Also Known As: Mi'gmaw,Miigmao,Mi'kmaw,Restigouche,Micmac,Mi'kmaq,Mi'gmaq
Description:
The Míkmaq or Mi'kmaq language (spelled Micmac in English, and Míkmaw or Mìgmao in Míkmaq) is an Eastern Algonquian language spoken by nearly 11,000 Míkmaq in Canada and the United States out of a total ethnic Míkmaq population of roughly 20,000. The word Míkmaq is a plural word meaning 'my friends' (singular Míkm); the adjectival form is Míkmaw. The language's native name is Míkmawísimk or Míkmwei (in some dialects).
Míkmaq is written using a number of Roman alphabet schemes based on those devised by missionaries in the 19th century. Previously, the language was written in Míkmaq 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 acute accent instead of the colon to mark vowel length. Two deviations from the Francis-Smith orthography are fairly widespread. The first is the omission of the acute accent or the fallback of writing it as an..... full article at Wikipedia |