Genetic Descent

[Larry Trask]

--On Friday, June 1, 2001 12:26 pm -0500 "David L. White"
<dlwhite at texas.net> wrote:

> LT:  If so, let me ask this: in what respect does Michif fall
> short of being a mixed language?  It looks to me like a paradigm case of a
> mixed language.  If we encountered, or imagined, a real mixed language,
> what features would it have that Michif lacks?

> DLW:  The finite verbal morphology of Michif is all Cree.  Therefore, by
> the Davidian standard, it is Cree.  That also answers the scond question.

OK.  My friend Homer is a specialist in nouns.  He loves nouns, and he
regards them as paramount in languages.  According to Homer, the ancestry
of a language is determined by the origin of its nouns.  Therefore, by the
Homeric definition, Michif is French.  End of discussion. ;-)

Why is Homer's position more arbitrary than yours?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
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