The Michif Language of North America
Métis Identity and History in a Unique Blend of Cree and French
Sep 18, 2009
One of the most common elements of the human experience is the existence of language. Almost everyone, from the youngest toddler to the oldest person on earth, uses a language of some kind to communicate, whether by speech, signs, or another form of talking.
Most people rarely think much about the language they use until they experience the challenges of communicating in a foreign tongue, but studying the characteristics of a language can be fascinating, especially when the tongue theoretically should not exist. One of the best examples is Michif, a language of the Métis people of Canada and the United States. With its unique blend of Cree and French, Michif gives valuable insights into the influence European explorers and native tribes had on each other in past centuries.
The Beginnings of Michif in the Era of the Explorers
When two very different cultures meet, they almost always affect each other in a variety of ways, from such small changes as introducing new foods to the other group to such large changes as introducing new legal systems or religious norms. When European explorers landed in North America, they brought different ways of living in communities, but they also brought their languages with them. As they interacted with the local aboriginal population, they introduced their culture to the natives, but they were also influenced in return. From the interaction of French traders and explorers and the local women came the Métis people and their own unique language, Michif.
Michif and Language Blends
Language blends are common around the world, but Michif has its own unique characteristics. Unlike English, which borrows nouns, verbs, and almost any other part of speech from other languages, or creoles from the Caribbean which use English as a base but include local words, Michif has a very strict linguistic division between Cree and French, using French nouns and Cree verbs. According to Peter Bakker of the Métis Resource Centre of Manitoba, this division makes Michif, also called Mitchif or French Cree, almost impossible to classify. Most languages retain a family tree, even with substantial influences from other tongues. English, for example, is still Germanic despite being heavily influenced by French and other languages.
The Grammar and Pronunciation of Michif
Unlike most languages, Michif has retained the grammatical structure of both of its mother tongues, as well as two entirely different phonetic systems, and does not fall nicely into any of the normal categories of language families. Speakers of Michif rarely speak both of the two source languages, but many of them also speak English.
Like many other local languages, Michif’s use has gradually been declining. In the past, the number of Michif speakers numbered in the thousands. According to the Ethnologue website of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, most of the approximately 830 speakers of Michif in the world in 2001 were elderly adults, with approximately 600 in scattered locations in Canada and most of the Michif speakers in the United States living in the North Dakota area. If numbers of native speakers continue to decline, the future of Michif could be in jeopardy.
The world’s languages rise and fall, become popular and then extinct, but Michif would be a grave loss to the linguistic world if it were to disappear from use. With its unique characteristics and ties to the history and culture of Canada and the United States, Michif is more than just a language; it is a story in itself.
 |
