Discussions of Indigenous languages in the NWT often leave out Michif for the more familiar languages of Tlicho, South Slavey or Inuvialuktun.

But Vance Sanderson, a M茅tis linguist in Fort Smith, is working to raise Michif to a new level of prominence.

Historically spoken by M茅tis peoples across the Prairies and Western Canada, the language combines Cree grammar with mixtures of French and Cree vocabulary. Some dialects combine vocabulary from Dene languages, depending on the location. 

Michif isnSA国际影视传媒檛 among the NWTSA国际影视传媒檚 nine official Indigenous tongues, despite the language having been spoken in several communities over many decades.

Sanderson hopes Michif can become the territorySA国际影视传媒檚 12th official language.

SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檝e been advocating that for a while now, for the last 10 years,SA国际影视传媒� said Sanderson, who is also a languages manager with the NWT M茅tis Nation. SA国际影视传媒淓lders have been voicing their concern that the Michif language is not only a M茅tis language, but is spoken by other Indigenous people within our territory.SA国际影视传媒�

Sanderson grew up speaking Michif, Cree and French. He graduated from the University of Victoria with a degree in linguistics and hopes to eventually earn a PhD so he can teach Michif and Cree.

He acknowledges that getting Michif recognized as an official language is going to be an uphill battle, mainly because of the small number of speakers.

Based on his own research, he estimates there are currently fewer than 200 Michif speakers in the NWT.

If accurate, that gives Michif the lowest number of speakers of any Indigenous language in the NWT, including Inuktitut, which had 207 speakers according to 2019 data from the NWT Bureau of Statistics.

Speak Michif to me

But he does what he can to stimulate interest in Michif and get people learning the language.

Since 2017 he has been running a language program on the radio in Fort Smith, organized in partnership with the NWT M茅tis Nation.

Announcements are made on the show in Cree, Chipewyan and Michif.

SA国际影视传媒�(ISA国际影视传媒檒l give away) promotional items, such as clothing, and you have the language on the clothing and to get the clothing, you have to speak Michif to me,SA国际影视传媒� he said.  

He also helps organize Michif evening classes in Fort Smith and has made his own Michif calendars. dictionaries, posters and children's books.

SA国际影视传媒淏asically, it's looking at material development, and recording our Elders, and documenting and seeing how schools can benefit from those documents,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淎nd seeing if we can develop strong speakers within our schools and to get the numbers up.SA国际影视传媒�

He plans to launch a podcast that would include interviews with Elders and other speakers of Michif. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic it has been difficult to hold interviews with Elders indoors, and the podcast project has been delayed until the spring.

Tough language to research

Sanderson arrived at 200 speakers through surveys he conducted in Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Hay River and Enterprise.

SA国际影视传媒淪ome of them arenSA国际影视传媒檛 even known to Statistics Canada,SA国际影视传媒� Sanderson said. SA国际影视传媒淵ou have to go into the communities and you have to spend time with certain families. And that's also a difficult task to do because some people don't welcome everybody into their homes.SA国际影视传媒�

Identifying Michif speakers also gets tricky because it exists on a spectrum of mixed languages.

SA国际影视传媒淵ou have people who are fluent in French, and they have a different way of speaking French that could be considered Michif because of their dialect and the way they bend the language and the way they use it, and the way they relate it to Cree or Chipewyan or Slavey,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淭hey can be more French-influenced, or they can be more Indigenous-languages influenced.SA国际影视传媒�

Since Michif isnSA国际影视传媒檛 recognized as official by the GNWT, itSA国际影视传媒檚 not included in NWT Bureau of Statistics figures on numbers of language speakers.

A states there are 1,170 Michif speakers, most of whom are in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The same report said that 5,960 M茅tis people spoke Cree languages, 1,555 spoke Dene and 685 spoke Anishinabe.

Old idea, new effort

Interest in making Michif an official language goes back almost 30 years.

The recommended that the GNWT "support the research, documentation and analysis of the Michif language in the NWT, to permit a thorough consideration of this language in the context of official languages."

In 2003, the to the Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act that it agrees SA国际影视传媒淢ichif should be researched to determine an appropriate designation for the language.SA国际影视传媒�

It added that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would conduct that research using Aboriginal Language Initiative funding.

SA国际影视传媒淭he focus of the research will be to determine the number of Michif speakers in the NWT before decisions are made regarding the designation of the language,SA国际影视传媒� the report stated.

Last October, former languages commissioner Shannon Gullberg told a standing committee meeting that sheSA国际影视传媒檚 aware of SandersonSA国际影视传媒檚 efforts to make Michif an official language.

Brenda Gauthier, the current languages commissioner, said if Michif becomes the 12th official language it would demonstrate the dedication and hard work put into its revitalization.

"Whether or not the language is recognized as an official language, this commitment needs to continue not only for the Michif language but all Indigenous languages. We all have a part to play in keeping our official languages active."

Time to reverse the decline

Michael McLeod, MP for the NWT, supports the idea of making Michif an official language.

SA国际影视传媒淭here was an opportunity to do it before when the language review happened in the legislative assembly. There was a lot of support for Indigenous languages but Michif was considered a heritage language and didnSA国际影视传媒檛 have the same status as others,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淲hen you donSA国际影视传媒檛 have that protection you start to lose it. If there's no funding or support and few speakers, every time an Elder or speaker passes away or moves, the language gets weaker.SA国际影视传媒�

Growing up in a M茅tis family, Michif was the language of McLeod's childhood home, as it was for many families in Fort Providence at the time.

The Michif dialect in Fort Smith was a mixture of French and Cree, he said. In Fort Resolution, it was a mix of Chipewyan and French. In Fort Providence, it was Dene and French.

SA国际影视传媒淎nd that applied in Fort Simpson, Behchoko, Fort Resolution and for some families in Hay River and Yellowknife. All the M茅tis could communicate in that language,SA国际影视传媒� McLeod said.

Even Dene people in Fort Providence could speak Michif decades ago because they learned French in residential school, he added. But he began to notice a shift in Michif usage in the early years of the 21st century.

SA国际影视传媒淚n 1999 when I ran for the first election for MLA in the NWT, all the Dene Elders spoke to me in M茅tis Michif. When I ran again in 2004 there were very few who could still speak it,SA国际影视传媒� he recalled.

He estimates that today only 10 people in Fort Providence can speak Michif.

SA国际影视传媒淎 lot of people consider a language to be like a universe. When a word dies, a story also dies. If the Michif language isnSA国际影视传媒檛 protected and saved then that whole history could disappear.SA国际影视传媒�

McLeod sees the work of someone like Sanderson as a new opportunity to revitalize Michif.

SA国际影视传媒淚f nothing changes, the language will completely disappear in the NWT. Michif is still spoken in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but it's quite a bit different from the dialect we speak. I think it's time to take a look at it again.SA国际影视传媒�