Algonquian Languages

Background and Geography

Algonquian languages (not to be confused with the Algonquin language itself) have historically been spoken primarily in the Great Lakes region (extending to some parts of the Rocky Mountains), along the coast of the northern Atlantic down to the modern-day Carolinas. They are also spoken in New England and in parts of Canada. Each language within the Algonquian language subgroup has many of its own dialects, and therefore it is difficult to state precisely how many languages make up the Algonquian subgroup; general estimates approximate, however, that there are around 40 languages in total with a small handful under dispute. Some of the most popularly spoken languages within the Algonquian family include Cree, Ojibwe (or Anishinaabemowin), Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo, and Blackfoot (Siksika).

One clue to the language subfamily's widespread reach is found in tribal histories, many of which have been corroborated by anthropological and linguistic evidence. The Blackfoot tribe, the most westward tribe of those that comprise the Algonquian language group, is said to have migrated from the Northeastern Woodlands around 1200. Such a migration makes sense linguistically and culturally, as the Blackfeet have adapted to Plains/Athabaskan traditions and Blackfoot is the most divergent of the Algonquian languages. According to Ojibwe oral tradition, the tribe originated from the Lenni Lenape (also known as the Delaware) and migrated around 1660 from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River near New Brunswick across the Great Lakes, following the sacred miigis—a floating seashell—until they reached the divide between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, at which point the group split into three divisions, which became the Potawatomi, the Ottawa, and the Ojibwe.

These histories of migration are also reflected in contemporary cultural divisions. Officially, the Algonquian language subfamily is its own genetic subgroup, though some scholars have further divided the group into three geographic sections: Plains Algonquian, Central Algonquian, and Eastern Algonquian. These divisions are largely based on geography rather than language. Within such a real categorization, Plains Algonquian is comprised of Blackfoot, Cheyenne, and Arapahoan, whereas Central Algonquian contains a number of derivations of Ojibwe, Cree, Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo, Menominee, Miami-Illinois, Potawatomi, and Shawnee. The final division, Eastern Algonquian, is arguably more linguistically accurate as a genetic subgroup of the Algonquian language subfamily. Eastern Algonquian languages have all but disappeared; of the listed 16 subdivisions, only five still have living speakers.

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