Classroom Resources
Michif French Resources
Workbooks
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Bingo
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Games
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Labels
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Miscellaneous
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About Michif French
Michif French is spoken in certain communities stretching all the way from western Ontario to central Alberta, with St. Louis being a notable community where it is spoken in Saskatchewan. It may have originated on the eastern edge of the Métis homeland around the Great Lakes, from which a number of Métis families migrated to the Red River Settlement and beyond.
From a linguistic perspective, it may be considered a dialect of French, though it is so different from other dialects that it may not always be easy to understand for speakers of other varieties – a point borne out in the lived experiences of many speakers of Michif French. This is because a great deal of its vocabulary and grammar stems from the old dialects of French spoken among the early voyageurs, which is no longer found in many modern varieties of French. For example, the word for ‘window’ is fenêtre in Québécois French, but shawsi in Michif French. Furthermore, owing to the blended heritage of the Métis, the language shows a great deal of influence from Algonquian languages, such as using the word chi to indicate a yes/no question:
Standard French: Michif French:
As-tu faim? Ta chi fin?
‘Are you hungry?’ ‘Are you hungry?’
Elder Norman Fleury“We become who we are by listening and watching. We make la gaalet by the feel of our grandma’s fingers. There are no written recipes for food or life but there are moments and memories that form the basis for Métis identity.”
