Michif

[Rick Mc Callister]

	How does Michif compare to Chinook jargon?
	Many years ago I saw a small book on Chinook Jargon that explained
that the grammar was radically different from Chinook and that the
vocabulary was largely derived from French --somewhere around 40% if I
remember correctly. From what remember, French derived nouns included the
feminine article <<la>>.
	I have no idea how reliable the book was, but what I gather both
the grammar and vocabulary seemed to be a compromise between French,
Chinook and various other NW Native American languages.
	I don't think Chinook Jargon was used as anything other than a
trade language but I may be mistaken

>> Now, whether we regard Michif as a language with two direct ancestors, or as
>> a language with no direct ancestors at all, is a matter of taste and
>> definition.
>
>        Or as a form of Cree that has borrowed all its nouns and nominal
>morphology from French.  Since 1) borrowing of all open class words, and 2)
>borrowing of nominal morphology, are both independently attested, the
>possibility (actually definition) cannot be excluded.  Such a development of
>Cree, critically dependent on another language for the maintanence of mutual
>comprehensibility across generations, is clearly of a different sort than
>what is usually encountered, but it appears no one at this point is denying
>that the same sort of thing has happened in English with Anglo-Romani.  In
>other words, all the things it would take to make Michif a form of Cree are
>known from other cases.
[snip]

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701