Michif (was Re: Irregularality in languages)

Rachel Klippenstein wrote:

>I have read of a really interesting language that
>could be described as an anti-creole, much more than
>English.  I believe it's called Michif or Michif Cree.
> It's a language that is a mixture of Cree and French,
>spoken (or formerly spoken?) by Metis people somewhere
>on the Canadian prairies (Manitoba?).  Apparently it
>takes many of the more complex parts of eaxh input
>language.  For the most part, the verb phrase
>vocabulary, syntax, and phonology are Cree-like, while
>the noun-phrase vocabulary, syntax and phonology are
>mostly French like.  However, one of the more complex
>parts of Cree made it into the syntax, so there are
>something like 7 degrees of deictic words (like "this"
>and "that").  Also, nouns have both French genders
>(masculine and feminine), used when agreeing with
>french-derived articles, and Cree genders (animate and
>inanimate, I think), used when agreeing with
>Cree-derived words.
Michif is very interesting. The nouns have no inflection; number is marked
only on the article. Verbs, on the other hand, have a prefix-root suffix
system, where the prefix carries tense and the suffix inflects for singular
or plural. I searched and found these sites on Michif:

Some grammar and lessons (some of the pages are missing) at
http://www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/language/index.htm

Rosetta Project (only a couple of pages):
http://www.rosettaproject.org:8080/live/search/detailedlanguagerecord?
ethnocode=CRG

M