Michif facts for kids

Michif (also called Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, or French Cree) is a special language spoken by the Métis people. The Métis are a group of people in Canada and the United States. They are descendants of First Nations women (like Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe) and European fur traders (mainly French and Scottish Canadians).

Michif started in the early 1800s. It's a "mixed language," which means it combines parts of two different languages. It became more settled between 1820 and 1840. The name "Michif" comes from a different way of saying the French word "Métis." Some Métis people use "Michif" to describe their identity and anything related to their culture, including their languages.

The Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) says that "Michif" can mean a few different types of speech. "Northern Michif" (in Saskatchewan) is mostly a type of Cree with some French words added. "Michif French" is a type of Canadian French that has some Cree words and word order. But when people just say "Michif," they usually mean the mixed language that uses a lot from both Cree and French. This article focuses on this mixed language.

Today, fewer than 1,000 people speak Michif. In the late 1800s, there were probably two or three times as many speakers. Michif is spoken in Métis communities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada. It is also spoken in North Dakota in the U.S. About 50 speakers live in Alberta, and they are all over 60 years old. In the U.S., about 230 people speak Michif, mostly in North Dakota, especially on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. There are also about 300 Michif speakers in the Northwest Territories in northern Canada.

Michif combines Cree and Métis French, which is a type of Canadian French. It also has some words from English and other indigenous languages of the Americas like Ojibwe and Assiniboine. Generally, the parts of Michif that describe nouns (like names of things) come from Métis French. This includes how words sound, what words mean, how words are formed, and how sentences are put together. But the parts of Michif that describe verbs (action words) come from a southern type of Plains Cree. Words like "the" or "a" (articles) and descriptive words (adjectives) are from Métis French. However, words that point to something (demonstratives) are from Plains Cree.

Michif is special because it didn't simplify its grammar. Instead, it took complex parts from both French and Cree. For example, French nouns keep their gender (like masculine or feminine). Cree verbs keep their complex structure. This suggests that the people who started speaking Michif were very good at both French and Cree.

John Crawford first brought the Michif language to the attention of scholars in 1976 at the University of North Dakota. Much of the research on Michif since then has been connected to this university.

How Michif is Written

Michif doesn't have one official way of spelling words. Some ways of spelling try to match how words sound, often using English rules. Other ways try to show where the words came from. For example, French words are spelled using French rules, and Cree words use a system called "Standard Roman Orthography."

In 2004, Robert Papen suggested a new spelling system that was mostly based on how words sound.

In June 2017, the government of Manitoba published a report in Michif. Their spelling system shows how different vowel sounds are written by doubling the letter (like "a" vs. "aa"). This is different from how Cree usually uses special marks. This system is also used for French words. For example, French "les blancs" (the whites) becomes "lii blaann" in Michif.

Michif Sounds

Michif combines two different sound systems: one for words that come from French, and one for words that come from Cree. For example, sounds like /y/, /l/, /r/, and /f/ are only found in French words. But sounds like /ʰt/ and /ʰk/ (stops with a little puff of air before them) are only found in Cree words.

In Michif, French words are pronounced with Canadian French vowel sounds. Cree words are pronounced with Cree vowel sounds. However, some Cree influence can be heard in how French words are stressed. By the year 2000, some Michif speakers had started to combine these two sound systems into one.

Michif Words

Here are some common words in English, French, Michif, and Cree:

How Sentences are Built

Noun Phrases

Nouns (words for people, places, or things) in Michif almost always have a French word in front of them, like "a" or "the," or a word showing who owns it (like "my" or "his").

Words from Cree that point to something (like "this" or "those") can also be added to noun phrases. When this happens, the Cree noun's gender (living or non-living) is used.

Descriptive words (adjectives) in Michif come from French. Like in French, they can come before or after the noun. Adjectives that come before the noun agree in gender (like French), but adjectives that come after the noun do not.

Verb Phrases

The verb parts of Michif sentences are mostly from Plains Cree. They are very similar to how verbs work in Plains Cree.

Word Order

The order of words in Michif is generally like Cree, which is quite flexible. However, the more French words are used, the more the sentence structure starts to look like spoken French.

What Words Come From Where

• Nouns: 83-94% come from French. Others are mostly from Cree, Ojibwe, or English.
• Verbs: 88-99% come from Cree.
• Question words: Come from Cree.
• Personal pronouns (like I, you, he): Come from Cree.
• Postpositions (words like "after" or "with" that come after the noun): Come from Cree.
• Prepositions (words like "in" or "on" that come before the noun): Come from French.
• Conjunctions (connecting words like "and" or "but"): 55% from Cree; 40% from French.
• Numbers: Come from French.
• Demonstratives (words like "this" or "that"): Come from Cree.

The Lord's Prayer in English, French, and Michif:

How Michif Was Created

Michif engraving at Batoche

When mixed languages are formed, the mother's language often provides the grammar, and the father's language provides the words. This is because children usually know their mother's language better. For the Métis, the men were often newcomers, while the women were from the area. If the children needed to speak with outsiders, they would likely use their mothers' language.

So, you might expect Michif to have Cree grammar and French words. But Michif is different: it has Cree verbs and French nouns. This is because Cree verbs are very complex. It's hard to separate the grammar from the words themselves in Cree verbs. Because of this, in Michif, almost all the grammar and word parts that are "attached" to other words come from Cree. The main words that stand alone come from French. Since verbs are made up of many grammatical and attached parts, they are almost entirely Cree.

This means Michif can be seen as mainly Cree, but with a lot of French words borrowed into it. The Métis people also have their own type of French, called Métis French, which includes some Cree words.

Helping Michif Grow Again

Cultural centers like the Michif Cultural and Métis Resource Institute in St. Albert, Alberta, and the Métis Culture and Heritage Resource Centre in Winnipeg, are working to bring the language back. They do this by reaching out to the public.

In 2013, the Northern Journal reported that Indigenous languages and cultures were becoming more visible in Alberta. Northland School Division, which serves mostly First Nations and Métis students, has increased its community partnerships and culture camps.

See also

In Spanish: Michif para niños