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Algonquin (also spelled Algonkin; in Algonquin: or ) is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the
Ojibwe language Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian la ...
or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and to some extent
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, by the Algonquin First Nations of
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
and
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. As of 2006, there were 2,680 Algonquin speakers,. less than 10% of whom were monolingual. Algonquin is the language for which the entire Algonquian language subgroup is named; the similarity among the names often causes considerable confusion. Like many Native American languages, it is strongly verb-based, with most meaning being incorporated into verbs instead of using separate words for prepositions, tense, etc.


Classification

Omàmìwininìmowin (Algonquin) is an Algonquian language, of the Algic family of languages, and is descended from Proto-Algonquian. It is considered a particularly divergent dialect of
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
by many. But, although the speakers call themselves '' Omàmìwininì or'' , the Ojibwe call them (those at the end of the lake). Among Omàmìwininì (Algonquins), however, the Nipissing are called (the Algonquin orthography for the Ojibwe ) and their language as . The rest of the Omàmìwininìmowin (Algonquin) communities call themselves (down-stream men), and the language (speech of the down-stream men). Other than Omàmìwininìmowin (Algonquin), languages considered as particularly divergent dialects of the
Anishinaabe language Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian lan ...
include
Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popu ...
(often called "Eastern Ojibwe") and
Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They h ...
. The Potawatomi language was considered a divergent dialect of Anishinaabemowin (the Anishinaabe language) but now is considered a separate language. Culturally, Omàmìwininì (Algonquin) and the Michi Saagiig (Mississaugas) were not part of the Ojibwe–Odawa–Potawatomi alliance known as the Council of Three Fires. The Omàmìwininìwak (Algonquins) maintained stronger cultural ties with the
Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pre ...
, Atikamekw and
Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
. Among sister Algonquian languages are
Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or "Blackfoot language, Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up t ...
,
Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
,
Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
, Fox, Menominee,
Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
, and
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
. The Algic family contains the Algonquian languages and the so-called "
Ritwan The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to ...
" languages,
Wiyot The Wiyot (Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-’at xee-she or Wee-yan’ Xee-she’, Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne - "Mad River People“, Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a sma ...
and Yurok. Ojibwe and its similar languages are frequently referred to as a "
Central Algonquian The Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though the grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping, not a geneti ...
" language; however, Central Algonquian is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one. Among Algonquian languages, only the
Eastern Algonquian languages The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and ad ...
constitute a true genetic subgroup. The northern Omàmìwininìmowin (Algonquin language) dialect of Anishinabemowin as spoken at Winneway, Quebec (Long Point), and Timiskaming First Nation, Quebec, is a similar dialect to the Oji-Cree dialect (Severn/Anishininimowin) of northwestern Ontario, despite being geographically separated by .


Dialects

There are several dialects of Omàmìwininìmowin (the Algonquin language), generally grouped broadly as ''Northern Algonquin'' and ''Western Algonquin''. Speakers at
Kitigan Zibi Kitigan Zibi (also known as River Desert, and designated as Maniwaki 18 until 1994) is a First Nations reserve of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, an Algonquin band. It is situated near the confluence of the Désert and Gatineau River ...
consider their language to be ''Southern Algonquin'', though linguistically it is a dialect of ''Nipissing Ojibwa'' which, together with ''Mississauga Ojibwa'' and ''Odawa'', form the ''Nishnaabemwin (Eastern Ojibwa)'' group of the Ojibwa dialect continuum.


Phonology


Consonants

The consonant
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
s and major allophones of Algonquin in Cuoq spelling, one of several common orthographies, and its common variants are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets): In an older orthography still popular in some of the Algonquin communities, known as the Malhiot () spelling, which the above Cuoq spelling was based upon, are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):


Aspiration and allophony

The Algonquin consonants ''p'', ''t'' and ''k'' are unaspirated when they are pronounced between two vowels or after an ''m'' or ''n''; plain voiceless and voiceless aspirated stops in Algonquin are thus
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s. So kìjig ("day") is pronounced , but anokì kìjig ("working day") is pronounced .


Vowels


Diphthongs


Nasal vowels

Algonquin does have nasal vowels, but they are allophonic variants (similar to how in English vowels are sometimes nasalized before ''m'' and ''n''). In Algonquin, vowels automatically become nasal before ''nd'', ''ndj'', ''ng'', ''nh'', ''nhi'', ''nj'' or ''nz''. For example, kìgònz ("fish") is pronounced , not .


Stress

Word stress in Algonquin is complex but regular. Words are divided into iambic feet (an iambic foot being a sequence of one "weak" syllable plus one "strong" syllable), counting long vowels (''à'', ''è'', ''ì'', ''ò'') as a full foot (a foot consisting of a single "strong" syllable). The primary stress is then normally on the strong syllable of the third foot from the end of the word—which, in words that are five syllables long or less, usually translates in practical terms to the first syllable (if it has a long vowel) or the second syllable (if it doesn't). The strong syllables of the remaining iambic feet each carry secondary stress, as do any final weak syllables. For example: , , , .


See also

*
Ojibwe dialects The Ojibwe language is spoken in a series of dialects occupying adjacent territories, forming a language complex in which mutual intelligibility between adjacent dialects may be comparatively high but declines between some non-adjacent dialects. ...
*
Algonquian Bible The ''Eliot Indian Bible'' ( alq, Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God; also known as the ''Algonquian Bible'') was the first translation of the Christian Bible into an indigenous American language, as well as the first Bible publishe ...
* List of First Nations place names in Canada *
Algonquian–Basque pidgin Algonquian–Basque pidgin, also known as Souriquois, was a Basque-based pidgin spoken by Basque whalers and various Algonquian peoples. It was spoken around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It was in use from at least 1580 until 1635, and was las ...


References


Further reading

* Artuso, Christian. 1998. ''noogom gaa-izhi-anishinaabemonaaniwag: Generational Difference in Algonquin''. Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba Press

* * Cuoq, Jean André. 1866. ''Études philologiques sur quelques langues sauvages de l'Amérique''. Montréal: Dawson. * Cuoq, Jean André. 1886. ''Lexique de la Langue Algonquine''. Montréal: J. Chapleau & Fils. * Cuoq, Jean André. 1891? ''Grammaire de la Langue Algonquine''. .l.: s.n.* * Mcgregor, Ernest. 1994. ''Algonquin Lexicon''. Maniwaki, QC: Kitigan Zibi Education Council. * Mithun, Marianne. 1999. ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


External links


French - Algonquin dictionary from the Algonquin Nation Tribal CouncilOLAC resources in and about the Algonquin language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Algonquin Language Central Algonquian languages Anishinaabe languages Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands First Nations languages in Canada Languages of the United States