Michif

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Michif (Mitchif, Métchif, Metchif; German: Mitschif, Metschif; Métis = Métchif / Métsif) is a mixed language that is still used today by around 1000 of 390,000 Métis - a people who live in Canada through numerous connections from French and Scottish traders Women of the local First Nations originated - is spoken. Mitif originally referred to a person of mixed origins, the special pronunciation of Acadian made it Mitchif . Analogous to Michif, the bungee developed from Cree and Scottish Gaelic .

Of the 389,785 Métis in Canada, almost 1,000 said they spoke the Algonquin language in 2006 , 1,345 spoke Ojibway , 1,620 Dene and 9,360 Cree . According to Ethnologue , Michif was spoken by around 725 people in 2010, compared to around 990 in 1990 and 830 in 2001. In the 2010 US Census, 25 people in the US named Michif as their first language. The remaining speakers live in Canada.

Of the mostly older Michif speakers, around 200 live in Saskatchewan , 150 in Manitoba , 200 in North Dakota , fewer than 20 in Montana and a few in Minnesota .

In Michif, the nominal system ( nouns , adjectives ) is almost entirely French , the verbal system ( verbs ), the demonstrative pronouns and question words come almost exclusively from the Cree - an Algonquin language . No other language is known to have such a fundamental separation of grammar, which was passed on through the mothers, and vocabulary which came partially from the fathers. According to Bakker, this is due to the fact that adolescents who mastered both languages ​​as their mother tongue mixed them. Therefore, the Michif has two sound systems and two morphologies at the same time.

Michif is a rare phenomenon and is described by linguists as the "non plus ultra" of mixed or contact languages .

Language example

ki: ucıpıtam sa tεt la tɔrty - "The turtle ducked its head."
Michif: ki: -ucıpıt-am sa tεt la tɔrty
Literally: PRÄT - pull -TRANS.INANIM. 3.> 4. Sg. be head ART: Sg. turtle
æ be: bi la præses ki: aja: we: w - "The princess had a child."
Michif: æ be: bi la præses ki: -aja: we: w
Literally: ART: Sg. infant ART: Sg. princess PRÄT - have -TRANS.ANIM. 3.> 3. Sg.

(From Peter Bakker , Robert Papen: Michif: a Mixed Language based on Cree and French. In: Sarah G. Thomason (Ed.): Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective. (= Creole Language Library. 17). John Benjamin, Amsterdam 1997, ISBN 90-272-5239-4 , p. 336)

The French words are sa tête and la tortue in the first sentence and un bébé and la princesse in the second. For the markings on the verb, see the article on Algonquin languages .

literature

  • Peter Bakker: A Language of Our Own. The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French Language of the Canadian Métis. (= Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. 10). Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-19-509711-4 .
  • Peter Bakker, Robert Papen: Michif: a Mixed Language based on Cree and French. In: Sarah G. Thomason (Ed.): Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective. (= Creole Language Library. 17). John Benjamin, Amsterdam 1997, ISBN 90-272-5239-4 , pp. 295-363.
  • Julie Flett: Owls see clearly at night: A Michif alphabet. Simply Read Books, Vancouver 2010, ISBN 978-1-897476-28-4 .
  • Patline Laverdure, Ida Rose Allard: The Michif Dictionary: Turtle Mountain Chippewa Cree. Pemmican Publications, Winnipeg 1983, ISBN 0-919143-35-0 .
  • Robert A. Papen: On developing a writing system for Michif. In: Linguistica Atlantica. 26, 2005, pp. 75-97.
  • Nicole Rosen: French-Algonquian interaction in Canada: a Michif case study. In: Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. 22, 8, 2008, pp. 610-624.
  • Hans-Christoph Wolfart: Choice and balance in Michif negation. In: Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 55.1, 2010, pp. 115-129.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Ethnologue: Michif [crg].
  2. ↑ Susan Huebert: The Michif Language of North America. Métis Identity and History in a Unique Blend of Cree and French. 2009.
  3. ^ Lecture by Peter Bakker: Michif: A Language of Our Own. held in the Überseemuseum in Bremen, October 3, 2009.