Olympic Coverage in "Mechif".....

[MJ Hardman]

How lovely!  I am so glad it has happened.  One step.

MJ

Dr. MJ Hardman
Doctora Honoris Causa UNMSM, Lima, Perú
website:  http://at.ufl.edu/~hardman-grove/



On 2/20/10 9:53 PM, "Heather Souter" <hsouter at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Taanshi, 
> 
> I am watching the Olympic coverage in "Mechif" as I write this.... 
> 
> It is in Ile la Crosse Michif, which is a unique Metis dialect of CREE, which
> is not the same as Michif (aka Michif-Cree), the mixed language as spoken in
> Manitoba, central and southern parts of Saskatchewan, North Dakota and
> Montana.  
> 
> There are three languages that our language/culture keepers--Elders from
> different Metis communities-- call Michif.  One is Ile a la Crosse (Metis-Cree
> dialect spoken in Northern Saskatchewan), another is Michif French (a unique
> Metis dialect of French spoken in Metis communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan
> and perhaps elsewhere), and finally Michif (aka Michif-Cree), the mixed
> language (well-known to linguists for being typologically unique--with origins
> in both Algonquian and Indo-European languages--mostly Cree and French).  The
> language called Michif and the two dialects called Michif are all endangered
> and need support for their revitalization.  However, Michif (aka Michif-Cree)
> is a language only spoken by Metis people, is the most highly endangered
> (moribund) and if it disappears it will be gone.  The situation is  unlike the
> dialects of Cree or French called Michif.  We cannot go to our non-Metis
> relations (the Cree, the Ojibwe, the French, or Scots, etc.) for help to try
> to reconstruct or revive it. 
> 
> Being that I live in a community that struggling to keep Michif (Michif-Cree)
> alive, am an emerging speaker of Michif (Michif-Cree) and that I am doing my
> MA on Michif (Michif-Cree) language and linguistics, I would have wished that
> one of our fluent Michif (Michif-Cree) speakers (such as Norman Fleury!) 
> would have been asked to announce....  Be that as it may, at least the
> Olympics were announced in six languages and two Cree dialects! 
> 
> Just my two cents worth!
> 
> Eekoshi pitamaa.
> Heather
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20100220/dd8ca381/attachment.htm>