Bungi Creole


Bungi is a creole language of Scottish English, the Orcadian dialect of Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Cree, and Ojibwe. It is spoken by the Red River Métis in present-day Manitoba, Canada.
Bungi has been categorized as a post-creole, with the distinctive features of the language gradually abandoned by successive generations of speakers in favour of standard Canadian English. Today, the creole mostly survives in the speech of a few elders, and the use of non-standard pronunciations and terminology by a wider population.

Name

The name derives from either bangii, or pahkī, both words meaning a little bit. In addition to describing the language, Bungi can refer to First Nations persons generally, or those with mixed European and First Nations ancestry. In these colloquial uses the term may have mildly pejorative connotations, even when used by speakers to describe themselves.

Description

The lexicon is mostly English with words from Cree and Ojibwa interspersed throughout.

Social context

Many speakers in Blain's studies were ashamed to speak the dialect as the speech community members were discriminated against by other groups. In many cases, children were forbidden from speaking their mother tongue in the Canadian Indian residential school system.
The major difference with other dialects is in the phonology. Voice quality differences are noticeably apparent.

Scholarship

The main linguistic documentation of this dialect lies within Blain and Walter.