|
MAIN
LANGUAGE GROUPS
There are 630
registered Native bands in Canada. Approximately 500 in the United States
ALGONKIAN
-
Abenaki, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree-Montagnais,
Menomenee, Ojibwa (Southern Ontario-Saskatchewan), Mi'kmaq and Maliseet, Passamaquoddy (Maritimes), Plains such as Blackfoot (Alberta),
Ottawa (north shore of Georgian Bay, Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin
Island) and Potawatomi (lower Lake Michigan). Ojibwa, Ottawa and Algonkian
have been classified as a single language with numerous dialects, Shawnee
and Miami-Illinois.
Also, Lenape/Delaware - Lenape means "The People" or "Original People."
In Canada, currently located in southwestern Ontario.
ATHABASKAN
-
Northern
Athapaskan is spoken from interior Alaska to Hudson Bay. There are also
some speakers in the Plateau and Plains. Athapaskan languages include:
Babine-Witsuwit'en, Navajo, Apache, Kutchin, Hare, Dogrib, Han, Tutchone, Chipewyan, Slavey, Beaver, Kaska,
Sekani, Tahitan, Carrier, Chilcotin, Sarcee, Dene Suline, Labrador Inuit
Pidgin French, Coast Guich'in.
CREE:
Single language with different dialects: Plains Cree (plains and western
woodlands); Woods Cree (woodlands of central Saskatchewan and Manitoba);
West and East Swampy Cree (lowlands to the west of Hudson and James Bay);
Moose Cree (south of James Bay); East Cree (subarctic Quebec east of James
Bay); Attikamek or Tete de Boule (upper Saint-Maurice River region of
Quebec); Naskapi and Montagnais (eastern Quebec and Labrador*)
*Although Naskapi and Montagnais
(better known as Innu (means ‘person’) languages have been
classed as Cree, they maintain a distinct and separate identity.
HAUDENOSAUNEE (IROQUOIAN):
Languages
such as Huron and Neutral are now extinct. All languages spoken are from
the Six Nations that make up the Haudenosaunee League of Nations: Oneida,
Mohawk, Cayuga, Onandaga, Seneca, Tuscarora). Mohawk is the
dominant language among Canadian Haudenosaunee.
INUKTITUT:
Inuktitut
is the single spoken language across the Canadian Arctic and Greenland.
Also, Innu-aimun, Inuinnaqtun, Inupiaq, Inuvialuktun.
DAKOTA*:
Consists of
a single language, Dakota (Lakhota), spoken in the southern portions of the
three prairie provinces (and the Plains of the United States).
**The commonly
used word,
SIOUX
is, in fact an insult and comes from a French version of an Ojibwa word
meaning ‘snakes’, or metaphorically, ‘enemies’. Dakota means (‘Allies’).
METIS:
Michif - Post-European contact hybrid language.
As is the Chinook Jargon Trading Language.
NA-DENE:
Tlingit
PLATEAU:
Four
Salish languages (see Salishan below); Kutenai; Plateau Athapaskan;
Nichola (extinct); Chilcotin and Southern Carrier.
WAKASHAN:
(Preferred
description: Kwakwaka'wakw) in the central mainland of British Columbia.
In the northern part there are the Haisla, Kwak'ala, Heiltsuk.
SALISHAN:
Southern
coastal British Columbia, both on mainland and eastern Vancouver Island.
Also includes Nuxalt (Bella Coola), Comox, Sechelt, Saanich, Squamish, Halkomelem,
Straits, Lilloet, Thompson, Shuswap, Nuu-cha-nulth (formerly known as
Nootka - wrong!), Okanagan.
TSIMSHIAN:
Northern
British Columbia. There are Coast and Southern Tsimshian languages (Sm'algyax).
As wellm the Nisga'a and Gitksan peoples speak dialects of the Tsimshian
language. There is also another moreorless modern Tsimshian dialect called:
Shim-al-gyak.
HAIDA:
Occupy
Haida G'Wai (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia.
TLINGIT:
Southeastern
Alaska, off the northern coast of British Columbia, also the southern
Yukon.
KUTENAI:
Almost
extinct. Southeastern British Columbia
|
"Indians
have been cursed above all other people in history. Indians have
anthropologists."
