Indigenous Research Portal

This guide is to help students in Indigenous Studies

Indigenous Languages: General Resources

Trent's Peterborough Campus is in the Ojibway language territory, Anishinaabemowin dialect.

Indigenous Languages

Spoken to the south of the Inuit and Na-Dene families. Five Algonquian languages are currently spoken in Canada: Cree, Ojibwe, Mi'gmaq, Blackfoot, and Maliseet-Passamaquoddy. Two additional langues, Musee Delaware and Western Abenaki have few, if any, native speakers remaining in Canada.

Cree-Innu-Naskapi dialects

Plains Cree (AB,SK)

Woods Cree (SK, MB)

Swampy Cree (SK, MB,ON)

Moose Cree (ON)

Atikamekw (QC)

East Cree (QC)

Naskapi (QC, NL)

Innu (Montagnais) (QC, NL)

Ojibwe dialects

Saulteaux (SK, MB)

Lac Seul Ojibwe (MB, ON)

Oji-Cree (MB, ON)

Southwestern Ojibwe (MB, ON)

Central Ojibwe (ON)

Odawa (Ottawa) (ON)

Eastern Ojibwe (ON)

Algonquin (ON, QC)

Nipissing (ON, QC)

Spoken around the eastern Great Lakes and along the St. Lawrence River, extending south into the United States. There are six Iroquoian languages spoken in Canada: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. The family also includes the Cherokee language spoken in the southeastern United States.