# Innu language

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Not to be confused with [Inuit languages](/source/Inuit_languages).

**Innu-aimun** or **Montagnais** is an [Algonquian language](/source/Algonquian_languages) spoken by over 10,000 [Innu](/source/Innu)[3] in [Labrador](/source/Labrador) and [Quebec](/source/Quebec) in Eastern [Canada](/source/Canada). It is a member of the [Cree](/source/Cree_language)–Montagnais–[Naskapi](/source/Naskapi_language) [dialect continuum](/source/Dialect_continuum) and is spoken in various dialects, depending on the community.

## Literature

Since the 1980s, Innu-aimun has had considerable exposure in the popular culture of [Canada](/source/Canada) and [France](/source/France) due to the success of the rock music band [Kashtin](/source/Kashtin) and the later solo careers of its founders [Claude McKenzie](/source/Claude_McKenzie) and [Florent Vollant](/source/Florent_Vollant). Widely heard hit songs with Innu-language lyrics have included "*Ish-kuess*" ("Girl"), "*E Uassiuian*" ("My Childhood"), "*Tipatshimun*" ("Story") and in particular "*Akua tuta*" ("Take care of yourself"), which appeared on soundtrack compilations for the television series *[Due South](/source/Due_South)* and the documentary *[Music for The Native Americans](/source/Music_for_The_Native_Americans)*. The lyrics of Akua Tuta are featured on over 50 websites, making this one of the most broadly accessible pieces of text written in any native North American language. Florent Vollant has also rendered several well-known [Christmas carols](/source/Christmas_carols) into Innu in his 1999 album *Nipaiamianan*.[4]

In 2013, "a comprehensive pan-Innu dictionary, covering all the Innu dialects spoken in Quebec and Labrador [was] published in Innu, [English](/source/English_language) and [French](/source/French_language)."[5]

## Phonology

Innu-aimun has the following phonemes (with the standard orthography equivalents in angle brackets); this section discusses the Sheshatshit dialect):[6]

### Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Post- alveolar Velar Glottal plain labial Nasal m n Plosive p t tʃ k kʷ Fricative s ʃ h Lateral l [a]

1. /l/ exists only in the southern dialects of Mashteuiatsh and Betsiamites. Other dialects, including the standard orthography, use /n/ in those positions.[9]

1. [u] particularly after **i**

1. [ʌ] particularly before **m**

The plosives are voiced to [b d dʒ ɡ ɡʷ] between vowels. /ʃ/ frequently merges with /h/ for younger speakers (*shīshīp* [ʃiʃip ~ ʃihip ~ hihip] 'duck').

### Vowels

There are three pairs of so-called "long" and "short" vowels and one long vowel with no short counterpart, but the length distinction is giving way to a place distinction. The column titles here refer chiefly to the place of articulation of the long vowel.

High Front Mid Front Mid/Low Central High Back "Long" i e a o ~ u[b] "Short" ɨ ~ ə ~ j ə ~ ʌ[c] ʊ ~ w

Macron accent marks over the long vowels are omitted in general writing, and **e** is not written with a macron because there is no contrasting short **e**.

## Grammar

Innu-aimun is a [polysynthetic](/source/Polysynthetic_language), [head-marking](/source/Head-marking_language) language with a relatively free [word order](/source/Word_order). Its three basic parts of speech are [nouns](/source/Nouns), [verbs](/source/Verbs), and [particles](/source/Particle_(linguistics)). Nouns are grouped into two [genders](/source/Grammatical_gender), animate and inanimate, and may carry [affixes](/source/Affixes) indicating [plurality](/source/Plural), [possession](/source/Possession_(linguistics)), [obviation](/source/Obviative), and location. Verbs are divided into four classes based on their [transitivity](/source/Transitivity_(grammatical_category)): animate intransitive (AI), inanimate intransitive (II), transitive inanimate (TI), and transitive animate (TA). Verbs may carry affixes indicating agreement (with both subject and object [arguments](/source/Verb_argument)), [tense](/source/Grammatical_tense), [mood](/source/Grammatical_mood), and [inversion](/source/Inversion_(linguistics)). Two different sets, or *orders*, of verbal affixes are used depending on the verb's [syntactic context](/source/Syntax). In simple main clauses, the verb is marked using affixes of the *independent order*, whereas in subordinate clauses and content-word questions, affixes of the *conjunct order* are used.

## Dialects

Innu-aimun is related to [East Cree](/source/East_Cree_language) (*Īyiyū Ayimūn* – Northern/Coastal dialect and *Īnū Ayimūn* – Southern/Inland dialect) spoken by the [James Bay Cree](/source/Grand_Council_of_the_Crees) of the [James Bay](/source/James_Bay) region of Quebec and [Ontario](/source/Ontario) and the [Atikamekw](/source/Atikamekw_language) (*Nēhinawēwin* and *Nehirâmowin*) of the [Atikamekw](/source/Atikamekw) (*Nehiraw*, *Nehirowisiw*) in the upper [Saint-Maurice River](/source/Saint-Maurice_River) valley of [Quebec](/source/Quebec). Innu-aimun is divided into four dialects – Southern Montagnais (Mashteuiatsh, Betsiamites), Eastern Montagnais (Ekuanitshit, Nutashkuan, Unamen Shipu, Pakuashipi), Central Montagnais (Uashat and Maliotenam, Matimekosh) and Labrador-Montagnais (Sheshatshit).[7] The speakers of the different dialects can communicate well with one another. The [Naskapi language](/source/Naskapi_language) and culture are quite different from those of the Montagnais,[8] in which the dialect changes from y to n as in *Iiyuu* versus *Innu*.

## References

- Clarke, Sandra (1982). *North-West River (Sheshātshīt) Montagnais: A grammatical sketch*. Vol. 80. National Museum of Man Mercury Series. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada. ISBN 978-1-77282-242-7.
- Clarke, Sandra & MacKenzie, Marguerite (2005). "Montagnais/Innu-aimun (Algonquian)". *Morphology: An international handbook on inflection and word formation*. Vol. 2. Booij, Geert; Lehmann, Christian; Mugdan, Joachim; Skopeteas, Stavros; Kesselheim, Wolfgang (eds.). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1411–1421. [doi:10.1515/9783110172782.2.16.1411](https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110172782.2.16.1411). ISBN 978-3-11-019427-2.
- Clarke, Sandra & MacKenzie, Marguerite (2006). *Labrador Innu-aimun: An introduction to the Sheshatshiu dialect*. St. John's, NL: Memorial University of Newfoundland. ISBN 0-88901-388-8.
- Drapeau, Lynn (1991). *Dictionnaire montagnais-français*. Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec.

## Notes

1. ["Aboriginal Mother Tongue (90), Single and Multiple Mother Tongue Responses (3), Aboriginal Identity (9), Registered or Treaty Indian Status (3) and Age (12) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census - 25% Sample Data"](http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=112132&PRID=10&PTYPE=109445&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2017&THEME=122&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=). *[Statistics Canada](/source/Statistics_Canada)*. 28 March 2018. 98-400-X2016363. Retrieved 2018-06-09.

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). ["Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi"](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/cree1271). *[Glottolog](/source/Glottolog)*. [Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology](/source/Max_Planck_Institute_for_Evolutionary_Anthropology). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20221015114502/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/cree1271) 2022-10-15 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-10-29.

1. ["Kashtin"](https://web.archive.org/web/20100731102714/http://www.realduesouth.net/Nation-Kashtin-Music.htm). *realduesouth.net*. Archived from [the original](http://www.realduesouth.net/Nation-Kashtin-Music.htm) on July 31, 2010. Retrieved 2013-09-25.

1. Dooley, Danette (2013-09-21). ["Linguistic defender"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130927125016/http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2013-09-21/article-3398357/Linguistic-defender/1). *The Telegram*. Archived from [the original](http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2013-09-21/article-3398357/Linguistic-defender/1) on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2013-09-25.

1. Clarke, Sandra (1982). [*North-West River (Sheshatshit) Montagnais: A Grammatical Sketch*](http://www.innu-aimun.ca/Docs/Other%20Resources/Academic%20Papers/Clarke_Grammar-Jan._15_2007.pdf). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20171107124000/http://www.innu-aimun.ca/Docs/Other%20Resources/Academic%20Papers/Clarke_Grammar-Jan._15_2007.pdf) 2017-11-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-09-20.

1. Sometimes the dialects are also grouped as follows: Nehilawewin (Western Montagnais, Piyekwâkamî dialect), Leluwewn (Western Montagnais, Betsiamites dialect), Innu-Aimûn (Eastern Montagnais)

1. ["Montagnais and Naskapi – FREE Montagnais and Naskapi information | Encyclopedia.com: Find Montagnais and Naskapi research"](http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Montagns.html). *www.encyclopedia.com*. Retrieved 2016-07-31.

1. Baraby, Anne-Marie (2002). ["The process of spelling standardization of Innu-aimun (Montagnais)"](http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/ILAC/ILAC_21.pdf). *Indigenous Languages Across the Community*. Burnaby, Barbara Jane & Reyhner, Jon Allan (eds.). Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University. p. 208. ISBN 0-9670554-2-3. LCCN 2002002666.

## External links

- [Online pan-Innu dictionary](http://dictionary.innu-aimun.ca/Words)
- [Innu-aimun.ca](http://www.innu-aimun.ca) Information about the language.
- [Innu Aimun orthography and phonology (Languagegeek)](https://www.languagegeek.com/algon/naskapi/inlnu.html)
- [Native Languages page for Montagnais Innu](http://www.native-languages.org/montagnais.htm)
- [OLAC resources in and about the Montagnais language](http://www.language-archives.org/language/moe)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Innu language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innu_language) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innu_language?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.