Grammar
Michif is the official language of the Métis Nation. It is one of many languages connected to the Métis people and is part of their history. This is part 3 in a three-part series on the history of French in Canada. Check out part 1 on Quebec French and part 2 on Acadian French.
In linguistics, we observe a phenomenon known as contact languages. Contact languages emerge, as the name suggests, because of prolonged interactions between speakers of two ore more distinct and mutually unintelligible languages who do not otherwise share a lingua franca.
Acadian French is the second most common variety of French used in Canada, after Quebec French. Today, you are most likely to meet Acadian French speakers in New Brunswick and the surrounding Maritime provinces. This is the land that historically made up Acadia during the time of French settlers in New France. The evolution of…
Some non-Canadians hear that Canada has two official languages, English and French, and may assume that that means every Canadian is fluent in both languages. However, that isn’t true – well, unless you go to New Brunswick. Rather, English and French underwent separate emergences in Canada. Here, I go through some of the history of…
The other day my dad called me into the living room to show me a video on his iPad. The video was of three men conversing in Danish while operating a combine harvester. “Do you recognize the dialect?” my dad asked. I told him no. “All Danish is Danish to me,” I explained, or something…
The holidays are over and 2026 is officially underway! Now, a lot of people – including yours truly – are ready to jump back into the swing of things. New year, new me, right? For me, that means getting back to my language practice (if you’re new to Root, Stem, Base, I’ve been learning Danish)…
Recently, I was talking to my parents about how I was confused about the way numbers are named in Danish. I’ve been actively studying Danish for the past month and I’m constantly baffled by the numbers, specifically the 10s.