Talk:Bungee language

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[edit] mixed language

although I havent read about this, it does not seem clear that it is a mixed language. Mixed languages are relatively rare. Blain seems to think it is a variety of English. anyway, it's good to have an article on this. peace – ishwar  (speak) 21:19, 2005 August 19 (UTC)

In the case of a language like this, contemporary forms will be more anglicised than previous ones. --MacRusgail 16:48, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

I don`t see how it could be a variety of English if it is a mixture of Scottish Gaelic and Cree. Perhaps the article should also mention English (which is germanic and therefore quite different from gaelic) or otherwise change it to suit the facts. From what little I`ve read its clear that Bungi was a language in Western Canada, at least during the 19th century. It also seems to me that due to the nature of the fur trade Bungi was probably spoken throughout the Northwest (present day Saskatchewan & Alberta) as well as Manitoba as described here. Does anyone have any thoughts or sources on this? Wyldkat 19:17, 19 July 2006

Actually, this article is very incomplete. I will try to update it a little in the coming days. The two pages in the "External links" section are good sources and have plenty of background on the history of the language. It appears that this language started as Indians learned English from workers in the Hudson Bay Company (HBC). Most (if not all) of these workers were Highlanders whose native language was Gaelic but also spoke fluent Scots English. So the dialect the Indians learned was Scots-English peppered with a lot of Gaelic. As more and more Scotsmen came, the population of mixed Scots-Indians increased and their speech evolved over a few generations into a pidgin based largely on Scots-English vocabulary with Cree phonology (there were many English/Gaelic sounds that the Cree could not pronounce) and a simplification in grammar of both "parent" languages. Gaelic had a large influence on the language but through Scots-English as the medium. The language also contained words of French origin as French traders entered the territory.--WilliamThweatt 23:55, 17 July 2006 (UTC)


I just wanted to say thank you for working on this page. Bungee is one of the great trade languages and it is nice to see it actually getting an entry.

Its important to remember the fairly early date for the start of the language in the 18th century, when Gaelic was likely still dominant over Scots in the Highlands. Does anyone know if there was much of an influence from the Orkney's in Bungee? A very large proportion of the HBC recruits were Orkadians.

S! Hrimpurstala (talk) 02:33, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pronounciation of the name

Does anybody know how to pronounce this language name, I mean /ˈbʌn.ʤi/ or /ˈbʌn.gi/? --Koryakov Yuri (talk) 09:24, 28 March 2008 (UTC)