|Native to||Canada, United States|
|Region||Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Gaspé Peninsula, the island of Newfoundland, northern Maine, Boston, Massachusetts|
|Ethnicity||168,420 Miꞌkmaq (2016 census)|
|7,140, 4% of ethnic population (2016 census)|
The Miꞌkmaq language (spelled and pronounced Micmac historically, also Migmaw or Mikmaw in English, and Míkmaq, Míkmaw or Mìgmao in Miꞌkmaq) is an Eastern Algonquian language spoken by nearly 11,000 Miꞌkmaq in Canada and the United States out of a total ethnic Miꞌkmaq population of roughly 20,000. The word Miꞌkmaq is a plural word meaning 'my friends' (singular miꞌkm); the adjectival form is Miꞌkmaw. The native name of the language is Lnuismk, Miꞌkmawiꞌsimk or Miꞌkmwei (in some dialects).
The phonemic inventory of Miꞌkmaq is shown below.
The obstruents have a wide variety of pronunciations. When they are located word-initially or next to another obstruent, they are voiceless. However, when they are located between sonorants, they are voiced, and appear as [b, d, ɡ, ɡʷ, d͡ʒ, z, ɣ, ɣʷ]. When the stops and affricate are located word-finally, they may be aspirated, and appear as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, kʷʰ, tʃʰ]. An example of each kind of pronunciation is given below.
Miꞌkmaq distinguishes between both long and short vowels and consonants, symbolized in Listuguj by doubling the consonant. Beyond expanding in length, long consonants add a schwa when they precede other consonants. For instance, compare /en.mitk/, written in Listuguj as enmitg ("flow away") with /en.nə.mit/, written in Listuguj as ennmit ("stick into"); or, /tox.tʃu.pi.la.wek/, written in Listuguj as toqjuꞌpilaweg ("hoist"), with /ke.si.kaw.wek/, written in Listuguj as gesigawweg ("loud").
Listuguj orthography occasionally begins words with consonant clusters, such as with gtaꞌn ("ocean") or mgumi ("ice"). However, such clusters are pronounced over separate syllables, with a schwa preceding the cluster: for instance, gtaꞌn is pronounced /ək.taːn/ while mgumi is pronounced /əm.ku.mi/. On the other hand, word-final clusters, such as in asigetg ("investigate") are pronounced over a single syllable: compare the pronunciation of asigetg, /a.si.ketk/, with mestꞌg ("taste"), /mes.tək/.
Miꞌkmaq uses free word order, based on emphasis rather than a traditionally fixed order of subjects, objects and verbs.[clarification needed] For instance, the sentence "I saw a moose standing right there on the hill" could be stated "sapmiꞌk ala nemaqtꞌk na tett tiꞌam kaqamit" (I saw him/there/on the hill/right-there/a moose/he was standing) or "sapmiꞌk ala tiꞌam nemaqtꞌk na tett kaqamit" (I saw him/there/a moose/on the hill/right-there/he was standing); the latter sentence puts emphasis on the moose by placing tiꞌam (moose) earlier in the utterance. Further complicating matters is the fact that Miꞌkmaq, as a polysynthetic language, has verbs which usually contain the sentence's subject and object: for instance, the aforementioned sapmiꞌk translates to "I saw him".
While it is thus difficult to classify Miꞌkmaq under traditional word-order categories such as SVO or SOV, a more fixed aspect in the language comes in the morphology of its verbs. Certain areas of internal morphology of verbs in Miꞌkmaq have regular placement: for instance, when the aspect of a verb is included, it appears as the first prefix, while the negative marker always appears directly after the verb root. An example for both of these instances can be seen in the Miꞌkmaq verb kisipawnatqaꞌtiꞌw (kisi-paw-natq-aꞌti-w), translated as "they cannot get out": the prefix kisi marks the verb as being in the completive aspect, whereas the negative marker, w, appears directly after the verb root aꞌti ("the two move"). However, these solidly-placed elements of verbs are paired with markers that can appear throughout the word, depending again on emphasis; animacy in particular can appear fluidly throughout verbs. In short, while a few specific aspects of Miꞌkmaq can be predicted, its syntax in general is largely free and dependent on context.
Miꞌkmaq is written using a number of Latin alphabets based on ones devised by missionaries in the 19th century. Previously, the language was written in Miꞌkmaq hieroglyphic writing, a script of partially native origin. The Francis-Smith orthography used here was developed in 1974, and adopted as the official orthography of the Míkmaq Nation in 1980. It is the most widely used orthography, used by Nova Scotian Mikmaq and by the Míkmaq Grand Council. It is quite similar to the "Lexicon" orthography, differing from it only in its use of the straight apostrophe ⟨ꞌ⟩ or acute accent ⟨´⟩ instead of the colon ⟨:⟩ to mark vowel length. When the Francis-Smith orthography was first developed, the straight apostrophe (often called a "tick") was the designated symbol for vowel length, however due to software applications incorrectly auto-correcting the tick to a curly apostrophe, a secondary means of indicating vowel length was formally accepted: the acute accent. The barred-i ⟨ɨ⟩ for schwa is sometimes replaced by the more common circumflex-i ⟨î⟩. In Listuguj orthography, an apostrophe marks long vowels as well as schwa, and the letter ⟨g⟩ is used instead of the letter ⟨k⟩. The 19th-century Pacifique orthography omits ⟨w⟩ and ⟨y⟩, using ⟨o⟩ and ⟨i⟩ for these. It also ignores vowel length. The 19th-century orthography of Silas Tertius Rand, using characters from Isaac Pitman's Phonotypic Alphabet, is also given in the table below; this orthography is more complex than the table suggests, particularly as far as vowel quantity and quality is concerned, employing various letters such as 〈a〉, 〈à〉, ⟨ɛ⟩, ⟨ɛ́⟩, ⟨ɯ⟩, ⟨ɯ́⟩, ⟨ɹ̇⟩, ⟨ɹ́⟩, ⟨ơ⟩, 〈u〉, etc.
|Rand||ă||a â||ĕ||ā||ĭ||e||ŭ||dj tc̡||g k||l||m||n||ŏ||o ō||b p||h||s||d t||ŏŏ||oo u||w||y|
Miꞌkmaq uses a decimal numeral system. Every multiple-digit number is formed by using one of the first nine numerals as a prefix or a preceding word, as seen in the number for ten, neꞌwtisgaq, a combination of the prefix neꞌwt - (derived from newt) and the root isgaꞌq meaning ten (the pattern can be seen in tapuisgaꞌq for 20, nesisgaꞌq for 30, etc.) While 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 all use a single word containing a prefix, the tens between 60 and 90 use the numeral as a preceding word to a separate word meaning ten, teꞌsisgaꞌq: for instance, 60 is written as asꞌgom teꞌsisgaꞌq.
Numbers between the tens are stated through multiple-word phrases, beginning with the ten-based root number, such as neꞌwtisgaq, followed by jel (meaning "and" or "also") and ending with one of the nine numerals: for instance, the number 28 is constructed as tapuisgaꞌq jel ugumuljin, or literally "twenty and eight".
For numbers beyond 99, Miꞌkmaq uses a pattern similar to that of 60–99, with numeral words preceding separate roots which identify higher numbers (such as gasgꞌptnnaqan, meaning hundred, or pituimtlnaqn meaning thousand); for instance, 300 is written as siꞌst gasgꞌptnnaqan, while 2,000 is written as taꞌpu pituimtlnaqn. The exception to this pattern are the numbers 100 and 1,000, which are simply the roots gasgꞌptnnaqan and pituimtlnaqn, respectively. Similarly to digits between the tens, the connecting word jel is used between hundreds and tens, or thousands and hundreds: for example, the number 3,452 is written as siꞌst pituimtlnaqn jel neꞌw gasgꞌptnnaqan jel naꞌnisgaq jel taꞌpu.
On top of this basic structure, numbers in Miꞌkmaq must agree with the animacy of whatever they are counting: for instance, when speaking of two people one would use the word taꞌpusijik, as opposed to the number used for two days, taꞌpugnaꞌq. While the suffix -ijik to denote the counting of animate subjects and the suffix -gnaꞌq to denote the counting of inanimate subjects are common, animacy-marking suffixes are somewhat fluid and vary by number and dialect.
Language revitalization efforts and teaching
"Parents come to me and say they hear their children in the backseat of the car speaking Miꞌkmaq and they're excited," said the Miꞌkmaq language instructor at Lnu Siꞌpuk Kinaꞌmuokuom Miꞌkmaq school in Indian Brook. Miꞌkmaq language courses are mandatory from grades Primary to 12 at the school, which only opened six years ago." Evening classes are starting as of Oct. 2013.
Also as of 2013, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia's Miꞌkmaq Burial Grounds Research and Restoration Association has about forty students in its Miꞌkmaq language revitalization classes, and Miꞌkmaq greetings are becoming more common in public places.
Miꞌkmaq is one of the Algic languages, a family that once spanned from a small portion of California across Central Canada, the Midwestern United States, and the northeastern coast of North America. Within this family, Miꞌkmaq is part of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup spoken largely along the Atlantic coast. It is closely related to several extant languages, such as Malecite-Passamaquoddy, Massachusett and Munsee as well as extinct languages like Abenaki and Unami. Beyond having a similar language background and sharing close geographic proximity, the Miꞌkmaq notably held an alliance with four other tribes within the Eastern Algonquian language group known as the Wabanaki Confederacy: in short, a history of long-term language contact has existed between Miꞌkmaq and its close linguistic relatives.
Miꞌkmaq has many similarities with its fellow Eastern Algonquian languages, including multiple word cognates: for instance, compare the Miꞌkmaq word for "woman", eꞌpit, to the Maliseet ehpit [æpit], or the varying related words for the color "white": wapeꞌt in Miꞌkmaq, wapi [wapi] in Maliseet, waapii [wapi] in Munsee, wôbi [wɔ̃bɪ] in Abenaki and wòpe [wɔpe] in Unami. Even outside of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup, there exist similar cognates within the larger Algic family, such as the Cree wāpiskāw [wɔ:bɪska:w] and the Miami-Illinois waapi [wa:pi].
Like many Native American languages, Miꞌkmaq uses a classifying system of animate versus inanimate words. However, while the animacy system in general is common, the specifics of Miꞌkmaq's system differ from even closely related Algic languages: for instance, in Wampanoag, the word for "sun", cone, is inanimate, while the word for "earth", ahkee, is animate, a fact used by some scholars to claim that the Wampanoag people were aware of the earth's rotation around an unmoving sun; however, in Miꞌkmaq, both the word for "sun", naꞌguꞌset, and the word for "earth", ugsꞌtqamu, are animate, and parallel cultural knowledge regarding astronomy cannot be gleaned through the language. Much like grammatical gender, the core concept of animacy is shared across similar languages while the exact connotations animacy has within Miꞌkmaq are unique.
In English- and French-speaking areas, traces of Miꞌkmaq can be found largely in geographical names within regions historically occupied by the Miꞌkmaq people, including Quebec and several towns in Nova Scotia such as Antigonish and Shubenacadie. Moreover, several Miꞌkmaq words have made their way into colonizing languages: the English words "caribou" and "toboggan" are borrowings from Miꞌkmaq. The name caribou was probably derived from the Miꞌkmaq word xalibu or Qalipu meaning "the one who paws". Marc Lescarbot in his publication in French 1610 used the term "caribou." Silas Tertius Rand translated the Miꞌkmaq word Kaleboo as caribou in his Miꞌkmaq-English dictionary (Rand 1888:98).
The aforementioned use of hieroglyphic writing in pre-colonial Miꞌkmaq society shows that Miꞌkmaq was one of the few Native American languages to have a writing system before European contact.
Bakker identified two Basque loanwords in Miꞌkmaq, presumably due to extensive trade contact between Basque sailors and Native Americans in the 16th century. The overall friendly exchanges starting in mid-16th century between the Miꞌkmaqs and the Basque whalers provided the basis for the development of a Algonquian–Basque pidgin, with a strong Miꞌkmaq imprint, recorded still in use in the early 18th century.
Placenames from Miꞌkmaq
- Placenames ending in Miꞌkmaq Quoddy, a word used by the natives to designate a fertile area like Passamaquoddy, Shubenacadie and Tracadie.
- Amqui, from Miꞌkmaq amqui (place of amusement or pleasure)
- Aroostook County, from Mi'kmaq meaning "beautiful/clear water"
- Cascapédia, from Miꞌkmaq kaska (broad) and pegiag (river).
- Causapscal, from Miꞌkmaq Goesôpsiag (or Gesapsgel, Gesôpsgigel), meaning "stony bottom", "swift water", or "rocky point", likely referring to the rocky river bed of the Causapscal River.
- Gaspé Peninsula, from Miꞌkmaq Gespedeg (land recently acquired)
- Gaspé, Quebec, Gespeg (land's end)
- Kouchibouguac, New Brunswick, from Miꞌkmaq Pijeboogwek (river of long tides)
- Matapédia, from Miꞌkmaq matapegiag (river junction, from the parts mata (junction) and pegiag (river), referring to the Matapedia River that crosses the town just before its confluence with the Restigouche River).
- Paspébiac, from Miꞌkmaq papgeg ipsigiag, meaning "split flats" or "lagoon".
- Quebec, from Miꞌkmaq Gepèèg
- Restigouche, from Miꞌkmaq Listuguj
- Lac-Humqui, from Miꞌkmaq amqui (place of amusement or pleasure)
- Sayabec, from Miꞌkmaq Sakpediak
- Shediac, from Miꞌkmaq Es-ed-ei-ik which means "running far in" (in reference to the tide, which has a long range over the shallow, sandy beaches)
- Tatamagouche, from Takamegoochk which means "barred across the entrance with sand".
A 2012 book, by the Miꞌkmaq linguist Bernie Francis and anthropologist Trudy Sable, The Language of this Land, Miꞌkmaꞌki, "examines the relationship between Miꞌkmaq language and landscape."
- Canada, Government of Canada, Statistics. "Language Highlight Tables, 2016 Census - Aboriginal mother tongue, Aboriginal language spoken most often at home and Other Aboriginal language(s) spoken regularly at home for the population excluding institutional residents of Canada, provinces and territories, 2016 Census – 100% Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
- Bureau, US Census. "Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English". www.census.gov. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mi'kmaq". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Statistics Canada 2006
- Indigenous Languages Spoken in the United States
- Micmac Teaching Grammar. Delisle / Metallic 1976.
- Native Languages of the Americas: Miꞌkmaq (Miꞌkmawiꞌsimk, Miꞌkmaw, Micmac, Míkmaq)
- Chris Harvey's page on Míkmawísimk
- Bragg, Russell A. (1976). Some Aspects of the Phonology of Newfoundland Micmac (MA).
- Beswick, Truro (2013-10-16). "Efforts gain strength across N.S. to ensure future for Miꞌkmaq language". The Chronicle Herald. Halifax, NS. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- Myslik, Jaime (2014-03-25). "Miꞌkmaq is making a comeback in a Nova Scotia community - Politics - CBC News". CBC News : Politics. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
- Native Languages of the Americas
- Boston Review: Touching Their Ancestors' Hands, 'Animacy'
- Online Etymology Dictionary, 'Quebec'
- Online Etymology Dictionary, 'caribou'
- Online Etymology Dictionary, 'toboggan'
- Kavanagh, Maureen, ed. (2005) , "Hinterland Who's Who", Canadian Wildlife Service/EC, ISBN 0-662-39659-6, archived from the original on 24 December 2013, retrieved 21 December 2013 Cite uses deprecated parameter
- Bakker, P. (1989). Two Basque Loanwords in Micmac. International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 55, No. 2 (Apr., 1989), pp. 258-261
- "Amqui (ville)" (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- "Causapscal (Ville)" (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- William Baillie Hamilton (1996). Place Names of Atlantic Canada. University of Toronto Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8020-7570-3.
- "Matapédia (Municipalité)" (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
- "Paspébiac (Ville)" (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
- "Book launch today". Cape Breton Post. 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
- Maillard, M. l'abbé, redigée et mise en ordre par Joseph M. Bellenger, ptre. 1864. Grammaire de la langue mikmaque. Nouvelle-York, Presse Cramoisy de J.M. Shea. Reprinted 2007: Toronto: Global Language Press, ISBN 1-897367-14-7
- Delisle, Gilles L.; Metallic, Emmanuel L. 1976. Micmac Teaching Grammar. Preliminary version. La Macaza, Quebec: Manitou Community College.
- Pacifique, Père. 1939. Leçons grammaticales théoriques et pratiques de la langue micmaque. Sainte-Anne de Restigouche, P.Q. Reprinted 2007: Toronto: Global Language Press, ISBN 1-897367-15-5
- Rand, Silas Tertius. 1875. First reading book in the Micmac language. Halifax: Nova Scotia Printing Company. Reprinted 2006: Vancouver: Global Language Press, ISBN 0-9738924-8-X
- Rand, Silas Tertius. 1888. Dictionary of the language of the Micmac Indians, who reside in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Halifax: Nova Scotia Printing Company. Reprinted 1994: New Delhi & Madra
- Sable, Trudy (2012). The language of this land, Miꞌkmaꞌki. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press. ISBN 9781897009499. Retrieved 2012-10-21.s: Asian Educational Services, ISBN 81-206-0954-9
|Wikiversity has learning resources about Mi'kmaq language|
|For a list of words relating to Miꞌkmaq language, see the Miꞌkmaq language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
|Miꞌkmaq language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator|