Patricia Demers

Patricia Demers is Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, has received numerous awards for her research and teaching. She is the author or editor of fou...

Naomi L. McIlwraith

Naomi L. McIlwraith is the Research Manager for the Cree Language Project and is on Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

Dorothy Thunder

Dorothy Thunder is a Cree Instructor, Department of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country, The
A Facsimile Edition and Translation of a Prayer Book in Cree Syllabics

Patricia Demers

Naomi L. McIlwraith

Dorothy Thunder

A signal event in the move from oral to print culture for the Cree was Father Grouard's prayer book, written in syllabics and printed in 1883. More than a century later, Demers, McIlwraith, and Thunder reproduce the text, along with a direct English translation, a transliteration into the Standard Roman Orthography now in use as well as in nineteenth-century SRO. Demers offers an introduction to the work within its cultural framework; the translators together discuss Grouard's use of Cree syllabics, which illuminates the difficulties this missionary-pioneer faced in transferring the nuances of one language to another in which he was an ardent learner. Cree history scholars, linguists, and anyone interested in print history would be well served by adding this influential work to their library.

University of Alberta Press