Posted: Feb 17, 2021 9:03 PM AT | Last Updated: February 18
Mi kmaw linguist Bernie Francis worries some important details about the spread of the virus might be lost on people whose first language is Mi kmaw.(Nic Meloney/CBC)
As variant strains of the coronavirus spread quickly in many parts of Canada, a Mi kmaw elder is worried that important information about COVID-19 could get lost in translation.
Terms like variant, B117 and mRNA simply don t exist in the Mi kmaw language, said linguist Bernie Francis, who helped create the writing system for the oral language.
He wants more information about the virus and its new variants available to people living on reserve, especially elders, for whom English is not their first language.