The Mi’kmaq Language
Within Algonquian, the Eastern languages are generally considered to constitute a genetic subgroup . Goddard provides a good overview of the languages in this branch. The precise number of distinct languages spoken at contact and their interrelationships are difficult to establish with certainty for several reasons. Many have disappeared. Attestation of some is limited to short word-lists, some showing internal dialect variation. Languages of many groups mentioned in early accounts were never documented at all. There was also continued contact among groups. Early authors differ in their appraisals of mutual intelligibility; some emphasize similarities, others differences. The northernmost and most … Read more