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| Michif | |
|---|---|
| Michif | |
| Native to | Canada |
| Region | Métis communities in the Prairies; mostly Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan Northeastern British Columbia and Northwestern Ontario, Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota |
Native speakers | 1,800 (2021 census)[1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | crg |
| Glottolog | mich1243 |
| ELP | Michif |
 Michif is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| Métis "mixed" | |
|---|---|
| People | Métis |
| Language | Michif Métis French Hand Talk |
| Country | Michif Piyii |
Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree) is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations (mainly Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe) and fur trade workers of white ancestry (mainly French). Michif emerged in the early 19th century as a mixed language[2] and adopted a consistent character between about 1820 and 1840.
The word Michif is from a variant pronunciation of the French word Métis. Some Métis people prefer this word (Michif) to describe their nationality when speaking English and use it for anything related to Métis people, including any languages they happen to speak. According to the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI), the word Michif, when used for a language, is used to describe at least three distinct types of speech. Northern Michif (in Saskatchewan) is essentially a variety of Cree with a small number of French loanwords. Michif French is a variety of Canadian French with some Cree loanwords and syntax (word order). Michif used without any qualification can also describe the mixed language which borrows heavily from both Cree and French. According to theories of self-determination and self-identification, the GDI refers to all of these speech varieties as Michif because many Métis community members use the term that way, even though these varieties are widely different in their linguistic details.[3] The remainder of this article deals primarily with the mixed language that has many features from both French and Cree.
In 2021, the number of Michif speakers in Canada was reported to be 1,845. However, the number of fluent Michif speakers is estimated at fewer than 1,000.[4] It was probably double or triple this number at the close of the 19th century, but never much higher. Currently, Michif is spoken in scattered Métis communities in the Canadian prairie provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta, and in North Dakota in the U.S.. There are about 50 speakers in Alberta, all over age 60.[5] There are some 230 speakers of Michif in the United States (down from 390 at the 1990 census),[6] most of whom live in North Dakota, particularly in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.[7] There are around 300 Michif speakers in the Northwest Territories, northern Canada.[8]
Michif combines Cree and Métis French (Rhodes 1977, Bakker 1997:85), a variety of Canadian French, with some additional borrowing from English and indigenous languages of the Americas 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 (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 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 Michif language was first brought to scholarly attention in 1976 by John Crawford at the University of North Dakota.[9] Much of the subsequent research on Michif was also related to UND, including four more pieces by Crawford, plus work by Evans, Rhodes, and Weaver.
- ^ Michif at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ L. Lee Scott (2007-07-02). "The Turtle Mountain Michif: A People and Their Language". Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-29. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
- ^ "The Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture". Metismuseum.ca. Archived from the original on 2021-04-10. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
- ^ "Michif". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
- ^ Ma, Kevin (2013-03-13). "Researcher digs into near-extinct Métis language". St. Albert Gazette. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
- ^ "Michif". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2021-02-13.
- ^ "Data Center States Results". Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- ^ "Fort Smith man wants Michif made an official language of N.W.T." Cbc.ca. Archived from the original on 2021-10-31. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
- ^ Michif: A new language. North Dakota English 4.1:3–10.