Editing Michif (section)

=== Language genesis ===
In languages of mixed ethnicities, the language of the mother usually provides the grammatical system, while the language of the father provides the lexicon.<ref>Bakker, Peter. ''A Language of Our Own: The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French Language of the Canadian Metis'', Oxford University Press, 1997.</ref> The reasons are as follows: children tend to know their mother's language better;{{dubious|date=October 2017}}<!-- what about Father-Tongue hypothesis--> in the case of the Métis, the men were often immigrants, whereas the women were native to the region.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Barkwell, Lawrence J., Leah Dorion and Darren Préfontaine. Métis Legacy: A Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications Inc. and Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2001. ISBN 1-894717-03-1}}</ref> If the bilingual children need to use either of their parents' languages to converse with outsiders, it is most likely to be the language of their mothers. Thus, the model of language-mixing predicts that Michif should have a Cree grammatical system and French lexicon. Michif, however, has Cree verb phrases and French noun phrases. The explanation for this unusual distribution of Cree and French elements in Michif lies in the polysynthetic nature of Cree morphology. In Cree, verbs can be very complex with up to twenty morphemes, incorporated nouns and unclear boundaries between morphemes. In other words, in Cree verbs it is very difficult to separate grammar from lexicon. As a result, in Michif the grammatical and bound elements are almost all Cree, and the lexical and free elements are almost all French; verbs are almost totally Cree, because the verb consists of grammatical and bound elements. Seen in this way, it can be argued that Michif is fundamentally Cree, but with heavy French borrowing (somewhat like [[Maltese language|Maltese]], a mixed Arabic-Italian language classified as fundamentally Arabic). The Métis in addition have their own variety of French with Cree borrowings – [[Métis French]].

==== Language genesis from Michif people ====
The genesis of the Michif peoples and language has been passed through generations. The story of the creation of the Michif people and their language was told to Elder Brousse Flammand (currently the president of the Michif kaa-piikishkwaychik, or Michif Speakers Association)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-11-06 |title=About Brousse Flammand |url=https://thinkinginmichif.family.blog/about-brousse-flammand/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230623203031/https://thinkinginmichif.family.blog/about-brousse-flammand/ |archive-date=2023-06-23 |access-date=2024-04-15 |website=Thinking In Michif |language=en}}</ref> by his grandparents (born 1876 and 1886). The information he gives is also told by other Michif speakers, who agree that the language was given to the Michif peoples by the Creator/God. He states that the genesis of the Michif person/nation is synonymous with the genesis of the Michif language. Both the language and the nation are creations of the Creator/God— and are symbiotic to each other.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-11-06 |title=The Genesis of the Michif Peoples |url=https://thinkinginmichif.family.blog/the-genesis-of-the-michif-peoples/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624164513/https://thinkinginmichif.family.blog/the-genesis-of-the-michif-peoples/ |archive-date=2023-06-24 |access-date=2024-04-15 |website=Thinking In Michif |language=en}}</ref>

The creation of a specific language for Metis people allowed for a collective identity, where Michif speakers could take action together to protect traditional territories and homelands, and share a collective history.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-11-06 |title=The Genesis of the Michif Peoples |url=https://thinkinginmichif.family.blog/the-genesis-of-the-michif-peoples/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624164513/https://thinkinginmichif.family.blog/the-genesis-of-the-michif-peoples/ |archive-date=2023-06-24 |access-date=2024-04-15 |website=Thinking In Michif |language=en}}</ref>