Sound shifts; Michif as Metis language

[David Robertson]

On Fri, 29 Jan 1999, Mike Cleven wrote:

> Can't see how the "sha" sound - which is common in the region's languages -
> would have shifted to "sia"

...that's an extremely common sort of sound shift among the languages of
the world...e.g. Malay/Indonesian pronunciation of the extremely numerous
Arabic loanwords containing "sh" in those languages...



Michif dictionary (the Metis language)
...*a* Metis language, I'd venture :-)  The reason for saying this is,
seemingly the voyageurs spoke a "Missouri patois" / "Northwestern patois"
of French, and very many of these fellows were Metis.  Now, the most
distinctive language of Metis people in 1999 is Michif, which is a
Cree-French 'mixed language'.  (French words, Cree grammar, to put it in 5
words or less.).....

Best,

Dave