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Metis struggle to preserve the Michif language
Western Living, March 2002

When Norman Fleury was a boy living on a farm near St-Lazare, Manitoba, he never thought much about the language he spoke with his family. “My grandparents would say we spoke Cree, but not real Cree—Cree mixed with French,” he shouts at me over the phone from his office at the Manitoba Métis Federation in Brandon, Manitoba. Now it’s Fleury’s mission to save the long undefined language of the Métis—called Michif—from extinction.

Fleury is bringing together Michif speakers and linguists together for a conference in Winnipeg this spring. Decisions will be made about the future of Michif-including who will be certified to teach it and how to standardize this widely varied language.

Michif baffles linguists because it shares grammar and vocabulary equally from the Algonquin and Indo-European language groups-the verbs are Cree (Algonquin language) and the nouns are French (Indo-European language). Words from English and Saulteaux (Ojibwa) are sprinkled into the mixture.

There’s a Métis saying—nine months after the French people arrived in Canada, the Métis were created. The mixed marriages of the Red River three hundred years ago created a peculiar family dynamic-the husband and wife literally couldn’t understand each other. When the children were born, the mother spoke to them in Cree, while the father used his mother tongue, French. The languages blended into Michif, which was passed down to their descendents. In the last half century the language largely died out, although you might still hear it spoken today in western Manitoba towns such as Boggy Creek, Camperville and Duck Bay.

Fleury hopes the conference in Winnipeg will be an important step in warding off the language’s extinction. He will share legends, songs and prayers in the language of his grandfather, as well as a prayer he wrote himself: “…Li Bon Jeu la direksyoon miyinawn, Itayhta chimiyouitayhtamak, li shmain chee oushtawyawk pour la Nawsyoon dee Michif ota dans Piyee…Marsee d’twnanan”

Or if you’re not one of the 500 or so people left who speaks Michif: “…Lord Provide us with direction and inspiration as we build a road for the Métis Nation in the Country… Thank you and Amen.”



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