Cree

About Cree

Cree is a group of closely related Indigenous languages spoken across Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to Labrador, and in northern Montana. Together they are the most widely spoken Indigenous language in Canada. Dialects such as Plains Cree, Woods Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree and East Cree differ in sounds and words, so a word learned in one community may be said differently in another.

Cree is written in two ways. Plains Cree is mostly written in Latin letters, while many communities further east use Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, symbols that stand for whole syllables and turn to show the vowel. A common Plains Cree greeting is tânisi, meaning hello or how are you.

FamilyAlgonquian
Where spokenCanada, United States (Montana)
ScriptLatin alphabet, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
Codescr (ISO 639-1), cre (ISO 639-3)

Classification: Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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