The Acquisition of Obviation in Northern East Cree: Evidence from Possessive Constructions

This study presents an initial investigation of the first language (L1) acquisition of obviation in an Algonquian language by focusing on possessive constructions in Northern East Cree (NEC).¹ In contrast to the findings of research across a range of typologically diverse languages, the acquisition of obviative inflection in possessives does not clearly hinge upon consistency of inflectional marking across nominal types and categories of nouns, but children largely follow expected patterns regarding bare possessees, age of acquisition, and errors in production. East Cree (ISO 639–3 crl) is spoken in nine Québec communities, and the northern dialect is found in