Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics

Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (UCAS; Canadian Aboriginal Syllabic: ᑊᑲᐊᓐᓇᐃᑲᐸᑫᐃᐧᐊᐠ), also known as simply Aboriginal Syllabics, is a family of abugidas (writing systems with syllabic graphemes) used to write a number of indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. The term "Unified" refers to the fact that these scripts are unified in that they share a common core of characters. "Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics" can be abbreviated as CAS or UCAS. The characters of UCAS were originally created by James Evans, a Christian missionary who arrived in Rupert's Land in 1823. Evans was tasked with creating a writing system for the Cree language, which was spoken by the majority of the indigenous population in the area. The Cree syllabary was Evans's first attempt at creating a unified script for Canadian Aboriginal languages. It was based on the Latin alphabet and contained 18 letters, most of which were borrowed from the Latin alphabet. The syllabary was successful in that it was able to represent all the sounds of Cree. However, it was not well-suited for writing other Aboriginal languages. In particular, it did not have characters for the glottal stop or the voiceless fricatives, which are common in Inuit languages. In 1841, Evans revised his syllabary, expanding it to 33 letters. This version, known as the "Evans Syllabary", was used by missionaries for a number of years. In 1857, John Wesley Dafoe, the editor of the Nor'Wester newspaper, began using a modified version of the Evans Syllabary to write articles in Cree. Dafoe's version of the syllabary contained 36 letters and was more closely based on the Latin alphabet. Dafoe's syllabary was widely used in the Canadian West and became known as the "Western Cree Syllabary". It is the basis for the modern Cree syllabics scripts used by the Cree, Ojibwe, and Naskapi peoples. In 1869, Dafoe's syllabary was revised by Edmund Peck, a missionary who had worked with Dafoe on the Nor'Wester. Peck's revision added four letters to the Evans Syllabary, for a total of 40 letters. Peck's revision was used by a number of missionaries in the Canadian West and was eventually adopted as the standard by the Canadian government. The modern versions of the syllabics scripts used by the Cree, Ojibwe, and Naskapi peoples are all based on Peck's revision. The UCAS family of scripts is the most widespread family of Aboriginal scripts in Canada. It is used by speakers of Cree, Ojibwe, Naskapi, and a number of other Aboriginal languages. The UCAS family of scripts is also used by the Inuit of Nunavut and Inuktitut-speaking people of Nunavik. In these regions, the UCAS scripts are known as Inuktitut syllabics. The UCAS family of scripts is not currently used by the Inuit of Nunavut. Inuit of Nunavut use the Latin alphabet to write Inuktitut.