Domains in Michif phonology
Year:
2007
Author :
Publishing Company:
, University of Toronto
Abstract
Michif is an under-described contact language spoken by a few hundred Métis people, mostly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. It has two principal source languages: Plains Cree and French and has generally been analyzed as having two co-phonologies: French phonology applying to the French-source lexical items and Cree phonology applying to the Cree-source lexical items (Rhodes 1986, Bakker 1997, Bakker & Papen 1997, Papen 2003. This thesis serves a dual role in the study of Michif. First, it offers the first systematic description of phonological distribution and patterning including segmental inventories, stress assignment and syllabification, as well as a sketch of Michif morphology and morphological categories. Second, it argues that Michif need not be analyzed as stratifying its lexical components according to historical source. Lexicon stratification of this type, according to historical language source, has also been posited for languages such as Japanese (Itô & Mester 1997, 2001, 2005) and English (Kiparsky 1982) to account for synchronic differences in patterning of different lexical items. However distributional differences in Michif are argued not to be sufficient for positing a stratified lexicon, and it is argued in this thesis that previously claimed synchronic patterning either relies on diachronic data as input to synchronic rules, or else the patterning itself is no longer productive in Michif, or different phonemicization accounts for patterning differences. Two case studies in Michif patterning, stress assignment and I-deletion, are shown to be predictable and systematic with no differences in patterning with regards to historical language source. Given these facts, I argue that lexicon stratification in Michif is unwarranted. Although historical source domains do not play a role in synchronic Michif, prosodic domains are shown to have different phonological inventories and to pattern differently with respect to phonological processes such as syllabification and stress assignment. Michif affixes and minor categories are shown pattern differently, but this is based on regular synchronic patterning of linguistic, rather than historical, criteria.
Theme :
LinguisticsMétis
Database: This is a bibliographic reference. Please note that the majority of references in our database do not contain full texts.
- To consult references on the health of official‑language minority communities (OLMC): click here