Nouns: Inflectional Distinctions (Southern dialect)

Nouns in East Cree appear in various forms. This page is about
Obviative Nouns. Back to the main Nouns page.

Obviative

Observation:

ᓂ ᐧᐋᐸᐦᑌᓐ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓐ᙮		ni waapahten astutin.	‘I see a hat.’
ᐧᐋᐸᐦᑕᒻ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓂᔫ᙮		waapahtam astutiniyuu.	‘She sees a hat.’

Notice the suffix -iyu on astutiniyu. It is called
OBVIATIVE. Obviation happens when the sentence contains not just You
and I but third persons.

ᐧᐋᐸᐦᑕᒻ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓂᔫ ᐊᓐ ᐊᐧᐋᔥ᙮		waapahtam astutiniyuu an awaash.	‘That child sees a hat.’
ᒌ ᐧᐋᐸᒣᐤ ᐊᔨᒃᐦ ᐊᓐ ᐊᐧᐋᔥ᙮		chii waapameu ayikh an awaash.	‘That child saw a frog/frogs.’

The form awaash is called PROXIMATE, ayikh and
astitiniyuu are called OBVIATIVE. Generally, the proximate
refers to the person or thing first spoken of, the obviative to all
other persons or things.

For animate nouns, the obviative suffix is -h, like in
ayikh above. The number distinction is over-ridden. -h
could mean one or many frogs.

 

For inanimate nouns the obviative, singular has a special suffix -iyuu.
The obviative plural looks just like the proximate plural.

	Proximate		Obviative
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Animate	ᓂ ᐧᐋᐸᒫᐤ ᐊᔨᒃ᙮ ni waapamaau ayik. ‘I see a frog.’	ᓂᐧᐋᐸᒫᐅᒡ ᐊᔨᑲᒡ᙮ niwaapamaauch ayikach. ‘I see frogs.’	ᐧᐋᐸᒣᐤ ᐊᔨᒃᐦ᙮ waapameu ayikh. ‘She sees a frog.’	ᐧᐋᐸᒣᐤ ᐊᔨᒃᐦ᙮ waapameu ayikh. ‘She sees frogs.’
Inanimate	ᓂᐧᐊᐸᐦᑌᓐ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓐ᙮ niwaapahten astutin. ‘I see a hat.’	ᓂᐧᐋᐸᐦᑌᓐ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓐᐦ᙮ ni waapahten astutinh. ‘I see hats.’	ᐧᐋᐸᐦᑕᒻ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓂᔫ᙮   waapahtam astutiniyuu. ‘She sees a hat.’	ᐧᐋᐸᐦᑕᒻ ᐊᔅᑐᑎᓐᐦ᙮   waapahtam astutinh. ‘She sees hats.’

Obviation plays an important role in Cree, not just for nouns, and pronouns but also for verbs forms. It allows speakers to rank the importance of participants in a story in ways that are impossible to convey in English. [see story analysis].The rule is that you can only have one proximate person or thing at a time in a story, all others must be marked obviative.

Back to top Back
to Nouns