PRESERVING CULTURE
Vince Ahenakew, a school principal from Île-à-la-crosse, was one of the main contributors to the Northern Michif To Go smartphone app that contains around 18,000 words and 1,000 full phrases of the endangered Métis language.
“The language will (probably) be lost in one more generation,” says Northern Michif speaker and school principal Vince Ahenakew. “The app matters.”
The Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatoon released a smartphone app earlier this year called Northern Michif To Go.
It functions as a combination of dictionary, phrase book and translation guide for Northern Michif. Ahenakew, the principal of Rossignol High School in Île-à-la-crosse, learned to speak the language from his grandmother growing up. He was one of the main contributors to the app project, and its thousands of audio files with proper pronunciations are recordings of his voice.
Michif is the name given to the Métis language that comes from a combination of Cree and French-canadian vocabularies and sounds. Ahenakew noted there are a variety of differing styles of the Michif language that change depending on geography.
The Michif spoken along the Red River throughout communities in Manitoba tended to have more French influences, he said, while Southern Saskatchewan Michif has a little less of a French influence, and the Northern Michif that he speaks has more Cree than the others.
Developer David Morin with the Gabriel Dumont Institute said this is the second such app the institute has produced — they’ve also created a more standard Michif To Go app. He echoed Ahenakew’s descriptions of the differences.
“The language is based on a combination of French nouns and Cree verbs, with the associated syntax. Northern Michif is predominantly Cree with some French,” Morin said, noting Michif and Northern Michif function as distinct languages.
One of the toughest parts of the whole project was the time involved in laying out and recording all of the vocabulary, Morin said.
The final app contains around 18,000 words and 1,000 full phrases. Morin said since Michif is much more verbal than written, it was crucial to have the words spelled out and voiced.
“Our Michif languages are endangered. At GDI, our mission is to promote and preserve Métis culture, and language is a part of that,” he said.
Ahenakew said he sees fewer young people learning or understanding Northern Michif. While there are some cases of students using the language in classes, it’s not common — and there are few ways for youth to interact with each other through it.
Ahenakew and other residents of Île-à-la-crosse have some other projects in the works to try to take advantage of newer technology to spread the language, including video games and additional online resources.
The GDI app is a huge step for preserving Northern Michif — but it’s the first of many more that will be needed to keep the language alive, Ahenakew said.
“The last time I came to an education summit in Saskatoon, there was so much Michif, Cree language spoken there. Bits and pieces here and there, (but) it was certainly encouraging to hear that.”