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Mi’kmaq Language

Mi’kmaq Language. an Algonquian language spoken by 8000 Indians in the Canadian Maritimes (particularly Nova Scotia) and a few US communities. Mi'kmaq is written alphabetically today, but in the past it was written in pictographs pictographs were modified by Jesuit missionaries

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Mi’kmaq Language

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  1. Mi’kmaq Language

  2. an Algonquian language spoken by 8000 Indians in the Canadian Maritimes (particularly Nova Scotia) and a few US communities. • Mi'kmaq is written alphabetically today, but in the past it was written in pictographs • pictographs were modified by Jesuit missionaries • used them to teach Christian prayers to Micmac people

  3. Míkmaq called themselves L'nu'k (the people) • language L'nui'sin • word Míkmaq comes from their word nikmaq, meaning "my kin-friends.“ • language is also known as Micmac, Mi'gmaq, Miigmao or Restigouche.

  4. Mi'kmaq is the plural form and Mi'kmaw is the singular form. "Q" is a plural ending in Mi'kmaq, like "S" is in English. So when Micmac people are speaking their own language, they use Mi'kmaw to describe one person or object, and Mi'kmaq to describe more than one. This makes sense to French speakers, but in English, we don't have endings for our adjectives. So when most Micmac people are speaking English, they use the plural form for everything (one Mi'kmaq canoe, two Mi'kmaq canoes, etc.) But some Micmac people continue to use the singular form in English (one Mi'kmaw canoe, two Mi'kmaq canoes.) • An interesting note: the plural noun "Mi'kmaqs" or "Micmacs" contains two plural endings, one in Mi'kmaq and one in English! Many bilingual Mi'kmaq Indians prefer to always say "Mi'kmaq people" instead of "Mi'kmaqs" because the double plural sounds so strange to them.

  5. References • http://www.native-languages.org/mikmaq.htm • http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mikmaq.htm • http://www.bigorrin.org/mikmaq_kids.htm

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