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Nominal Contact in Michif

Nominal Contact in Michif

Hardcover

Series: Oxford Studies of Endangered Languages

Grammar & StyleLinguistics

ISBN10: 0198795335
ISBN13: 9780198795339
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Mar 18 2018
Pages: 226
Weight: 1.15
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
This book explores the results of language contact in Michif, an endangered Canadian language that is traditionally claimed to combine a French noun phrase with a Cree verb phrase, and is hence usually considered a 'mixed' language. Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen provide a detailed account of the Michif noun phrase in which they examine issues such as the mass/count distinction, plurality, gender, articles, and demonstratives. Their analysis reveals that while parts of the Michif noun phrase have French lexical sources, and the language has certain features that are borrowed from French, its syntax in fact looks very much like that found in other Algonquian languages. The final chapter of the book discusses the wider implications of these findings: the authors argue that contact does not create a whole new language category and that Michif should instead be considered an Algonquian language with French contact influence; they also extend their analysis to other mixed languages and creoles. The book will be of interest to Algonquian scholars, formal linguists in the fields of syntax, morphology, and semantics, and to all those working on issues of language contact.

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