Mi’kmaq

About Mi'kmaq

Mi'kmaq is the language of the Mi'kmaq people of Atlantic Canada and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, with smaller communities in Maine. About 8,000 people spoke it in 2011, and UNESCO classes it as vulnerable.

Several spelling systems have been used. The most common today is the Francis-Smith system, in which an apostrophe after a vowel makes it long. Hello is kwe'.

FamilyAlgonquian (Eastern)
Speakersabout 8,000 (2011)
Where spokenCanada (Atlantic provinces, Quebec), United States (Maine)
Statusvulnerable (UNESCO)
ScriptLatin alphabet
Codemic (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Ethnologue (2011), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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