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This report is a collaborative research project between Statistics Canada and the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages. It is intended to provide a general overview on the vitality, acquisition and use of Indigenous languages belonging to the Algonquian language family. For more information on the work of OCIL see Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages – Home.
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Algonquian languages
The Algonquian family represents the largest speaker base among all Indigenous languages in Canada. Among all people who reported the ability to speak an Indigenous language, more than two thirds were speakers of an Algonquian language. Algonquian language speakers were present in every province and territory in Canada, in 2021, and they made up the majority of all Indigenous language speakers in nine of ten provinces. Algonquian languages stretch beyond Canadian borders and are present in languages such as Arapaho in the United States, and Kickapoo, spoken in both the United States and Mexico.
Within this report the following Algonquian languages are presented:
- Blackfoot
- Atikamekw
- Cree languages
- Innu (Montagnais)
- Naskapi
- Mi’kmaq
- Wolastoqewi (Malecite)
- Anicinabemowin (Algonquin)
- Oji-Cree
- Ojibway languages
- Algonquian languages, not included elsewhere (n.i.e.)
Summary language statistics are provided for these languages in table 2.
Knowledge and mother tongue
In 2021, there were 163,815 people who reported that they could speak an Algonquian language well enough to conduct a conversation. The number of those who reported that an Algonquian language was their mother tongue—that is, the language first learned as a child and still understood—was 123,130.
The largest group within the Algonquian language family was those who reported Cree languages, with 87,875 speakers and 66,205 having a Cree mother tongue; this was followed by Ojibway languages (26,165 speakers and 15,890 mother tongue), and Oji-Cree (15,305 speakers…
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