Home >> Science >> Social Sciences >> Linguistics >> Languages >> Natural >> Algic >> Michif




} Michif (as well Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif) is the language of the Métis people of Canada and the northern United States, who come a descendent of First Nations women (mainly Cree, Nakota and Ojibwe) and fur trade workers of European ancestry (mainly French Canadians). Michif emerged above 200 years ago as a mixed language (similar to a creole however observably different). A language solidified former between 1820 & 1840.

Michif combines Cree and Canadian French, with occasionally extra borrowing from either English and First Nation languages such as Ojibwe and Assiniboine. Generally, Michif noun phrase phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax are derived from American French, when verb phrase phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax come from either the southern kind of Plains Cree. (Plains Cree occurs as american accent of Cree.) Articles & adjectives come as well American French, however demonstratives come Plains Cree.

A Michif language is unusual among contact languages, in that, like than finding to simplify its grammar, it chose a virtually all complex & demanding elements of the main languages that went into it. French noun phrases locate lexical gender and adjective agreement; Cree verbs retain tremendously of their polysynthetic structure. This suggests that, instead of not fluently applying words from either an additional's tongue, a humans world health organization devised Michif were fully fluent inside two French & Cree.

It used to be that widely spoken, a language is endangered sustaining under Grand native speakers reported within 1997.

Metis Resource Centre: Michif
Online pronunciation and language lessons for the Manitoba dialect.

Michif: A Dying Legacy?
An article on the Michif Initiative to revive the language.

Kids' Stop: Mitchif
Michif audio samples for children.

Language of my Childhood
Metis man's memory of his family language, Michif.

Michif Language (Metis, French Cree)
Information and links on this Native American creole language.

Indigenous Voices
Articles and oral histories in Michif and Cree.


Science: Social Sciences: Linguistics: Languages: Natural: Algic: Cree
Science: Social Sciences: Linguistics: Languages: Natural: Indo-European: Italic: Romance: French
Society: Ethnicity: The Americas: Indigenous: Métis Michif




© 2005 GeneralAnswers.org