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Michif |
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Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree) is the language of the Métis people of Canada and
the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations women and fur trade workers of European ancestry. Nowadays Michif
is spoken in scattered Métis communities in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada and in North Dakota in the
U.S. , with about 50 speakers in Alberta, all over age 60. There are some 230 speakers of Michif in the United States (down
from 390 at the 1990 census), most of whom live in North Dakota, particularly in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. Michif
emerged in the early 19th century as a mixed language (not to be confused with a creole), and adopted a consistent character
between about 1820 and 1840. Michif combines Cree and Métis French, a variety of Canadian French, with some additional borrowing
from English and First Nation languages such as Ojibwe and Assiniboine. In general, Michif noun phrase phonology, lexicon,
morphology, and syntax are derived from Métis French, while verb phrase phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax are from
a southern variety of Plains Cree. (Plains Cree is a western dialect of Cree. ) Articles and adjectives are also of Métis
French origin, but demonstratives are from Plains Cree. The Michif language is unusual (and possibly even unique) among mixed
languages, in that rather than forming a simplified grammar, it developed by incorporating complex elements of the chief languages
from which it was born. French-origin noun phrases retain lexical gender and adjective agreement; Cree-origin verbs retain
much of their polysynthetic structure. This suggests that instead of haltingly using words from another's tongue, the people
who gradually came to speak Michif were fully fluent in both French and Cree. The number of speakers is estimated at fewer
than 1,000; it was probably double or triple this number at the close of the 19th century, but never much higher. |
Names (more)[br] Michifeg[da] Michif [de] Michif [en] Michif language [eo] Miĉifa lingvo [fr] Métchif [hr] Michif jezik [ko] 미치프어 [pl] Język miszif [ru] Мичиф [sv] Michif |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Michif. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : crgLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/crghttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:crg More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: crgFreebase ISO 639-3 : crg GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |