Michif language
Michif ( Mitchif, Métchif, Metchif; eingedeutscht: Mitschif, Metschif; Métis = Métchif / Métsif ) is a language that is still in use by about 1000 of 390 000 Métis - a people in Canada with numerous compounds of French and Scottish traders women of the local First Nations was created - is spoken. Originally designated mitif a people of mixed origin, the special pronunciation of Acadian made it Mitchif. Analogous to the Michif developed the bungee from Cree and Scottish Gaelic.
Of the 389 785 Métis in Canada gave in 2006 about 1,000 to speak the language of the Algonquian, 1,345 spoke Ojibway, Dene 1,620 and 9,360 Cree. According to Ethnologue Michif is spoken by 2010 of around 725 people, while there are still around 990 in 2001 and 830 were still 1990. In the U.S. Census of 2010 gave 25 people in the U.S. Michif as a mother tongue. The remaining speakers live in Canada.
Of the approximately 200 mostly elderly Michif speakers live in Saskatchewan, 150 in Manitoba, 200 in North Dakota, less than 20 in Montana and a few in Minnesota.
In Michif is the nominal system (nouns, adjectives ) almost purely French, the verbal system ( verbs), the demonstrative pronouns and question words come almost exclusively to the Cree - an Algonquian language. From no other language is such a fundamental separation of grammar that has been passed down through the mothers, and vocabulary that came partially from the fathers, known. According to Bakker, this goes back to the fact that adolescents who dominated both languages as their mother tongue, have mixed them. Therefore, the Michif two sound systems and two morphologies has at the same time.
Michif is a rare phenomenon and is referred to by linguists as the " ne plus ultra " of mixing or contact languages.
Language example
( from Bakker & Papen ( ref: 1997 ): 336)
The French entstamme Pronunciations for words that are tête in the first sentence sa and la tortue and un bébé la princesse and in the second. The markings on the verb cf the article on Algonquian languages.