ᓴᑭᒣᐤ
sakimêw
The Cree word for mosquito is ᓴᑭᒣᐤ (sakimêw).
ᓴᑭᒣᐤ refers to the small flying insect of the family Culicidae, which is known for biting and sucking blood.
Meaning: small flying insect of the family Culicidae, known for biting and sucking blood (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is sakimêw.
Did you know?
- Because the ᓴᑭᒣᐤ is so prevalent in the boreal forests, many Cree phrases regarding the arrival of summer are centered around the insect's activity.
- The syllabic spelling ᓴᑭᒣᐤ is a visual representation of the sounds, meaning that the shape of the character itself encodes the vowel sound associated with the consonant.
- The syllabics used to write ᓴᑭᒣᐤ represent sounds that are fundamentally different from the Latin alphabet, where a single character can represent a whole consonant-vowel combination.
Example conversation
Two people are walking in the woods during summer.
- Aᓴᑭᒣᐤᐤᐤ ᐐᐤᐤᐤᐤ!sakimīwak papāw!Mosquitoes everywhere!
- Bᓂᐣᐤᐤᐤ ᓂᐣᐤᐤᐤ ᓴᑭᒣᐤ.nīmōna sakimīw.A mosquito got me.
- Aᐐᐤᐤᐤᐤ ᓂᐣᐤᐤᐤ ᓴᑭᒣᐤᐤᐤ.papāw nīmōna sakimīwak.The mosquitoes are biting.
- Bᓂᐣᐤᐤᐤ ᓂᐣᐤᐤᐤ ᐐᐤᐤᐤᐤ.nīmōna papāw.Let's go inside.
