La suite historique « ua », encore aujourd’hui prononcée [ua] dans le dialecte de l’Est, est systématiquement prononcée [u] dans les dialectes de l’Ouest et du Centre. Suite aux décisions prises en 1997, on écrit « u » en orthographe standard. Ainsi, même si on prononce [uatshu] ‘montagne’, [uanitau] ‘il perd qqch’ et [uashkuai] ‘bouleau’, on écrit utshu, unitau…. Read the full article

Orders are characterized by sets of specific endings. There are three orders in Innu, as in other Algonquian languages: the Independent Order, used mainly for independent clauses and which has personal prefixes for the first and second persons; the Conjunct Order, without personal prefixes and with a different set of endings, used for subordinate or…. Read the full article

Les ordres se caractérisent par des ensembles de terminaisons particulières. Il y a trois ordres en innu, comme dans les autres langues algonquiennes : l’indépendant, utilisé surtout pour les propositions indépendantes et qui a des préfixes personnels aux premières et deuxièmes personnes; le conjonctif, sans préfixes personnels et avec autre ensemble de terminaisons, utilisé pour des…. Read the full article

Pour en savoir plus sur la langue innue et les dialectes innus, voir À propos de l’innu.

The Innu spelling of the place name (toponym) Matimekush reflects the common usage where people hear an i. However, the word is derived from the name of a fish: matamekᵘ as indicated by its etymology in the dictionary: matamekuss. It could therefore also be written Matamekush. The dictionary spelling reflects current habits, which are well…. Read the full article

And are there other words like this? Mitash is a dependent noun because it is formed with the prefix mi- and the stem -tash, which cannot exist on its own: mi+tash = mitash ‘sock’. It’s a dependent noun because we can’t say *nimitash (*ni+mitash), but instead say: nitash (ni+tash) ‘my sock’. Most dependent nouns are…. Read the full article

The distinction between the stems nekatsh- [nekâtsh-] meaning ‘misery’ and nikatsh [nîkâtsh-] meaning ‘slowness’ exists only for speakers of the MAMIT dialect. For speakers from Pessamit and Uashat (Western dialects), nikatsh- does not exist and its meaning is added to that of the stem nekatsh-. In the dictionary, for MAMIT, there are verbs with nikatsh-…. Read the full article

Historically, there was a short i (see East Cree ihtaau and ihtakun). The i reappears in some forms like nititan, tshititan or in the changed form (i>e) of the conjunct etat. [answer compiled by the Comité Tshakapesh-Innu Dictionary editorial team, 2022]

On this sign, where the word tshitassinat is in the locative, the word anite should have been added for the sentence to be correct: Uashkamitatau anite tshitassinat! Alternatively, the noun could have been left without the locative ending: Uashkamitatau tshitassinan! because it is the direct object of the verb uashkamitatau. The other sign illustrates a…. Read the full article

Sur ce panneau, où le mot tshitassinat est au locatif, on aurait dû ajouter le mot anite pour que la phrase soit correcte: Uashkamitatau anite tshitassinat! ou encore, laisser le nom sans la terminaison du locatif: Uashkamitatau tshitassinan! car il est le complément d’objet direct du verbe uashkamitatau. Cet autre panneau illustre un usage correct: Uashkamitatau Pessamiu,…. Read the full article