Structure dataset 75: Michif

This language is described more fully in survey chapter 75.

Michif is a highly endangered, perhaps moribund language, despite efforts to keep the language alive. In 2013, the number of speakers is probably below 100 – including a handful of young people who learnt it through a master-apprentice program. Michif is spoken by few people in a vast area, covering three Canadian provinces and two US states, and probably never by more than a few thousand people. The language is relatively homogenous. The default lect represented in APiCS is the one spoken on both sides of the Manitoba-North Dakota border, in and around the Turtle Mountain Reservation and in southwestern Manitoba. Two deviant lects are known to have existed, one in Camperville (a town in Manitoba where also speakers of the default lect migrated to) influenced by Ojibwe, and one in southeastern Saskatchewan, close to Cypress Hills. Most speakers in Saskatchewan, Montana and probably also Alberta (where no speakers could be found in the field survey) spoke the default lect, whereas a different variety, undocumented, may have been spoken in Minnesota until recently.

Glossed text (64.8KB, application/pdf)
No. Feature Value Details Source
No. Feature Value Details Source

Consonants

Pulmonic Consonants
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal
↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar
Retroflex Alveolo-
palatal
Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal
/ Epiglottal
Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p  ʰp b t  ʰt d k   ʰk g
Sibilant affricate t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ d͡ʒ
Non-sibilant affricate
Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ
Non-sibilant fricative f v h
Approximant l j
Flap or tap
Trill r
Lateral affricate
Lateral fricative
Lateral approximant
Lateral flap
Implosive

Vowels

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back Close Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open yhigh front rounded vowel long high front unrounded vowel nasalized high front unrounded vowel uhigh back rounded vowel long high back rounded vowel ɪlowered high front unrounded vowel ʊlowered high back rounded vowel ehigher mid front unrounded vowel long higher mid front unrounded vowel ohigher mid back rounded vowel long higher mid back rounded vowel əmid central unrounded vowel ɛlower mid front unrounded vowel œlower mid front rounded oral vowel ɛːlong lower mid front unrounded vowel ɛ̃nasalized lower mid front unrounded vowel ɔlower mid back rounded vowel ɔːlong lower mid back rounded vowel ɔ̃nasalized lower mid back rounded vowel æraised low front unrounded vowel alow central unrounded vowel nasalized low central unrounded vowel ɑːlong low back unrounded vowel
Vowels

Special segments

Other segments
 w  voiced labial-velar glide
 ʰtʃ  voiceless preaspirated palato-alveolar sibilant affricate

Legend

       Exists (as a major allophone)
       Exists only as a minor allophone
       Exists only in loanwords
No. Feature Value Details Source