Lesson 9: What are these or those? Who are these or those people?

ke'kwa'na o'ho

'What are these?'

ke'kwa'na ne'hi

'What are those in the distance?'

awe'nikik o'kok

'Who are these people?' (Dialects: awe'niki for awe'nikik and o'ko for o'kok.)

masinahikana anihi

'Those are books.'

iskwe'wak anikik

'Those are women.' (Dialects: aniki for anikik.)

na'pe'wak o'kok

'These are men.'

atimwak anikik

'Those are dogs.'

wacahkosak anikik

'Those are stars.'

wa'skahikana

'Houses.'

iskwa'hte'ma

'Doors.'

ci'ma'na

'Boats.'

pi'simwak

'The sun and moon.'

n(i)kos(i)sak

'My sons.'

n(i)ta'n(i)sak

'My daughters.'

A few additional useful nouns

na'pe'sis

'a boy'

na'pe's(i)sak

'boys'

iskwe'sis

'a girl'

iskwe's(i)sak

'girls'

'acimosis

'a puppy, a little dog'

acimos(i)sak

'puppies, little dogs'

ata'wikamik

'a store'

ata'wikamikwa

'stores'

ota'pa'na'sk

'a sled, a car'

ota'pa'na'skwak

'sleds, cars'

wasko

'cloud' (Dialects: waskoy for wasko.)

waskoya

'clouds'

nipiy

'water'

iskote'w

'fire'

asiniy

'a stone'

asiniyak

'stones'

mistik

'a tree, a stick'

mistikwak

'trees'

mistikwa

'sticks'

Notes

The nouns in section 9 were all singular nouns, that is, they refer to a single item or mass. To refer to more than one item, a suffix is added to a noun in both English and Cree. Such a suffix is called a plural suffix, and a noun with a plural suffix is called a plural noun.

In English, the plural suffix is usually -s or -es (pronounced -s, -z or -iz).

In Cree, the plural suffix is usually -ak or -a, use as follows:
-ak is used with animate nouns (sentances 5-8, 12-14).
-a is used with inanimate nouns (sentances 4, 9-11).

Some nouns insert w before the plural suffixes, namely, atim, pi'sim, ata'wikamik, ota'pa'na'sk, and mistik among those given up to now.

wasko adds y before -a.

The plural demonstrative pronouns are:

animate	inanimate
o'kok	o'ho	'these'
anikik	anihi	'those'
ne'kik	ne'hi	'those in the distance'

(Dialects: o'ko, aniki, ne'ki for o'kok, anikik, ne'kik.)

The interrogative pronouns also have plurals, unlike English:

awe'niki(k)

'who? (referring to more than one)', 'what people?'

ke'kwa'na

'what? (referring to more than one)', 'what things?'

Remember, animate and inanimate are only grammatical terms indicating which demonstrative pronouns and plural suffixes a noun occurs with. Animate nouns include the names of some non-living things.

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