoftheElders[2001]

ThefirstsubstantialdocumentationofWoodsCreesince1844, thistext was translated by Robert Castel, a native Cree speaker andteacher, and compiled/edited by David Westfall, an Americanprofessor at Manitoba’s Brandon University Northern TeacherEducationProgram,wherethisdictionarywasalsopublished.Atover1,000 pages, this text includes an extensive EnglishWoods Cree(SRO) dictionary, a collection of stories and reminiscences byPukatawaganelders,aseriesofCreeglossaries,andaCreeEnglishdictionary, as well as extensive historical and grammaticalinformation. According to Westfall’s preface, this dictionary wascompiledprimarilytoaidbilingualWoodsCree‐Englishspeakersandeducatorsworkingwithintheschooldistrict,asanunabridgedCreeresourceforadultlearnersfromwhichaselectionandadaptationcanbemadeforgradeschoolleveleducation.


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EasternJamesBayCreeDictionary[2004]

Thecover, titlepage,andnearlyallperitexts forthisdictionaryarewritteninsyllabicCreewiththeEnglishtranslationbelow.Although

the preface acknowledges thedetrimental historical effects ofCatholicandAnglicanchurchesandschools on Cree language andculture, one of the five editors forthis dictionary is the residentlinguist at SIL International, a US‐based Christian non‐profitorganizationwhosemainpurposeisthe study, development anddocumentation of lesser‐knownlanguagesthroughBibletranslation.Three editors are Cree elders andlanguage teachers and the last is alinguistics professor at MemorialUniversity in Newfoundland. Aninitiative of the Cree SchoolBoard,andsupportedby tenFirstNationsgroups and organizations, thisdictionary contains over 17,800Eastern JamesBaysoutherndialect

entries [syllabic Cree word – SRO Cree word – grammaticalinformation – English definition] and 64 pages of relevantinformation.Thepurposeisstatedasatoolforthepreservationandretentionof theCree Language, an invaluablehelp to teachers andstudentsofCreeschools,andarepresentationofCreevocabularyasitexiststoday.

Webster’sCree‐EnglishThesaurusDictionary[2008]

*Unabletolocate.

This is an interesting case and, if this were a statistical survey, itwouldmostlikelybeexcludedasanoutlier.Theeditor,PhilipParker,isamanagementprofessorandentrepreneurwho–accordingtohisWikipediapage–happenstobefascinatedbydictionaries.Knowing

EasternJamesBayCreeDictionary–page33

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no Cree, he created this dictionary using his patented method ofautomatic content production and statistically significantorganization generated from a large corpus of translated publicdomaindocumentssuchasUNtextsandtheBible.Thedictionaryisself‐publishedunderthe“Webster’s”nameandavailabledigitallyorprint‐on‐demand.Itis66pageslong.

Trilingual Lexicon of the Fauna and Flora of JamesBay, 2ndEdition[2013]

This short dictionary of under 100 pages was compiled by KevinBrousseau and was the result of a project headed by the CreeResearch&DevelopmentInstitute,a“regionalorganizationthathadbeenestablishedtoproducemoreresearchinthefieldsofimporttothelocalCreepopulace.”Thepurposeoftheproject,asstatedintheintroduction,istogatherthenamesinCreeoffloraandfaunawithinfive Cree communities greatly affected by forestry in order tofacilitate communication between Anglophones and Francophonesand Cree land owners, to preserve traditional terminology, and tomakethis informationreadilyaccessible.Picturesof localbirdsareincludedasalearningtoolandguide.Creeisreferredtoonlyaslyiniw,anEast Cree endonym.The lexicon containsover600Cree entries[Cree term – pronunciation key – English equivalent – Frenchequivalent – Cree synonyms]. Brousseau used the standardorthography for theEastCreedialects asproposedbyVaillancourtandusedbytheCreeSchoolBoard.Followinghisintroduction,helistsby name the elders that contributed through interviews to thedictionaryandtheirregionoforigin.ThetitlepageandperitextsareentirelyinEnglish.

Ililîmôwasinahikan:ADictionaryofMooseCree[2014]

The coverand titlepageof thisdictionaryarewritten first inCree(SRO) then in English then in syllabic Cree, but all peritexts are inEnglish only. The projectwas edited byKevinBrousseau, the CreeLanguageCoordinatorfortheCreeNationGovernment,andmanagedby Geraldine Govender, the Director of Language and CulturalPrograms for the Moose Cree First Nation. According to the


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introductionwrittenbyBrousseau,althoughtheMooseCreedialectis spoken by few in a restricted geographic area, it is of greaterhistoricalimportanceduetoitsprevioususeintranslatingimportantreligioustextsandhymnalsandisthereforeimportanttothestudyofCree language history and lexicography. Before the new East Creetranslationwaspublishedin2004,EastCreespeakersreadaMooseCreeNewTestament.Thisinformationmakesupthefirstparagraphoftheintroduction.Brousseaugoesontostatethattheintentionofthisprojectwas that “this initialattemptwill translate intoamoresustainedeffortatdocumentingandtransmittingthelanguagebythecommunity itself.” Thisunidirectional dictionaryof just over 5,000Cree entries [Cree (SRO) headword – syllabic Cree – Englishequivalents] was spearheaded by regional Cree organizations anddepartmentsandfundedbytheAmisk‐oo‐skowagreement.

DictionaryofMooseCree(2ndEdition)[2015]

Thissecondeditiondiffersfromthefirstinseveralinterestingways.Although all main organizers/editors/lexicographers, keyorganizationsandfundingsourcesarethesame,andallparatextsandexplanations are still in English, the cover and title page for thisedition are now also only in English. The introduction has beenreplaced by a one‐paragraph preface explaining that the successwithintheMooseCreecommunityofthefirsteditionpromptedtherapidundertakingof amore completedocumentation.A sectionof100pagesofgrammaticalinformationwasadded“forthebenefitoflanguage learners and teachers.” The preface cites clearly that thisneweditionwascreated“inhopesthatitwillstemtheunfortunatetrendoflanguagelosssocommoninCreecommunitiesthecountryover.”Thiseditionhasover9,300entries.

Discussion

Aswecanseefromthedescriptions,eachdictionaryisuniqueinitsownrightwhilestillsharingcertaincommoneditorialdecisionswiththe others. Regarding project motivations, the editors of eachdictionaryexplicitly stateat leastonepurpose for theirwork,withmanyoverlappingthemeswithinthecorpus.Overall,projectpurpose

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can be divided into five major categories: (1) Education‐relatedpurposes, eight of ten dictionaries state that their work will helppeoplelearntheCreelanguage,beusedbyeducatorsinCreeschools,and be used as reference material for students of all ages; (2)Preservation of Cree language, culture, and identity, eight of tendictionariespointed to thewish tovalorize, record,andshareCreeculture through the dictionaries; (3) Translation and linguistictransfer, three dictionaries indicate the desire to aid translationendeavors;(4)RecordofCreeknowledge,threedictionariesstatetheneed to record disappearing knowledge; and (5) Communityempowerment, bothMoose Cree dictionaries cite the potential fordictionaries to empower the Cree community. Although these fivemajor motivations have much overlap and interference, it isinteresting to note that all, in their ownway, directly concern thepreservationandcontinuedwell‐beingoftheCreepeopleandtheirlanguageandculture.Alsointerestingistonoticewhatreasonswerenotstated,suchasfinancialgain,thestandardizationofthelanguage,ortheeducationofnon‐CreepeopleaboutCreelanguageandculture(itisimpliedthatthedictionariescouldbeusedforthisfunction,butitisneverexplicitlystatedasamotivation).

Thesizeofthecompilations,basedonnumberofwords,variesfrom304(picturedictionaries)to16,112(Cree‐English,1995)words.Asareference,thoughnotadirectcomparisonsincethesocialspacesthelanguages occupy are quite different, the Collins English to FrenchDictionary contains over 100,000 English words and the LarousseFrench to English Dictionary has over 400,000 separate entries.Although several of the Cree dictionaries in this corpus are heavytomes, it is interesting tonote that, forwhatcouldbedue tomanyreasonsrangingfromthenatureoftheCreelanguagetothetypesoflexicographicprojects,theyarestilllimitedinsizeincomparisontomainstream,dominant‐languagebilingualdictionaries.

Six of tendictionaries present their paratextual elements only in acolonial language.Threehad someCreepassagesbutmaintained aprimarily colonial‐language‐based presentation, while one – thepicture dictionary –was almost entirely in syllabic Creewith onlybasic publishing information in English. This French and Englishdominanceinexplicativematerialissignificant,thoughwhatitmeanshardtosay.ItmaybethatthedictionariesweredesignedwithCree


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languagelearnersinmind,thateditorsfeltthattheinformationwouldbemoreaccessibleinEnglishorFrench,orthatthecompilersofthedictionarieswerenotthemselvesnativeCreespeakers,whichisthecaseforatleasttwodictionaries.Inanycase,itisaneditorialdecisionthat certainly reflects something about the positionality of CreeversusEnglishorFrench.ThedifferencebetweenthefirstandsecondeditionsoftheMooseCreedictionary,wherethetitleandcoverpagewent frombeingbilingual tobeingonly inEnglish, alsopoints toacertain editorial assessment and alteration away from a Creelanguagepresentation.ThedifferencebetweenSROandsyllabicCree,with only three dictionaries using syllabic Cree anywhere, isindicative of the position of syllabic Cree in certain languagehierarchies.

As for funding sources and coordinating bodies, there were fourmajortypesofaffiliations:governmental‐,religious‐,university‐,andFirstNations‐centricorganizations.Alldictionariesciteamixtureofdifferent influences, some more than others, with five of the tenshowinginputfromallfouraffiliations.Sixdictionariesseemtohavebeen primarily First Nations‐centric organizations’ initiatives,withgovernmentfundinganduniversityresearchhelpontheside(i.e.notinvolved inthewritingofparatextsnordirectly involvedinprojectcoordination).

TherewasasurprisingprevalenceofChristianreligious influences,from authorship/editing to Christian‐specific imagery andparatextualreferences.TheDictionnaire français‐cribyVaillancourtdrawsaclearlinktoCatholicism,asisdemonstratedinthefollowingclosingremarksofthepreface:

Parti au Nord pour annoncer la Bonne Nouvelle, le PèreVaillancourt nous en rapporte avec ce dictionnaire laconfirmation concrète – une sorte de Bonne Nouvelle pourplusieurssansdoute–quelalanguecrieestencoreettoujoursvivante.

Thisisfromadictionarypublishedforthefirsttimein1992,basedonVaillancourt’sextensiveworkamongtheCreepeoplefromthe1940sto the 1990s. Although I was aware that, like most other NorthAmerican Indigenous language groups, the Cree had historicallyexperienced heavy contact with Christian missionaries, I had not

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expectedsuchpersistentreligious influences incontemporaryCreelexicography. In this study, six of ten dictionaries exhibit strongreligiousconnections,eitherthroughauthorshiporthroughreligiousreferences, and, of those, three have a Catholic priest or sister asleadingcompileroreditor.ThiscorpustestifiestoatrendofactiveChristian influences inCree lexicography,a trend thatundoubtedlyaffectsthelinguisticcontentincluded.

Another observation from the corpus is the near invisibility ofreferences to the orality of Cree. Although one dictionary, theStudent’s Dictionary from 1998, is based entirely on spokenwordsources–aneditorialdecisionthatalludestoorality–nodictionarymakes mention of this aspect of Cree language and heritage.Furthermore, most dictionaries refer to Cree language informantsandcollaboratorsas“elders,”whichindicatesanolderperspectiveonthe language. Indeed, Wolfart addresses this directly in theintroduction to the Student’s Dictionary (1998): “This approach[referring to the collaboration with Cree elders] also avoids thecomplicationspresentedbythecompetingspeechstylesofyoungerspeakers, often less comprehensively in command of register thantheir elders and with a much higher degree of Cree‐Englishbilingualism.” As Wolfart addresses, though this participation ofelders in lexicographic projects may be due to their greateravailabilityormotivation,itmayalsoverylikelybeindicativeoftheincreased age ofmaternal language speakers and of Cree languagelossingeneral.

Finally,alldialectswererepresentedbytheirowndictionaryexceptfortheCentral/Swampydialect,whichwasnotmentionedanywherein the corpus. This, and the fact that no dictionaries mentionedlanguage standardization, may indicate a lack of a standardizingtrend. This is interesting since, in many language revitalizationprojects around the world, from Gaelic to Hebrew, languagestandardization has been amain tool for linguistic unification andstrengthening.Severalotherobservations,suchastheautonymlyiniwand the concept of self‐generated dictionary compilations, werelimitedtoonlyonedictionary,whichmakesanytypeofgeneralizationimprudent. Regardless, these aspects are mentioned above in thedictionarydescriptionsandmaybeinterestingtoanalyzefurtherinthefuture.


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Conclusion

This study was intended as an exploratory descriptive study andraisessomeinterestingquestionsthatcouldbeaddressedinfurther,morespecificand in‐depthresearch.Although languagechoicewasbrieflyaddressed,itwouldbeinterestingtolookintostylisticchoicesforthecoversofthesedictionaries,astheyvaryenormouslybutallseemtoprioritizeEnglishorFrench.Indeed,thereasonswhythevastmajority of peritexts are written in a colonial language is anundoubtedlycomplexissue.Theactualcontentofthedictionaries,toseewhetherthereisadifferencebetweentheportrayalorpresenceof colonial language and Cree language concepts, is a compellingcontinuationofthisresearch.Finally,itwouldalsobeinterestingtoperform a longitudinal study of Cree dictionaries, to analyze apossibletransformationinthestructureandfunctionofthesetexts,onethatmayhavebeenglimpsedslightlybetweenthetwoeditionsoftheMooseCreedictionaries.

Overall,thiscorpusandanalysisdonotsupporttheinitialhypothesisaboutCreelanguagebilingualdictionaries.CooperationbetweenCreeorganizations, governmental bodies, universities, and religiousgroupsisa fundamentalaspectofeachproject.Theeffectsof theseinfluencesonthedictionaries’characteristicscanbeseen,attheveryleast,throughreligiousreferencesandthroughthestatedpurposesoftheprojects,aswellasthrougheditorialdecisionsrelatedtosyllabicCree, different dialects, and the overall language of paratextualelements. Nevertheless, the purposes for creating the dictionariesindicate that these cooperative projects, though influenced frommanydirections,focusunanimouslyonsupportingandvalorizingtheCreecommunity,culture,andlanguage.

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Beaudet,G. (1995).Cree‐EnglishEnglish‐Creedictionary=Nehiyawemina Akayasimo – Akayasimo mina Nehiyawe Ayamiwini‐masinahigan,Winnipeg,Wuerz.

Brousseau,K.,J.Terraza,V.Collette,K.Brousseau,AanischaaukamikwInstitut culturel cri and Moose Cree First Nation (2015).DictionaryofMooseCree:Cree‐English.

Brousseau, K., V. Collette, Moose Cree First Nation & Cree NationGovernment (2014). Ililîmôwasinahikan: Ililîmowin –Wemištikôšmowin=AdictionaryofMooseCree:Cree–English.

Brousseau,K.,andAanischaaukamikwInstitutculturelcri(2013).TheCreeResearchandDevelopment Institute's trilingual lexiconofthefaunaandfloraofJamesBay.

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Junker, M.‐O., E. Neeposh and Cree School Board (2004). EasternJames Bay Cree dictionary: Cree – English: southern dialect,Chisasibi,CreeProgramsoftheCreeSchoolBoard.

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Wolfart, H. C., and F. Ahenakew (1998).The student'sdictionaryofliterary Plains Cree: Based on contemporary texts, Winnipeg,AlgonquianandIroquoianLinguistics.

Wolvengrey, A., F. Ahenakew and University of Regina (2001).Nehiưyawewin: Itwewina = Cree words: a Cree‐EnglishDictionary,Regina,CanadianPlainsResearchCenter,UniversityofRegina.

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English/French Bilingual - WordPress.com · translation. Bilingual dictionaries, especially, provide insight on the spaces of contact between two particular linguistic communities