French‐Algonquian interaction in Canada: A Michif case study

Abstract

This paper discusses the language contact situation between Algonquian languages and French in Canada. Michif, a French‐Plains Cree mixed language, is used as a case study for linguistic results of language contact. The paper describes the phonological, morphological, and syntactic conflict sites between the grammars of Plains Cree and French, as an example of heritage language interactions with French in areas of similar language contact. The usefulness of such examination is two‐fold. First, the particular conflict sites should assist speech‐language pathologists in their speech and language assessment and intervention with Indigenous children in similar language contact situations. Secondly, the methodology followed should provide direction for future research in speech‐language pathology concerning this and other language contact situations.

• Language contact
• Algonquian
• French
• Michif
• Canada

Notes

1. See the appendix for a breakdown by province of percentages of Aboriginal identity populations who speak an Aboriginal language.

2. Data from Statistics Canada (2001) catalogue # 97F0007XCB2001007.

3. Michif is sometimes spelled Mitchif, Métchif or Méchif.

4. Note that in some of the cases to be discussed, arguments could be made to show that the changes to the French component could also be a natural progression of the language, or possibly a natural progression in which Cree influence acted as a catalyst, in the sense of Roberge and Rosen (1999). Although this is a weaker position, these areas of the grammar should remain of interest to clinicians to know what areas of French grammar may be prone to change, because they will be areas where they can expect to see deviance from the standard.

5. See Rosen (2007) for discussion of a few apparent cases of Michif adjectival agreement, which are argued to be fossilized remnants of the French system, unproductive in synchronic Michif.

6. In regular speech, much of the interest in French prosody is at the phrasal level. French stress is phrasal rather than lexical, where tonic stress is on the final syllable of a syntactic phrase. See Dell (1984), Poiré, Sosa, Perreault, and Cedergren (1990), Walker (2001), Fagyal, Kibbee, and Jenkins. (2006) among others. However, the present discussion is limited to word stress, which is final (Brent, 1974; Tranel, 1987; Cedergren, Perreault, Poiré, & Rousseau, 1990).

Declaration of interest: The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.