About Us - Mi'gmaq/Mi'kmaq Online Talking Dictionary

The Talking Dictionary

The talking dictionary (Nnuigtug Ugsituna’tas’g Glusuaqanei) is a resource for the Mi'gmaq/Mi’kmaq language. Each headword is recorded by a minimum of three speakers. Multiple speakers allow one to hear differences and variations in how a word is pronounced. Each recorded word is used in an accompanying phrase. This permits learners the opportunity to develop the important skill of distinguishing individual words when they are spoken in a phrase.

Thus far we have posted 6620 headwords, a majority of these entries include two to three additional forms.

The project was initiated in Listuguj, therefore all entries have Listuguj speakers and Listuguj spellings. In collaboration with Unama'ki, the site now includes a number of recordings from Unama'ki speakers. More will be added as they become available. Listuguj is in the Gespe'g territory of the Mi'gmaw, located on the southwest shore of the Gaspè peninsula. Unama'ki is a Mi’gmaw territory; in English it is known as Cape Breton.

Follow our word of the day posts in three orthographies at https://x.com/Pemaptoq

Pacifique Dictionary Manuscripts project

The Pacifique Dictionary Manuscripts project is the current source of words for the Mi’gmaq Online Talking Dictionary (MMO).

These words from our ancestors are from a time when the language was robust and part of everyday life in all Mi’gmaw/Mi’kmaw communities.

Père Pacifique de Valigny, a parish priest in Listuguj, handwrote a Mi'gmaq - French dictionary in the first half of the 1900s.

The words, handwritten in Pacifique’s orthography with French translations, are:

• transcribed
• abbreviations are expanded (unless not legible)
• references available online are displayed in the Document References section of corresponding headwords
• transliterated to contemporary Listuguj orthography
• translated to English
• researched
• historic written materials are consulted to find related entries. These related entries are particularly useful as a context for words that have gone out of use
• the list of reference books consulted and shared are listed in the Reference Books tab
• in instances when there is no online access to a referenced work, it is cited (if legible) in the text of the Pacifique page entry
• reviewed and discussed with speakers
• all material is reviewed with local Listuguj speakers; from there a collective decision is made on whether to record the word and add it to the online talking dictionary.
• words not selected to be recorded remain accessible in the Pacifique Dictionary Manuscript pages data

Terms that have gone out of use are a rich part of the information provided by these manuscripts.

Naturally, the manuscripts also contain well known, still-used words that have not yet been added to the dictionary, as they are found, they are added.

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Contact Us

Email:info@mikmaqonline.org

Thanks

Ta'n te'sijig mimajuinu'g apoqonmugsieg ula ntlugowaqannen wesgo'tmeg we'gwiwela'lieg aq we'gwimi'watmuleg.

We gratefully acknowledge and appreciate the support of all the people who have helped us with our work.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of:

• Listuguj Mi'gmaq Government https://www.listuguj.ca/
• Government of Canada https://www.canada.ca/
• Listuguj Education, Training & Employment (LED & LMDC) https://www.lete.listuguj.ca/
• First Nation's Educations Council (AFN, ALI) https://www.cepn-fnec.ca/en
• The Canada Council http://www.canadacouncil.ca
• Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk http://firstnationhelp.com/

We gratefully acknowledge material support from:

• Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, https://www.banq.qc.ca/
• University of Prince Edward Island, Robertson Library, https://islandlives.ca/

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license

You are free to share copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format including remixing, transforming, and building upon the material, for any non-commercial purpose as long as you give appropriate credit.