The Potawatomi language homeland is in lower Michigan, although now speakers also live in several scattered communities in the United States and into southern Ontario.
There are several writing systems which have been in use by Potawatomi speakers over the centuries. An indigenous adaptation of French handwriting, commonly known as the traditional orthography was developed in the 1800’s. More information on this system will appear on this site in the future. The writing system shown here is the Pedagogical writing system from the 1970’s, which originates from the Wisconsin Native American Languages Program (Buszard-Welcher). It is very close to the Ojibway (and English for that matter) roman orthography for consonant sounds, but the very nature of Potawatomi vowels demands a very different representation.
Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.
Demographics
According to Howe and Cook, there are 150 speakers of Potawatomi with less than 50 in Canada. The United States Census reports that there are 175 speakers (U.S. Census).
Communities
- Walpole Island (Ontario)
- Caldwell (Ontario)
- Hannaville (Upper Michigan)
- Huron Potawatomi (S.E. Michigan)
- Pokagon (S.W. Michigan)
- Forest County Potawatomi (Wisconsin)
- Prairie Potawatomi (Kansas)
- Citizen Potawatomi (Oklahoma)
WNALP Bodéwadminwen/Nishnabémwen Consonants
| bilabial | alveolar | pal.-alveolar | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiced stop | b |
d |
j |
g |
’ |
| voiceless stop | p |
t |
ch (c) |
k |
|
| voiced fricative | z |
zh |
|||
| voiceless fricative | s |
sh |
h |
||
| nasal | m |
n |
|||
| approximate / voiced fricative | w |
y |
WNALP Bodéwadminwen/Nishnabémwen Vowels
| Front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | i |
||
| mid | é (e’) |
e (e, I, v) |
o (o, u) |
| low | a |
Notes
- The schwa’s ‹e› exact pronunciation is modified by its surrounding sounds: [ɩ] before /n/ and /y/; [ʌ] before /g/, /k/, /y/, and /’/; everywhere else it is [ə].
- ‹e’› (with an apostrophe) is a common substitute for ‹é›.
- An orthography alternative from the Prairie Band Potawatomi is indicated in parentheses. This orthography is more phonetic than phonological in that it makes extra distinctions in vowel sounds. Specifically capital-i ‹I› for [ɩ] and ‹v› for [v].
- Mixed-case orthographies can cause certain problems on computers.
