The Innu were known, up to a few decades ago, as Montagnais. They speak a number of dialects grouped together as “Innu-aimun” (henceforth Innu for short), itself part of a larger Cree-Innu-Naskapi dialect continuum spoken in Quebec and Labrador (Canada), with close ties to the other Cree dialects west of Quebec, across northern Ontario, and the Prairie Plains. The language is part of the Algonquian (Algic) family. Innu per se is spoken by roughly 13,000 people belonging to, but not necessarily residing in, eleven communities scattered over northeastern Quebec and Labrador in Canada. Although the Innu population is rising, the number of language speakers is on the decline in several communities. The texts presented in this series were collected orally during Drapeau’s periods of residence and fieldwork in the community of Pessamit. 1 This introductory chapter begins with an overview the Canadian Cree dialect continuum and more specifically of the Cree-Innu-Naskapi dialect group in Quebec. The salient aspects of dialectological variation between subdialects of Innu are also presented here. The subsequent sections are meant to provide information enabling the reader to understand the rationale behind the encoding in the interlinear format. The texts use a four-line format following IJAL style for interlinearization. The first line provides the standard orthography in use among the Innu and mandated by the Tshakapesh Institute. The second line provides a parsed phonemic transcription. The third line provides the glosses for the parsed items. The fourth line is a free translation in English. The phonemic transcription given in line 2 of the interlinearization uses symbols explained in the phonological sketch of Pessamit Innu provided in the phonological overview below. This is followed by a brief description of the origin and characteristics of the standard orthography used in line 1. The

中文翻译：

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总体介绍

直到几十年前，因努人被称为蒙塔格尼人。他们讲许多组合在一起的方言“Innu-aimun”（以下简称 Innu），它本身是魁北克和拉布拉多（加拿大）使用的更大的 Cree-Innu-Naskapi 方言连续体的一部分，与其他 Cree 方言有着密切的联系魁北克以西，横跨安大略北部和草原平原。该语言是阿尔冈昆语 (Algic) 家族的一部分。大约 13,000 人使用 Innu 语言，他们属于但不一定居住在散布在加拿大魁北克东北部和拉布拉多的 11 个社区。尽管因努人口在增加，但在几个社区中使用语言的人数却在下降。本系列中呈现的文本是在德拉波 (Drapeau) 在佩萨米特 (Pessamit) 社区居住和实地考察期间口头收集的。1 本介绍性章节首先概述了加拿大克里方言的连续统，更具体地说是魁北克的克里-因努-纳斯卡皮方言群。此处还介绍了因努子方言之间方言差异的显着方面。随后的部分旨在提供信息，使读者能够理解行间格式编码背后的基本原理。文本使用遵循 IJAL 样式的四行格式进行线性化。第一行提供了在因努人中使用的标准正字法，并由 Tshakapesh 研究所授权。第二行提供解析的音素转录。第三行提供已解析项的说明。第四行是英文的免费翻译。线性化的第 2 行中给出的音素转录使用了在下面的语音概述中提供的 Pessamit Innu 的语音草图中解释的符号。接下来是对第 1 行中使用的标准拼写法的起源和特征的简要说明。