On the Computational Modelling of M ichif Verbal Morphology (2021)

Abstract: This paper presents a finite-state computational model of the verbal morphology of Michif. Michif, the official language of the Métis peoples, is a uniquely mixed language with Algonquian and French origins. It is spoken across the Métis homelands in what is now called Canada and the United States, but it is highly endangered with less than 100 speakers. The verbal morphology is remarkably complex, as the already polysynthetic Algonquian patterns are combined with French elements and unique morpho-phonological interactions. The model presented in this paper, LI VERB KAA-OOSHITAHK DI MICHIF handles this complexity by using a series of composed finite-state transducers to model the concatenative morphology and phonological rule alternations that are unique to Michif. Such a rule-based approach is necessary as there is insufficient language data for an approach that uses machine learning. A language model such as LI VERB KAA-OOSHITAHK DI MICHIF furthers the goals of Indigenous computational linguistics in Canada while also supporting the creation of tools for documentation, education, and revitalization that are desired by the Métis community.

## introduction in recent years there has been an increase in computational linguistic analysis of indigenous languages spoken in what is now called canada, and in particular algonquian languages such as east cree @xcite , plains cree @xcite , and odawa @xcite . this paper adds michif-a mixed language of cree and french origin-to the list with a description of li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif. li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif, which translates as "the michif verb maker", is a computational model of the verbal morphology of michif, implemented in the xfst framework of @xcite . ## motivation during the 19 th century, marriage between french fur traders and cree and anishinaabe women in the métis homeland was common, and their descendants became known as the métis peoples @xcite . michif (iso 639-3: crg), an algonquian language, emerged as a mixed language which combined elements of french with the indigenous algonquian languages cree and saulteaux-a distinct dialect of ojibwa @xcite . there are many varieties of the michif language, however li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif is based on a variety spoken mainly in manitoba, southern saskatchewan, north dakota, and montana. lack of linguistic documentation and analysis restricts the ability to create formalized teaching tools and technologies and hinders the efforts of language learners and activists in indigenous communities. the number of speakers has decreased significantly. it is difficult to estimate true numbers of speakers of the "intertwined" language @xcite , but michif language activists estimate approximately 50-100 speakers with only a handful presently robust enough to be involved in revitalization work @xcite . li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif aims to create a complete model of the verbal morphology of michif based on the current language data. the output of such a model has many applications, including a smartphone application for conjugating verbs in michif. 1 li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif represents a collabora-tive effort between linguists, computer scientists, and the michif speech community. the source code for li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif is not publicly available to maintain métis sovereignty of the language data as requested by the community. ## michif linguistic background the unique mixed origins of michif are reflected in all linguistic domains. the phonological inventory of michif is sourced from both french and cree (with the "saulteaux" or "chippewa" dialect of objibwe being a more minor source language). the pronominals are largely french based and verbal constructions are primarily algonquianderived @xcite @xcite . however, while the morphemes and their concatenations are similar to algonquian languages such as plains cree, the morpho-phonological interactions differ significantly from its sources @xcite . michif is similar to other algonquian languages in the degree of polysynthetic complexity, yet there are still distinguishing features that make it unique. verbs can be highly productive by concatenating morphemes containing many categories of syntactic information; figure 1 provides an illustration of the basic verbal template. the glosses below show an example of a simple verb form and one of a more complex verb form. ind.prs.have.vai-3sg 'he/she has.' (2) ee-ka-kishkeetamiiyit ee-ka-kishkeet-amii-yi-t conj-fut-know.vti-3>3-obv1-obv2 'as/that he/she (obv) knows it.' michif verbs can be broken down into four inflectional classes by transitivity and animacy. transitive verbs combine with the animacy of the object to create their inflectional classes (transitive animate (vta) & transitive inanimate (vti)), while intransitive verbs combine with the animacy of the subject (animate intransitive (vai) & inanimate intransitive (vii)) @xcite . person mark-ing, obviation, and direction affixes vary according to the inflectional class. there are also two minor classes, animate intransitive transitive (vait) @xcite and animate intransitive transitive animate/inanimate (vaita/i) @xcite . all inflectional classes can be further broken down into the independent and conjunct orders. the independent order marks person and number with long distance agreement between prefixes and suffixes, and is used to express the indicative mode. the conjunct order expresses the indicative and subjunctive modes, and is typically marked with the 'ee-' prefix, meaning 'while/as'. preverbs provide inflectional and lexical information before the stem of a verb, but occur after the person marking prefix in the independent order, or after the conjunct marker in the conjunct order. grammatical preverbs cover tense or relativization, while lexical preverbs are a closed class that add lexical meaning @xcite . preverbs are optional, and a verb can be modified by multiple preverbs, as seen in the below example. however, while recursion of preverbs is theoretically possible in michif, such forms are not used by speakers in practice, so this recursion is not modelled by li verb kaaooshitahk di michif. obviation occurs across all inflectional classes in michif and is triggered by obviative nouns (marked or unmarked) @xcite . it only occurs in the 3 rd person, and number distinction is not specified, although the verb takes the 3sg suffix foot_1 . vai verbs mark obviation in up to two places, relying on long distance dependencies. the 'yi' morpheme occurs immediately following the stem. the independent order will have an extra 'a' morpheme following the person marking affix, while the conjunct order will not. this pattern is visible in the examples in the glosses below. @xcite . there are two primary components of a lexical transducer: the lexicon and the rewriterules. the lexicon uses a set of labelled sub-lexicons which declare the rules for morphological concatenation @xcite . this is accomplished by using regular expressions and flag diacritics. then, the rewriterules further constrain the output of the fsts by using regular expressions to apply phonological restrictions. foma @xcite , a finite-state compiler, takes the lexicon and the rewriterules to create a composed finite-state transducer-in this case, li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif. using fsts to model low-resource languages such as michif is advantageous, as rule-based definitions of verbal paradigms do not rely on access to large, morphologically-tagged corpora which do not exist for michif. ## discussion the latest version of li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif includes 105 verb stems, which generate a total of 155,621 verb forms. compared to the plains cree fst, which has around 13,000 verb stems and effectively infinite verbs forms due to recursion, li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif is relatively small. however, it is important to recognize that the difference in size is a direct consequence of the linguistic situation of michif. there is no gold standard morphologically-tagged corpus, such as that which exists for plains cree (2017b), against which to compare output forms. as a result, the generated forms are hand-verified by speakers @xcite , so having such a large model is less feasible. the primary challenge that was faced when creating li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif is the lack of consistent language data. the published paradigms conflict in their analysis of michif verbal morphology, particularly with regards to phonological elements such as vowel length in person marking suffixes @xcite @xcite . initially, much of the fst was based on data scraped together from glosses discussing other phenomena, resulting in paradigm gaps. in the absence of accurate language data, the role of speakers becomes vital to ensuring the model generates accurate outputs, beginning with having complete morphological paradigms. the imperative, subjunctive, and reflexive modes are not currently part of the model. while paradigms for these forms now exist at least partially, in order to implement them the structure of the current fst would have to be built again from the ground up. at the time of creating the current model these paradigms were not available, and so they were not included in the original architectural design and layout of the fst in foma. ## conclusion despite the development of li verb kaa-ooshitahk di michif, much more work is needed to create a complete account of the verbal morphology of michif. computational language modelling is an important foundational step towards creating language learning resources and making the creation of those resources more accessible to indigenous language communities.