I am from St. Laurent, Manitoba - so are my parents, my grandparents and so on... I was raised speaking English and Michif-French. My grandparents dominantly spoke Michif growing up and they were great influences in my young life. I went to Ecole Communitaure Aurele-Lemoine, the Francophone school in St. Laurent, from kindergarten to grade 12. Despite me being mostly fluent in Michif-French, and understanding the spoken language completely I struggled immensely during my time at a French school. I am not Francophone, I am Michif - as are the majority of our community. I always had an issue with the fact the school was Francophone Canadian-French with no Michif-French curriculum or Integration at all. And though I constantly expressed this desire for more Metis based learning in our Metis Community of St. Laurent, (The largest and richest Metis community on Turtle Island) and expressed my pride towards my Metis culture, traditions, community, and Michif language to my principals, teachers, and fellow-students they had never shown, seen or held the passion and pride as I'd hope. Sure there is Metis days, jigging and fiddling but there is much more we should be doing. I cannot begin to stress the fear of our community losing our Michif culture and language that I hold on to so desperately and take such great pride in. Especially if our own teachers are not teaching us the traditional ways of knowledge, life, culture, and our dying language that only 6% of Metis today speak! I dedicate my time and studies to Metis and Indigenous studies, culture, and heritage in University now. and as I learn more about our Metis Nation today I begin to realize that we are losing our youth... our culture, our traditions, language, and community... So I am so thrilled about this Michif Language series! Love it! :) PS. I volunteered at St. Laurent Aboriginal Headstart; I would read Michif books to the children for a volunteer credit and loved it. I think it is amazing and such an asset to St. Laurent -- to keep ties and to educate our children today of our Metis and Indigenous traditions.
Ruby Bruce this is really inspiring to read. I am Métis too. Unfortunately over the generations my family has distanced ourselves from Manitoba and Saskatchewan resulting in a great list of our culture and knowledge of it. As a child growing up my parents ways new I was Métis, but it wasn’t until I was in high school did I begin to understand the cultural differences of Métis from other indigenous peoples. Now as a university student, I am desperately trying to learn Michif because I feel so displaced from a culture I am supposed to be apart of and feel heart broken to know our language is dying and so is our distinct culture. It is hard as well to find speakers in Kelowna BCwhere I currently am, furthering my problem lol. Anyways, it’s just nice to know their are younger people’s who are fluent in the language and that gives me hope and encouragement to learn it myself.
I had never even heard of this language until today reading "The Round House" by Louise Erdrich. Riel and the uprising yes, but didn't know the Metis had their own language. Sure do love reading, it takes you places! Greetings from that other French town, Detroit.
My Mom is from St. Laurent, Manitoba. I never knew the type of French she spoke was Michif-French. My grandparents, Aunts and Uncles all spoke it too. I only have an Uncle and two Aunts left and they speak it. I wish my Mom would have taught us kids how to speak it. We lived in Winnipeg and only spoke English. But I wish as an adult I knew it. I miss hearing my Mom speak with my Aunts and Uncles in Michif-French. I would love to learn now teach my daughter. But sadly my dear Mom passed away and I have no one living near me to teach me. It is wonderful what you are doing to learn more and help preserve all of our legacy. Thank you.
Grew up with English, broken English, "Redneckese" Hillbilly, non conversational pre school french, and such... Did not find out about the whole Metis thing till near 20 years old. Got welcomed in, ( not saying where here) turns out I got family on all sides with roots, but still have to buy licences and such..😅... (Juis sui fatigue.) Never really got to know much through family about the culture..other than what existed in the family via common settler survival like traditional activites..gardening, field craft.. hunting, fishing, crochet, knitting, gutair, etc..( not a grandmaster of any, just enough to get by) Saw this channel, figured I'd check it out. Cannot travel to Manitoba where the majority are...home is where I am at despite diffuculties. Hope to see more as time and internet connection allows of this channel over time. Lots going on in the world right now, not much I can do about it... Figured some social studies via UA-cam school left out of the lesson plans when we were kids would help pass the time.
Hopefully it will be fully preserved digitally and easily accessible, there will always be ones who want to learn uncommon languages and unlike some dead languages like Gaulish, the Metis are still a distinct group in society so there is hope in that. I think Michif has a lot of character, I like it.
Très peu, 300 morts environ ! Quelques termes agricoles, beaucoup de toponymes (nom de lieu). Mais il existe en France le breton qui est une langue celtique comme le gaulois l'était.
In my small French Canadian Ontario town I was raised in we always said we spoke slang, not proper French and not proper English. Knowing of Michif, I recognize some of our pronunciation is Michif.
This is a beautiful language. I am studying French, and to my surprise I could understand you. Your spoken language is so clear. Keep the spirit of this project going.
F É L I C I T A T I O N S ! ... je vous souhaite de faire de belles découvertes et d’avoir beaucoup de plaisir dans votre projet ... Vous êtes sûrement consciente du bien énorme que ce projet peut éveiller chez plusieurs personnes. « C’est dans la langue de nos parents et de nos ancêtres qu’on retrouve les racines de notre existence ainsi que les leçons de courage et de fierté qu’elle nous a transmise. » Je vous admire, madame.
am from sask. this michif extremely similar to my parents...love the inclusive message.. instead of encouraging recognition of one type of michif speaker
Mais alors en fait c'est en partie le français du Canada?? Je suis français raison pour laquelle je pose la question car je cherche à m'instruire. Vidéo très intéressante a mon goût en tout cas 😉
En Sologne ça parle un français similaire ! Compréhensible ! Y'a peut être deux, trois mots anglais dans se patois mais tout est globalement compréhensible
I have a wonderful children's book with English/Michif in it. Because I am an English speaker, I would like to find an online source to teach me to hear and learn some Michif. Do you have any sources for me?
Je sais pas trop si je doit répondre en anglais ou en français mais si au début de la vidéo je ne savais pas, maintenant je sais que tu comprendra mon français, alors qu'il me sera légèrement compliqué de t'écrire en anglais. Tout d'abord je voulais te dire un grand bravo pour ton initiative de vouloir faire perdurer la langue que tu parlais étant petite je trouve ça génial de ta part, et dommage qu'à cause de l'évolution de notre société on finisse par perdre des petits patois qui ne sont plus enseignés dans les écoles et que de moins en moins de gens parlent. Je pense que c'est inévitable qu'un jour ils ne soient plus utilisés, mais il ne faut pas qu'ils disparaissent et tombent dans l'oublie c'est surtout ça je pense le plus important. En suite je voulais réagir sur ce que tu disait rapport au fait de pas pas prononcer "petit" au complet mais plutôt "p'tit", on parle beaucoup comme ça en France, de manière un peu "contractée" ou "compressée". Par exemple au lieu de "quand est-ce que l'on va....?", on va plutôt compresser en "quand est-ce qu'on va.....??", ou du genre la prononciation de "s'il te plait", va se transformer et donner un truc un peu du genre "steu plait", et j'en passe parce qu'on en utilisé énormément. C'est un peu de la fainéantise ou des raccourcis facile qui font gagner du temps, mais du coup je pense aux étrangers qui arrivent en France et ont appris un français parfait et impeccable, ça peut très vite devenir extrêmement compliqué pour eux de comprendre la totalité de ce que l'on va leur répondre, et pour peu qu'ils débarquent dans une région où la majorité des gens ont un accent assez fort ou prononcé typique de leur coin, ça risque d'être encore pire. C'est pourquoi maintenant du haut de mes 32 ans je me force à essayer de retrouver une orthographe le plus possible irréprochable et une syntaxe correct. Mais je pense que c'est comme cela un peu dans un peu tout les pays, je pense particulièrement a l'anglais, ne parlant pas non plus 50 langues différents 😁, et aux contractions du genre "c'mon" pour "come on", ou encore "I don't know" qui deviens vite "I dunno". Moi qui joue beaucoup au jeux vidéos en ligne, je peux être amené à échanger avec des étrangers donc automatiquement en anglais. Quand l'anglais n'est pas notre langue maternelle, on arrive à bien se comprendre que ce soit à l'oral ou à l'écris, mais des que je tombe sur une personne pour qui l'anglais est la langue maternelle, ou qui l'a parle depuis très longtemps, alors parfois a l'oral j'ai dû mal si la personne parle trop vite, et à l'écris si cette personne utilise des contractions de mots. Parfois j arrive à deviner, parfois non et je demande à ce qu'on me l'explique et bien souvent une fois que c'est réécris dans sa totalité je comprend, mais pas "l'argot" entre guillemets. Et comme je n'ai pas spécialement sous la main une personne avec qui parler anglais pour m'exercer, j'ai des difficultés à l'oral beaucoup plus qu'à l'écris. Mais bref je ne suis pas le sujet de la vidéo je m'égare. En tout cas très belle initiative de ta part et j'espère que ce sera utile à des gens, ben doute pas. Félicitations à toi 😀
My ear for Quebecois and France french is just ok, although my ear for Acadian french is pretty good (the many dialects of franco ontarien make my brain hurt). This sounds very much like NB Acadian french, more specifically Campbellton, NB although un vrai acadien peux le dire si ça c'est correct ou non.
@jonnyneace8928 No, Michif is NOT a Creole language. It is a “contact language”, but not a Creole. Creoles are bonafide natural languages-fully functional and expressive-deserving as much respect as any other language. Creoles developed from “pidgins” -speech forms spontaneously developing when groups speaking different languages come into contact generally labour environments that are oppressive-where one group has power over another. So, “Pidgins” are speech forms that develop in situations of economic and political OPPRESSION-think slavery, etc. They are simplified in form and in domains of use. Creoles develop when children are born into environments where a pidgin is spoken and over time naturally develop it into a language that is capable of the fullness of all human expression. Unfortunately, the social history of oppression has a stigma attached to it, and people buy into this terrible false colonial narrative…. They stigmatize Creoles and those who speak them. Now, (Southern) Michif did NOT develop in an environment of oppression. It developed between equal partners-life partners and their families, starting with trading relationships between FNs and Europeans-mostly French. So, Michif IS understood to be a contact language but NOT a pidgin or creole. As a contact language, Michif is understood to have unique linguistic characteristics not found in other contact languages. It is sometimes described as an “intertwined language” by linguistic specialists, such as Peter Bakker, or more descriptively as a “duck-billed platypus” of a language. So Michif is an amazing language, but not one that necessarily every Métis person in the Homelands spoke as their main family or community language-although it may have been present. Michif-speaking families from different communities came into contact with other Métis families in the Homelands through hunting, trading and travel. People intermarried and even created new communities in the Homelands. Some of these sociolinguistic matters have been written about by Peter Bakker in his book on Michif.
I am from St. Laurent, Manitoba - so are my parents, my grandparents and so on... I was raised speaking English and Michif-French. My grandparents dominantly spoke Michif growing up and they were great influences in my young life. I went to Ecole Communitaure Aurele-Lemoine, the Francophone school in St. Laurent, from kindergarten to grade 12. Despite me being mostly fluent in Michif-French, and understanding the spoken language completely I struggled immensely during my time at a French school. I am not Francophone, I am Michif - as are the majority of our community. I always had an issue with the fact the school was Francophone Canadian-French with no Michif-French curriculum or Integration at all. And though I constantly expressed this desire for more Metis based learning in our Metis Community of St. Laurent, (The largest and richest Metis community on Turtle Island) and expressed my pride towards my Metis culture, traditions, community, and Michif language to my principals, teachers, and fellow-students they had never shown, seen or held the passion and pride as I'd hope. Sure there is Metis days, jigging and fiddling but there is much more we should be doing. I cannot begin to stress the fear of our community losing our Michif culture and language that I hold on to so desperately and take such great pride in. Especially if our own teachers are not teaching us the traditional ways of knowledge, life, culture, and our dying language that only 6% of Metis today speak! I dedicate my time and studies to Metis and Indigenous studies, culture, and heritage in University now. and as I learn more about our Metis Nation today I begin to realize that we are losing our youth... our culture, our traditions, language, and community... So I am so thrilled about this Michif Language series! Love it! :)
PS. I volunteered at St. Laurent Aboriginal Headstart; I would read Michif books to the children for a volunteer credit and loved it. I think it is amazing and such an asset to St. Laurent -- to keep ties and to educate our children today of our Metis and Indigenous traditions.
Ruby Bruce this is really inspiring to read. I am Métis too. Unfortunately over the generations my family has distanced ourselves from Manitoba and Saskatchewan resulting in a great list of our culture and knowledge of it. As a child growing up my parents ways new I was Métis, but it wasn’t until I was in high school did I begin to understand the cultural differences of Métis from other indigenous peoples. Now as a university student, I am desperately trying to learn Michif because I feel so displaced from a culture I am supposed to be apart of and feel heart broken to know our language is dying and so is our distinct culture. It is hard as well to find speakers in Kelowna BCwhere I currently am, furthering my problem lol.
Anyways, it’s just nice to know their are younger people’s who are fluent in the language and that gives me hope and encouragement to learn it myself.
I had never even heard of this language until today reading "The Round House" by Louise Erdrich. Riel and the uprising yes, but didn't know the Metis had their own language. Sure do love reading, it takes you places!
Greetings from that other French town, Detroit.
My Mom is from St. Laurent, Manitoba. I never knew the type of French she spoke was Michif-French. My grandparents, Aunts and Uncles all spoke it too. I only have an Uncle and two Aunts left and they speak it. I wish my Mom would have taught us kids how to speak it. We lived in Winnipeg and only spoke English. But I wish as an adult I knew it. I miss hearing my Mom speak with my Aunts and Uncles in Michif-French. I would love to learn now teach my daughter. But sadly my dear Mom passed away and I have no one living near me to teach me. It is wonderful what you are doing to learn more and help preserve all of our legacy. Thank you.
This lady is real easy to understand,
Cool beans
Grew up with English, broken English, "Redneckese" Hillbilly, non conversational pre school french, and such...
Did not find out about the whole Metis thing till near 20 years old.
Got welcomed in, ( not saying where here) turns out I got family on all sides with roots, but still have to buy licences and such..😅...
(Juis sui fatigue.)
Never really got to know much through family about the culture..other than what existed in the family via common settler survival like traditional activites..gardening, field craft.. hunting, fishing, crochet, knitting, gutair, etc..( not a grandmaster of any, just enough to get by)
Saw this channel, figured I'd check it out.
Cannot travel to Manitoba where the majority are...home is where I am at despite diffuculties.
Hope to see more as time and internet connection allows of this channel over time.
Lots going on in the world right now, not much I can do about it...
Figured some social studies via UA-cam school left out of the lesson plans when we were kids would help pass the time.
Hopefully it will be fully preserved digitally and easily accessible, there will always be ones who want to learn uncommon languages and unlike some dead languages like Gaulish, the Metis are still a distinct group in society so there is hope in that. I think Michif has a lot of character, I like it.
+Nereida Filomena There are still Gaulish words in French.
Très peu, 300 morts environ ! Quelques termes agricoles, beaucoup de toponymes (nom de lieu). Mais il existe en France le breton qui est une langue celtique comme le gaulois l'était.
In my small French Canadian Ontario town I was raised in we always said we spoke slang, not proper French and not proper English. Knowing of Michif, I recognize some of our pronunciation is Michif.
This is a beautiful language. I am studying French, and to my surprise I could understand you. Your spoken language is so clear. Keep the spirit of this project going.
Merci pour le beau témoignage. Je suis fasciné par la culture si riche de la nation métisse. .Poursuivez ce beau partage!
Merci pour votre témoignage très poignant !
F É L I C I T A T I O N S !
... je vous souhaite de faire de belles découvertes et d’avoir beaucoup de plaisir dans votre projet ...
Vous êtes sûrement consciente du bien énorme que ce projet peut éveiller chez plusieurs personnes.
« C’est dans la langue de nos parents et de nos ancêtres qu’on retrouve les racines de notre existence
ainsi que les leçons de courage et de fierté qu’elle nous a transmise. »
Je vous admire, madame.
am from sask. this michif extremely similar to my parents...love the inclusive message.. instead of encouraging recognition of one type of michif speaker
That was beautiful, merci
Continuez ma petite dame
Very beautiful language
moin-too, j'parl mechif parsk ma mere ma parle dememe kan jeta jeune.
+Marcel Lafond Interessant !
Yo también hablo mechif porque mi mamá lo hablaba cuando estaba chavo.
Moi ausie je parle mon Metchif Francaise aprla le view pei le ville eh vah dan le cielle even le bon deau je put une person pour parle avec moi!
Mais alors en fait c'est en partie le français du Canada?? Je suis français raison pour laquelle je pose la question car je cherche à m'instruire. Vidéo très intéressante a mon goût en tout cas 😉
Votre français est excellent, Patsy!
En Sologne ça parle un français similaire ! Compréhensible ! Y'a peut être deux, trois mots anglais dans se patois mais tout est globalement compréhensible
I have a wonderful children's book with English/Michif in it. Because I am an English speaker, I would like to find an online source to teach me to hear and learn some Michif. Do you have any sources for me?
I know the Gabrial Institute has an app that teaches you Michif!!
how do I start learning the language of my ancestors?
talk to your people and get involved in community work. You have to literally start from the ground up, like all initiations in history.
Je parle français et cela ressemble à la langue française pour moi. A part quelques mots que je suppose amérindiens.
Je sais pas trop si je doit répondre en anglais ou en français mais si au début de la vidéo je ne savais pas, maintenant je sais que tu comprendra mon français, alors qu'il me sera légèrement compliqué de t'écrire en anglais. Tout d'abord je voulais te dire un grand bravo pour ton initiative de vouloir faire perdurer la langue que tu parlais étant petite je trouve ça génial de ta part, et dommage qu'à cause de l'évolution de notre société on finisse par perdre des petits patois qui ne sont plus enseignés dans les écoles et que de moins en moins de gens parlent. Je pense que c'est inévitable qu'un jour ils ne soient plus utilisés, mais il ne faut pas qu'ils disparaissent et tombent dans l'oublie c'est surtout ça je pense le plus important. En suite je voulais réagir sur ce que tu disait rapport au fait de pas pas prononcer "petit" au complet mais plutôt "p'tit", on parle beaucoup comme ça en France, de manière un peu "contractée" ou "compressée". Par exemple au lieu de "quand est-ce que l'on va....?", on va plutôt compresser en "quand est-ce qu'on va.....??", ou du genre la prononciation de "s'il te plait", va se transformer et donner un truc un peu du genre "steu plait", et j'en passe parce qu'on en utilisé énormément. C'est un peu de la fainéantise ou des raccourcis facile qui font gagner du temps, mais du coup je pense aux étrangers qui arrivent en France et ont appris un français parfait et impeccable, ça peut très vite devenir extrêmement compliqué pour eux de comprendre la totalité de ce que l'on va leur répondre, et pour peu qu'ils débarquent dans une région où la majorité des gens ont un accent assez fort ou prononcé typique de leur coin, ça risque d'être encore pire. C'est pourquoi maintenant du haut de mes 32 ans je me force à essayer de retrouver une orthographe le plus possible irréprochable et une syntaxe correct. Mais je pense que c'est comme cela un peu dans un peu tout les pays, je pense particulièrement a l'anglais, ne parlant pas non plus 50 langues différents 😁, et aux contractions du genre "c'mon" pour "come on", ou encore "I don't know" qui deviens vite "I dunno". Moi qui joue beaucoup au jeux vidéos en ligne, je peux être amené à échanger avec des étrangers donc automatiquement en anglais. Quand l'anglais n'est pas notre langue maternelle, on arrive à bien se comprendre que ce soit à l'oral ou à l'écris, mais des que je tombe sur une personne pour qui l'anglais est la langue maternelle, ou qui l'a parle depuis très longtemps, alors parfois a l'oral j'ai dû mal si la personne parle trop vite, et à l'écris si cette personne utilise des contractions de mots. Parfois j arrive à deviner, parfois non et je demande à ce qu'on me l'explique et bien souvent une fois que c'est réécris dans sa totalité je comprend, mais pas "l'argot" entre guillemets. Et comme je n'ai pas spécialement sous la main une personne avec qui parler anglais pour m'exercer, j'ai des difficultés à l'oral beaucoup plus qu'à l'écris. Mais bref je ne suis pas le sujet de la vidéo je m'égare. En tout cas très belle initiative de ta part et j'espère que ce sera utile à des gens, ben doute pas. Félicitations à toi 😀
❤❤❤
remeinds of my mother voice
My ear for Quebecois and France french is just ok, although my ear for Acadian french is pretty good (the many dialects of franco ontarien make my brain hurt). This sounds very much like NB Acadian french, more specifically Campbellton, NB although un vrai acadien peux le dire si ça c'est correct ou non.
It's my language and was never taught I so want learn
Maarsi!
It sounds nice
It just sounds like French. I dont hear much mix with Native languages.
Because it's has more French northern michif and south michif as more cree or Ojibwa to it
@jonnyneace8928 Michif is not a creole language dude like serious look up our history
@jonnyneace8928 No, Michif is NOT a Creole language. It is a “contact language”, but not a Creole.
Creoles are bonafide natural languages-fully functional and expressive-deserving as much respect as any other language. Creoles developed from “pidgins” -speech forms spontaneously developing when groups speaking different languages come into contact generally labour environments that are oppressive-where one group has power over another.
So, “Pidgins” are speech forms that develop in situations of economic and political OPPRESSION-think slavery, etc. They are simplified in form and in domains of use. Creoles develop when children are born into environments where a pidgin is spoken and over time naturally develop it into a language that is capable of the fullness of all human expression. Unfortunately, the social history of oppression has a stigma attached to it, and people buy into this terrible false colonial narrative…. They stigmatize Creoles and those who speak them.
Now, (Southern) Michif did NOT develop in an environment of oppression. It developed between equal partners-life partners and their families, starting with trading relationships between FNs and Europeans-mostly French.
So, Michif IS understood to be a contact language but NOT a pidgin or creole. As a contact language, Michif is understood to have unique linguistic characteristics not found in other contact languages. It is sometimes described as an “intertwined language” by linguistic specialists, such as Peter Bakker, or more descriptively as a “duck-billed platypus” of a language.
So Michif is an amazing language, but not one that necessarily every Métis person in the Homelands spoke as their main family or community language-although it may have been present.
Michif-speaking families from different communities came into contact with other Métis families in the Homelands through hunting, trading and travel. People intermarried and even created new communities in the Homelands. Some of these sociolinguistic matters have been written about by Peter Bakker in his book on Michif.
In alberta you ll hear a good mix of French, cree and the occasional English word.
vientucastétaligne
Ressemble à un variant du français québécois...
Sa ce n'est pas le français. C'est si difficile à comprendre et il y a beaucoup de mots qui ce n'est pas en l'anglais d'Europe.