In your work as a linguist, have you come across any new words in different Algonquin languages?
I gave the example to this committee of the eastern Cree. I'm from James Bay on the Quebec side. I'm the first Cree from northern Quebec to have been elected to Parliament, back in 2011. It's understandable, then, that there was no word for “member of Parliament” in our language. We literally had to work with elders to determine the best word we could use to define what a member of Parliament does, and that's how we came up with “yimstimagesu”.
I believe very strongly in the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages in this country, but I also believe in the development of these languages, taking into account the modern context in which they will survive and develop. Have you come across any words in your work that were literally invented?