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Anishinàbemiwin (Algonquin)

Anishinàbemiwin is a language very closely related to Ojibway, Odawa, and Oji-Cree; it could be considered to be the easternmost part of an Ojibway dialect chain stretching from the Rockies to western Quebec. The English term for this language is ‘Algonquin’, not to be confused with ‘Algonquian’ which is the linguistics label for the language family.

There are three major dialects of the language as described by Valentine (1994): Northern, Western, and Nipissing Algonquian, see the following maps for details: Ontario, Québec.

There are several community based orthographies which are outlined below.

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.

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The Canadian Census lists 2,425 speakers. Howe and Cook include Algonquian with other Ojibway dialects (total 45,000)

Community Names

Kitigàn Zìbì : River Desert
Pikwàkanagàn : Golden Lake
Abitibiwininì : Pikogan
Barrière Lake
Eagle Village
Lac Simon
Long Point
Timiskaming
Wahgoshig : Abitibi, Ontario
Winneway
Wolfe Lake

Nipissing-Algonquin Orthography: Consonants
  bilabial alveolar palato-alveolar palatal velar glottal
voiceless stop p t ch   k
voiced stop b d dj   g  
voiceless fricative   s sh     h
voiced fricative   z j      
nasal m n     ng  
approximate w     y    

Vowels
  front central back
high i – ì    
mid e   o – ò
low   a - à

Notes:

  • Nasal vowels are indicated by ?
  • The voiceless and voiced consonants in the table above could also be labelled phonologically as fortis (strong) and lenis (weak) respectively. In many dialects, the voiceless consonants are more heavily aspirated (with a strong [h] sound afterwards) than in English. At the end of a word, the voiceless and voiced sounds coalesce to varying degrees.
  • The vowel /e/ is always long—there is no short /e/—so the orthography does not require it to be accented. The other long vowels take the gràve accent.
  • Hyphens are used to separate some prefixes/preverbs from verbs.

Northern Algonquin Orthography: Consonants
  bilabial alveolar palato-alveolar palatal velar glottal
voiceless stop p t tc   k
voiced stop b d dj   g  
voiceless fricative   s c     h
voiced fricative   z j      
nasal m n     ng  
approximate 8     y    

Vowels
  front central back
high i – ì    
mid e   o – ò
low   a - à

Notes:

  • Nasal vowels are indicated by ?
  • The voiceless and voiced consonants in the table above could also be labelled phonologically as fortis (strong) and lenis (weak) respectively. In many dialects, the voiceless consonants are more heavily aspirated (with a strong [h] sound afterwards) than in English. At the end of a word, the voiceless and voiced sounds coalesce to varying degrees.
  • The vowel /e/ is always long—there is no short /e/—so the orthography does not require it to be accented. The other long vowels take the gràve accent.
  • Hyphens are used to separate some prefixes/preverbs from verbs.
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