Neologism

The cultural shock provoked by the first contacts necessarily opened the door to the creation of new words that today are accepted in one language or another.  However, new words are much less numerous than direct borrowing from one language to another.   As an example, many lakes and rivers carry names from aboriginal languages that were adopted by the new arrivals into their basic language, but they were either literal or approximately heard.  Thus the names of lakes and rivers were Francisised or Anglicised according to existing vocabularies.  For example, if one breaks down the word Mistissini, frequently used to designate the great lake, the river and town of the same name, one recognises the borrowing.  In fact, «mishta» signifies «large» while «ashini» signifies «stone or rock».  From this large rock «mishta ashini» one has invented the word «mistissini» and also «mistassini».

On the other hand certain French, or English, words have been systematically borrowed by aboriginal languages, notably concerning concepts or objects that did not exist formerly.  For the Atikamekw, for example, one uses the term «nessikanet» to speak about cigarettes, a concept that did not exist originally.  It is also the case for other words «tekalet» for large cookies, «puti» for bottle and «kaphe» where the e is pronounced é for café in Nehlueun.