Aboriginal languages

Canada’s Aboriginal peoples fall into three distinct political groupings: First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Although there is no agreement on the details of genetic classification, there is some consensus that Canada’s First Nations represent at least ten language families and isolates, that the Inuit represent a separate language family, and that the Métis represent a unique mixed language.

The following map shows the geographic distribution of the widely accepted Aboriginal language families and isolates of Canada.

Languages and affiliations are introduced below in descending order size. Slashes (/) indicate alternative names for languages or dialects. Be warned that some of the names provided may appear exotic; they are in fact the ones preferred by First Nations to identify themselves. Note, too, that there are no exact figures on speaker populations. Figures suggested here are informed current estimates but only approximate. The symbol < means “fewer than”.
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ALGONQUIAN

Canada’s most widely spoken Aboriginal languages Cree and Ojibwe belong to the Algonquian family. Dialects of both languages are spoken in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. Cree is also represented in Labrador by the Innu dialects. Malecite-Passamaquoddy and Mi’kmaq are spoken further east, in the Maritime provinces. (Here and elsewhere, speaker populations outside Canada are provided to give an idea of the overall size of the various Aboriginal linguistic communities. For instance, of the Algonquian languages, only Ojibwe is widely spoken outside Canada.)

Language	Estimated number of speakers in Canada	Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.
Cree (Dialects: Plains, Swampy, Woods, Moose, At(t)ikamek(w), Montagnais and Naskapi Innu)	80 000	1 000
Ojibwe/Anishinaabemowin (Dialects: Odawa, Saulteau(x), Ojibwa/Chippewa, Algonquin, Severn/Oji-Cree)	45 000	10 000–20 000
Mi’kmaq/Micmac	7 000	1 200
Blackfoot	3 000	500
Malecite-Passamaquoddy	750	850
Potawatomi/Neshnabémwen	< 50	100
Munsee Delaware	< 10	-
Western Abenaki	< 5	1

ESKIMO-ALEUT

The Inuktitut language (of the Eskimo-Aleut family) is spoken by about two thirds of the 44 000 Inuit who largely populate Canada’s Arctic, from the northwestern part of the Northwest Territories (Inuvialuit) to northern Labrador. Of those with Inuktitut as mother tongue, almost a third live in northern Quebec (Nunavik) and almost two thirds live in Nunavut, Canada’s newest and largest territory. A syllabary for writing Inuktitut (adapted from the Cree syllabary)) is now in wide use, especially in Nunavut.

Inuktitut

Estimated number of speakers in Canada

Estimated number of speakers outside Canada

Eastern Canadian dialects

25 000

Greenland/Denmark:

47 000

Western Canadian dialects

4 000

Alaska (Inupiaq):

3 500

ATHABASKAN

The Athabaskan family exhibits the greatest internal diversity, with sixteen distinct languages in this country alone. Athabaskan languages are spoken in British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Language	Estimated number of speakers in Canada	Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.
Dëne Su,łiné/Chipewyan	15 000	-
Slave(y), including Hare	3 850	-
Dogrib	1 900	-
Tŝinlhqot’ín/Chilcotin	1 800	-
Carrier/Dakelh	1 250	-
Babine/Wet’suwet’en-Nat’ooten	500	-
Tutchone (Northern, Southern)	450	-
Kaska Dena	400	-
Gwich’in/Kutchin	350	350
Beaver/Dunne-za	200	-
Sekani	50	-
Tsúut’ína/Sarcee	40	-
Tahltan	< 40	-
Upper Tanana	10	105
Hän	< 5	7
Tagish	2	-

SIOUAN

Dakota/Sioux, of the Siouan family, has five major dialects in Canada: Yankton in northern Saskatchewan, Santee in southern Manitoba, Stoney in Alberta, Assiniboine in southeastern Saskatchewan, and Teton in southern Saskatchewan. (Separate figures are not available for Yankton and Santee; these are commonly grouped together as “Dakota”.)

Dakota/Sioux	Estimated number of speakers in Canada	Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.
Yankton & Santee/Dakota	3 000	15 000
Stoney/Nakoda	1 500	-
Assiniboine/Nakota	75	Assiniboin: 75
Teton/Lak(h)ota	< 25	6 000

SALISH

The Salish family has ten languages centered in British Columbia, but its total speaker population is estimated at less than twenty-four hundred.

Language	Estimated number of speakers in Canada	Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.
Secwepemc(tsín)/Shuswap	600	-
Okanagan/Nsilxcín	500	200
Nlaka’pamux/Thompson	400	-
Comox/Sliammon	400	-
Lillooet/St’át’imcets	200	-
Halkomelem/Halq’eméylem	125	-
Nuxalk/Bella Coola	20	-
Straits	20	-
Squamish/Skwxwú7mesh	12	-
Sechelt/Shishalh/Se’shalt	10	-

TSIMSHIANIC

Tsimshianic languages are located in northwestern British Columbia. This family is believed to be distantly related to a dozen other language families of the American Pacific Coast, under a proposed phylum called Penutian.

Language

Estimated number of speakers in Canada

Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.

Nass-Gitksan

Gitxsan: 900

Nisga’a: 500

200

Tsimshian

Sm’algyax: 430

Southern Tsimshian: 1

IROQUOIAN

Another major group of Aboriginal languages represented in Canada is the Iroquoian family, which is found in southwestern Quebec and southern Ontario, as well as in adjoining parts of the United States.

Language	Estimated number of speakers in Canada	Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.
Mohawk	< 2 000	2 000
Oneida	200	< 15
Cayuga	100	10
Onondaga	< 50	< 15
Seneca	< 25	100
Tuscarora	< 7	30

WAKASHAN

The Wakashan family, which is spoken principally on Vancouver Island and the adjacent British Columbia coast, consists of five languages in Canada. (A sixth Wakashan language, Makah, has about 20 speakers in Washington State, opposite Vancouver Island.)

Language	Estimated number of speakers
Nuu-chah-nulth/Nootka	200
Kwakw’ala/Kwakiutl	200
Haisla-Henaksiala	200
Heiltsuk-Oowekyala	Heiltsuk: 200 Oowekyala: < 5
Ditidaht/Nitinat	< 10

ISOLATES

There are several possible language isolates in Canada: Xaadas (Haida), spoken in the Queen Charlotte Islands off the northern coast of British Columbia; Ktunaxa, spoken in the Canadian Rockies in southeastern British Columbia; Tlingit, spoken in the Yukon and British Columbia (N.B.: Tlingit is now widely believed to be very distantly related to Athabaskan), and Beothuk which was spoken in Newfoundland until its extinction in 1829.

Language	Estimated number of speakers in Canada	Estimated number of speakers in the U.S.
Xaadas/Haida	140	130
Ktunaxa/Kutenai-Kinbasket	120	50
Tlingit	100	700
(Beothuk: extinct)	-	-

CONTACT LANGUAGES

Contact languages resist genetic classification in terms of language or isolates, because they do not descend from a single parent language. Michif is a fascinating example of a contact language unique to Canada’s Métis, who are (mostly) descendants from Cree or Ojibwe women and French Canadian fur trappers. This language uses Plains Cree words and grammar for its verbs, and French words and grammar for its nouns. Still, Michif is not mutually intelligible with either Cree or French. Of the thousand or so modern speakers of Michif in the Canadian Prairies (as well as in Montana and North Dakota in the US), few know French, and even fewer know Cree. Here is an example of a Michif sentence (words in italics derive from Cree; the others derive from French.)

Historically, Canada also had its share of trade jargons or pidgins, characterized by rudimentary grammars and limited vocabularies. For example, at one time or another Inuktitut was mixed with Basque, French and Montagnais in Labrador-Eskimo Pidgin; with Cree and Montagnais in Hudson Strait Pidgin Inuktitut; with English in Inuktitut-English Pidgin (which was used until the mid-twentieth century); and with Athabaskan languages in Loucheux Jargon.AChinook Jargon, which originated as a lingua franca in the Pacific Northwest, drew much of its lexicon from Canada’s Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) and from Canadian French. Its use peaked in the 19th century with an estimated 100 000 speakers representing over 100 mother tongues. There are now probably no more than a dozen speakers of Chinook Jargon in Canada, mostly in British Columbia. form of communication using the hands, Plains Sign Talk, was more commonly used as lingua franca in the Plains area; its use also appears to have peaked in the 19th century in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is still known by a few Blackfoot and Dakota, who use it to accompany their oral narratives.

Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Foster, Michael K. 1982. ‘Canada’s Indigenous Languages: Past and Present.’ Language and Society 7:3-16. Ottawa: Commissioner of Official Languages.

Goddard, Ives. (Ed.). 1996. Languages, Vol. 17 of the Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

Mithun, Marianne. 2001. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Voegelin, C.F., and F.M. Voegelin. 1965. ‘Classification of American Indian languages.’ Languages of the World, Native America Fascicle 2, section 1.6, Anthropological Linguistics 7:121-50.