Plains Cree pêyâhtikowêwin: The Ethic of Talking Softly

Cree speakers often characterize their language as “soft.” What this means is explored in the context of various philosophical concepts developed by the Cree themselves for the analysis and understanding of speech, with the aid of parts of the Hymes model for the ethnography of speaking, and is related to a paradigm of grammatical contrasts produced by a Cree elder.