Oji-Cree language

Oji-Cree
Severn Ojibwa
Anishininiimowin, ᐊᓂᔑᓂᓂᒧᐏᐣ
Native toCanada
RegionOntario, Manitoba
EthnicityOji-Cree
Native speakers
13,630 (2016 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ojs
Glottologseve1240
ELPOji-Cree
Map of Anishinaabe peoples in 1800
Oji-Cree is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains Canadian Aboriginal syllabic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of syllabics.

The Severn Ojibwa or the Oji-Cree language (ᐊᓂᐦᔑᓂᓃᒧᐏᐣ, Anishininiimowin; Unpointed: ᐊᓂᔑᓂᓂᒧᐏᐣ) is the indigenous name for a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of Oji-Cree communities in northern Ontario and at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Ojibwa is a member of the Algonquian language family, itself a member of the Algic language family.

The language is often referred to in English as Oji-Cree, with the term Severn Ojibwa (or Ojibwe) primarily used by linguists and anthropologists.[3] Severn Ojibwa speakers have also been identified as Northern Ojibwa,[4] and the same term has been applied to their dialect.[5]

Severn Ojibwa speakers use two self-designations in their own language. The first is Anishinini 'ordinary person' (plural Anishininiwag)[6] This term has been compared to Plains Cree ayisiyiniw 'person, human being.' [7] The term Anishinaabe 'ordinary man,' which is widely used as a self-designation across the Ojibwa dialect continuum, is also used and accepted by Severn speakers.[8]

The term Anishininiimowin is the general word used in Severn Ojibwa to refer to the language itself (noun Anishinini 'ordinary person,' suffix -mo 'speak a language,' suffix -win 'nominalizer').[9] A similar term Anishinaabemowin with the same structure would be expected but has not been documented in published sources.

Anishininiimowin was one of only six aboriginal languages in Canada to report an increase in use in the 2001 Canadian census over the 1996 census.[10]

  1. ^ "Language Highlight Tables, 2016 Census – Aboriginal mother tongue, Aboriginal language spoken most often at home and Other Aboriginal language(s) spoken regularly at home for the population excluding institutional residents of Canada, provinces and territories, 2016 Census – 100% Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada, Statistics. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Severn-Algonquin". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2022-10-30. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
  3. ^ Rhodes, Richard and Evelyn Todd, 1981; Valentine, J. Randolph, 1994; Valentine, Lisa P., 1995
  4. ^ Rogers, Edward, 1981
  5. ^ Rogers, J., 1964
  6. ^ J. Randolph Valentine, 1994, p. 117
  7. ^ Valentine, J. Randolph, 1994, p. 117; Wolfengrey, Arok, 2001, p. 17. Wolfengrey's representation corrects the apparent anomalies observed by Valentine in his source for this term, which wrote ayiisiniyiwak 'people'; this appears to reflect typographical errors in the length of the vowel in the second syllable, as well as reversing the third and fourth consonants. Wolfengrey actually writes aȳisiȳiniwaɡ, where the acute accent means that the ⟨y⟩ has different pronunciations in other dialects.
  8. ^ Rogers, Edward and G. Taylor, 1981, p. 241
  9. ^ J. Randolph Valentine, 1994
  10. ^ Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A Demographic Profile, Statistics Canada