Screen shot of HBC document about beaver, from Murdoch thesis.
Those who favour the use of syllabics over roman may appreciate the research and insights of John Murdoch, a Native speaker of Cree, who completed a Master of Education degree at the University of Manitoba in 1981. There are a lot of insights here far too valuable to be forgotten.
John wrote to Cree Literacy Network about it in 2017: “I researched the origins and evolution of syllabic characters for Cree, Inuit and Dene languages, producing a MEd thesis at the University of Manitoba in 1981. Although James Evans, the Wesleyan Methodist missionary played a part in the first printings in syllabics at Norway House, He was not the person who was the most instrumental in the writing systems conception and spread. During my research I visited archives as well as Aboriginal communities in the Boreal Forest as well as the Eastern Arctic. Missionaries George Barnley, John Horden, Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère, Edmund Peck and Jean Baptiste Thibeault all arrived to Cree, Inuit and Dene nations who were already able to read and write in the system. A more complete history can be found in my 1981 thesis, Syllabics A Successful Educational Innovation.”
First, a link to the electronic theses and disserations collection of the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Graduate Studies:
John Murdoch, 1981. Syllabics: A Successful Educational Innovation.
Downloadable pdf:
