Phonological system of Mitchif ======>some CJ words

[David Robertson]

Yann pi khanawi lhaksta,

Your point is a good one:  The forms of French words in Mitchif are quite
a lot like those of French words in ChInuk Wawa.  This is no coincidence.

A small addition, though:  Peter Bakker in "A Language of our Own" also
discusses these sound-rules in the environment of strictly Francophone
speech areas in Canada.

In other words, both Mitchif and Canadian French are of interest when
investigating the genealogies of ChInuk Wawa words.  In the case of
the common western North American English "coulee", though, the story one
finds will be different from that of ChInuk Wawa /kuri/ or /kuli/.  The
former derives from a root completely distinct from the root of the
latter.  But there may at a relatively late stage have arisen some
confusion between the two in certain regions.

In passing:  "Coolie" is from Urdu, i.e. the Muslim variant of Hindi, and
in casual linguistic terms "can not" be related to either of the above
either etymologically or sociohistorically.

Best,
Dave


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