Owls See Clearly at Night (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer): A Michif Alphabet (L'alfabet di Michif) [Hardcover]

Julie Flett (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2010 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

This picture book is a small glimpse, from A to Z, of some of the sights and sounds of the Michif language and its speakers. The language of the Métis, Michif is a combination of French and Cree with a trace of other regional languages. Once spoken by thousands of people across the prairies of Canada and the northern United States, Michif is now so little spoken that it might disappear within a generation. This alphabet book is part of a resurgence to celebrate and preserve the traditions of the Métis people. Here Michif and English words combine with images from Métis culture to introduce all generations to the unique Michif language. The book even includes a brief introduction to the language's history, a pronunciation guide, and a list of references for those interested in learning more about Michif.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 56 pages
• Publisher: Simply Read Books; Bilingual edition (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897476280
• ISBN-13: 978-1897476284
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,253,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My introduction to the Michif language, June 6, 2011

By 

Craig Rowland (Mississauga) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Owls See Clearly at Night (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer): A Michif Alphabet (L'alfabet di Michif) (Hardcover)

Although I did not enjoy Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Language and Languages by Mikael Parkvall, I did spend two days reading its bibliography alone. Parkvall had consulted hundreds of titles in the compilation of his own work, and I discovered some books about certain languages I had not known about. One language that I had never encountered before reading Parkvall's book was Michif, a language of the Métis. The Michif language is a blend of Cree, French and other regional language elements. It is a severely endangered language, as more and more of the younger generations of Métis are monolingual in English. Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer : l'Alfabet di Michif = Owls See Clearly at Night : a Michif Alphabet by Julie Flett is an alphabet book for young children. I was published in 2010 and I was very surprised to find that my library had it.

Flett is an illustrator and for each of the letters of the Michif alphabet (which has no Q or X), Flett, herself a Métis, painted an image specifically relevant to Métis culture.

One can see the influence of French in Michif with the words for "water" = "diloo" (de l'eau); "barley" = "lorzh" (l'orge); "snow" = "la niizh" (la neige); "rain" = "la pwii" (la pluie); "eyes" = "lii zyeu" (les yeux); "owls" = "lii yiiboo" (les hiboux) and "night" = "lii swer" (le soir).

Michif is only recently a written language, and is still developing a standard orthography. The title alone, to my unscientific eye, seems symptomatic of a new orthography in its abundance of double letters.

The paintings are coloured in shades of black, white and red, some with a rare addition of blue or green. They often resembled shadows or silhouettes.