Learn Michif by Listening - Peter Bakker and Norman Fleury

Learn Michif by Listening was created in March 2004 by Peter Bakker and Norman Fleury.

This section contains a PDF of the Learn Michif by Listening guide as well as all the audio from the original CD.

Michif, like any living language, is first and foremost an oral language. The sounds, words and sentences in this section are the important items.

The texts are made available just to support the oral texts in this section. It is much more important to learn to understand - and speak - the language than to learn to write it.

Please note: two distinct spelling systems are used for Michif in the guide. One system was devised in the 1970s by the Turtle Mountain Métis, which is based on English spelling. The other is based on a more phonetic system, where double vowels are used for long vowels, and each letter or letter combination always represents the same sound. This spelling was devised by Rita Flamand, with some modifications by the linguist Robert Papen of  Montreal.

Both have been in use for a number of years. It is up to the users to adopt the system they like most.

The guide will be updated in the near future to include the Michif orthography which is in ongoing development and which was developed by Rita Flamand and Norman Fleury.