Gourt Home::Gourt :: Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing
Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing was a pictographic writing scheme and memory aid used by the Mi'kmaq.
Technically, the symbols were logograms and not hieroglyphs — which incorporate both alphabetic and logographic information while also acting as ideograms. The Mi'kmaq system is an ideogrammatical system.
It has been debated by some scholars whether the original "hieroglyphs" qualified fully as a writing system rather than merely a mnemonic device, before their adaptation for pedagogical purposes in the 17th century by a French missionary. Ives Goddard and William Fitzhugh from the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution contended in 1978 that the system was purely mnemonic, because it could not be used to write new compositions. Schmidt and Marshall argued in 1995 that the newly adapted form was able to act as a fully-functional writing system, and did not involve only mnemonic functions. This would mean that the Mi'kmaq system is the oldest writing system for a North American language north of Mexico.
Origins
Father Chrétien Le Clercq, a Roman Catholic missionary on the Gaspé peninsula in the mid-1600s, claimed that he had seen some Mi'kmaq children 'writing' symbols on birchbark as a memory aid. This was sometimes done by pressing porcupine quills directly into the bark in the shape of symbols. Le Clercq adapted those symbols to writing prayers, developing new symbols as necessary. This writing system proved popular among Mi'kmaq, and was still in use in the 19th century. Since there is no historical or archaeological evidence of these symbols from before the arrival of this missionary, it is unclear how ancient the use of the mnemonic glyphs was. The relationship of these symbols with Mi'kmaq petroglyphs is also unclear.
The Fell hypothesis
Biologist Barry Fell made the controversial claim that Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing was not only pre-Columbian, but also Egyptian in origin; however his theory has been rejected in academic circles (Goddard & Fitzhugh, Schmidt & Marshall). A web page called Egyptians in Acadia offers an illustration of some of Fell's claims (apparently taken from Fell 1992) giving only four examples. Comparison with the actual Egyptian hieroglyphs shows that Fell's claims have some shortcomings:
| Hieroglyphs | and discussion|
|---|---|
| | F35 heart-and-windpipe; used as shown in nfr 'good'. Used three together this means 'beauty'. Does not mean 'truth'. |
| | N14 star; used in sb3 'star'; the centre example with N11 j'h 'moon' means 3bd 'month'; the rightmost example, shown with N1 pt 'sky' does not occur; The words for 'heaven' and 'sky' do not use the star hieroglyph. |
| | V30 wickerwork-basket; used in nb 'all'. The Mi'kmaq msɨt 'all' (not 'full'?) is not drawn accurately; it is a large equilateral triangle made up of horizontal lines, not a low horizontal sign like V30. See the example at the top of the page. |
| | O41 double-stairway; used in q3y 'ascent', 'high place', j'r 'ascend'. Does not mean 'exalted one'. |
External links
- Mi'kmaq Portraits Collection Includes tracings and images of Mi'kmaq petroglyphs
- Micmac at ChristusRex.org A large collection of scans of prayers in Mi'kmaq hieroglyphs.
- Écriture sacrée en Nouvelle France: Les hiéroglyphes micmacs et transformation cosmologique (PDF, in French) A discussion of the origins of Mi'kmaq hieroglyphs and sociocultural change in 17th century Micmac society.
References
- Fell, Barry. 1992. "The Micmac Manuscripts" in Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers, 21:295.
- Goddard, Ives, and William W. Fitzhugh. 1978. "Barry Fell Reexamined", in The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 41, No. 3. (September), pp. 85-88.
- Christian. 1921. Sapeoig Oigatigen tan teli Gômgoetjoigasigel Alasotmaganel, Ginamatineoel ag Getapefiemgeoel; Manuel de Prières, instructions et changs sacrés en Hieroglyphes micmacs; Manual of Prayers, Instructions, Psalms & Hymns in Micmac Ideograms. New edition of Father Kauder's Book published in 1866. Ristigouche, Québec: The Micmac Messenger.
- Lenhart, John. History relating to Manual of prayers, instructions, psalms and humns in Micmac Ideograms used by Micmac Indians fof Eastern Canada and Newfoundland. Sydney, Nova Scotia: The Nova Scotia Native Commuications Society.
- Schmidt, David, and Murdena Marshall. 1995. Mi'kmaq Hieroglyphic Prayers: Readings in North America's First Indigenous Script. Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 1551090694
"Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing"