Mi'kmaq
/ˈmɪk.mæk/noun
An Indigenous people of the northeastern Woodlands, especially in eastern Canada; also their Eastern Algonquian language.
Did you know?Mi'kmaq is the plural form of the people’s own name, and English spellings like Micmac are later approximations of a much older Indigenous word preserved through French contact.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Algonquian
PA
*a·lǝmwa?
“No secure single ancestral reconstruction is universally agreed for the ethnonym; the name is inherited within the Algonquian language family, but the deepest form is not firmly established.”
Early Eastern Algonquian
EA
mi'kmaw / mi'kmaq
“The people’s self-name, with mi'kmaq as the plural form.”
16th–17th Century
French
Micmac
“French spelling used for the people encountered in northeastern North America.”
17th–18th Century
English
Micmac
“English borrowed the French form for the people and their language.”
Modern English
English
Mi'kmaq
“Current preferred spelling reflecting the Indigenous name more closely.”