List of endangered languages in Canada

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UNESCO Atlas of the World's
Languages in Danger categories

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If a language loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language. UNESCO defines four levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct": [1]

Contents

LanguageUsersStatusCommentsRef
Algonquin/Anishinàbemiwin [1]  Vulnerable There are several dialects of the Algonquin language, generally grouped broadly as Northern Algonquin and Western Algonquin. 
Aivilingmiutut/Aivilik [1]  Vulnerable Inuktitut or Inuvialuktun dialect. 
Assiniboine (Canada) [1]  150Critically endangered Also in the United States. 
Atikamekw [1]  6,165Vulnerable Divergent R-dialect of Western Cree. Closely related to Eastern Cree and Innu. 
Blackfoot/Siksiká (Canada) [1]  4,915Definitely endangered Southern Alberta, CA and Northern Montana, USA. [2]  
Bungee [1] 0–500Critically endangered Possibly extinct. Cree-Ojibwe-Scots-Gaelic creole language. 
Cayuga (Canada) [1]  61Critically endangered Split into 2 distinct groups, in Ontario and New York. 
Central Ojibwe [1]  8,000Vulnerable  
Chilcotin/Tsilhqotʹin [1]  860Severely endangered  
Chinook Jargon  1Critically endangered  
Chipewyan/Dene/Dënesųłiné [1]  11,325VulnerableAthapaskan language in Canadian Subarctic. [3] Not to be confused with Chippewa (Ojibwe). 
Comox-Sliammon/ʔayajuθəm [1]  47Critically endangered Mainland and Island dialects. Island dialect is extinct. 
Dakota (Canada) [1]  290Critically endangered Also in the United States. 
Dane-zaa/Beaver [1]  220Definitely endangered  
Dogrib/Tłı̨chǫ [1]  1,735Definitely Endangered  
Eastern Cree/James Bay Cree [1]  13,000VulnerableDivided into 4 dialects. 
Eastern Ojibwe/Ojibwa [1]  Severely endangered  
Gitxsan [1]  1,020Severely endangered  
Gwich'in (Canada) [1]  560Severely endangeredAlso spoken in Alaska. 
Haisla [1]  240Critically endangered  
Halkomelem/Hul'qumi'num (Canada) [1]  100-260Severely endangeredThree distinct Dialects. Also in the United States. 
Hän/Han (Canada) [1]  20Critically endangered Also in Alaska. 
Heiltsuk/Bella Bella [1]  60Critically endangered  
Innu/Eastern Montagnais [1]  10,075Vulnerable Quebec and Labrador  
Inuinnaqtun [1]  1,310Definitely endangeredDialect of Inuvialuktun or Inuktitut. 
Inuit Sign Language/Inuiuuk [4] 47Critically endangeredAlso known as Inuit Uukturausingit (IUR). 
Inupiaq/Alaskan Inuit (Canada) [1]  2,144Severely endangeredAlso in Alaska. 
Kaska [1]  240Severely endangered  British Columbia and Yukon  
Kivallirmiutut/Kivalliq [1]  Vulnerable Inuktitut or Inuvialuktun dialect. 
Kutenai [1]  345Severely endangeredAlso use Ktunaxa Sign Language. Also in the United States. 
Kwak'wala [1]  450Critically endangered4-5 distinct dialects. Also in the United States. 
Lakota (Canada) [1]  Critically endangered 2,100 speakers in the United States. 
Lillooet/St̓át̓imcets [1]  315Severely endangered  
Malecite-Passamaquoddy (Canada) [1]  355Definitely endangeredComposed of 2 dialects. Also in the United States. 
Maritime Sign Language  Critically endangered  
Maniwaki Algonquin/Southern Anishinàbemiwin [1] 3,330 [5] Severely endangered Speakers at Maniwaki consider their language to be Southern Algonquin, though linguistically it is a dialect of Nipissing Ojibwa. 
Michif [1]  730Critically endangered  Cree-French creole language. Also in the United States. 
Mi'kmaq/Migmaw(Canada) [1]  7,140Vulnerable Also in the United States. 
Mohawk/Kanienʼkéha (Canada) [1]  3,875Definitely endangered Also in the United States. 
Moose Cree/Ililîmowin [1]  3,000Vulnerable L-dialect of Western Cree. 
Munsee/Munsee Lenape/Ontario Delaware (Canada) [1]  2Critically endangered Unami language in the United States . 
Naskapi/Iyuw Iyimuun [1]  1,230Vulnerable Eastern Cree dialect that shares features with Innu. 
Natsilingmiutut/Netsilik [1]  VulnerableDialect of Inuvialuktun. 
Nisga'a [1]  470-1,500Severely endangered Nisga'a is very closely related to Gitxsan. 
Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth [1]  130Severely endangered https://nuuchahnulth.org/ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nuu-chah-nulth http://www.hesquiahtlanguage.org/  
North Slavey [1]  800Definitely endangered  
Northern Haida [1]  Critically endangeredDivided into 2 dialects. Also in the United States. 
Northern Tutchone [1]  Definitely endangered  
Northwestern Ojibwe [1]  Vulnerable  
Inuttitut/Nunatsiavummiutut/Nunatsiavut [1]  Vulnerable Inuktitut dialect. 
Nuxalk/Bella Coola [1]  17Critically endangered  
Oji-Cree/Severn Ojibwa [1]  13,630Vulnerable  
Okanagan [1]  Definitely endangered5 dialects. Also in the United States. 
Oneida (Canada) [1]  47Critically endangeredOntario, CA and Wisconsin, USA. [2]
Onondaga (Canada) [1]  50Critically endangeredAlso in the United States. 
Odawa (Canada) [1]  360Severely endangeredAlso in the United States. 
Plains Cree [1]  34,000Vulnerable Y-dialect of Western Cree. 
Plains Indian Sign Language/Plains Sign Talk Critically Endangered  
Potawatomi (Canada) [1]  Critically endangeredAlso in the United States. 
Qikiqtaaluk Nigiani/South Baffin dialect [1]  Vulnerable Inuktitut dialect. 
Qikiqtaaluk Uannangani/North Baffin dialect [1]  Vulnerable Inuktitut dialect. 
Rigolet Inuktitut [1]  0-3Critically endangered Inuktitut/Nunatsiavut/Inttitut dialect. 
Sarcee/Tsuutʼina [1]  150Critically endangered  
Saulteaux/Nakawēmowin [1]  10,000VulnerableAlso known as Western or Plains Ojibwe. 
Sechelt [1]  7Critically endangered  
Sekani [1]  200Critically endangered  
Seneca (Canada) [1]  Critically endangered Also in the United States. 
Shuswap /Secwepemctsín [1]  200-1,190Definitely endangered Divided into 2 dialects. 
Siglit dialect [1]  Severely endangered Inuvialuktun dialect. 
South Slavey [1]  1,000Definitely endangered  
Southern Haida [1]  Critically endangered Divided into 2 dialects: Skidegate and Ninstints(extinct). Also in Alaska. 
Southern Tutchone [1]  Critically endangered  
Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh [1]  450Critically endangered 1 native speaker left, 449 L2 learners. 
Stoney/Nakota/Nakoda [1]  3,200Vulnerable  
North Straits Salish [1]  105Severely endangeredAlso in the United States. Divided into 6 dialects. 
Swampy Cree/Maskekon/Omaškêkowak [1]  1,805Vulnerable N-dialect of Western Cree. 
Tahltan [1]  45Critically endangered  
Thompson/Nlaka'pamuctsin [1]  130Severely endangered  
Tlingit (Canada) [1]  120Critically endangered Also in the United States. 
Coast Tsimshian/Sm'álgyax [1]  275Critically endangeredAlso in Alaska. 
Upper Tanana/Nabesna (Canada) [1]  100Critically endangered Also in Alaska. 
Western Abenaki/Wôbanakiôdwawôgan (Canada) [1]  14Critically endangered Divided into 5 dialects. East Abenaki is extinct. Also in the United States. 
Woods Cree/Bush Cree [1]  20,000Vulnerable TH-dialect of Western Cree. Merged with Rock Cree. 

Changes in Canadian Endangered Languages

Terminology

Oneida (Iroquoian Language)

There is a "phonological process", or patterns used to simplify speech [6] in the Oneida language that has been passed down for generations. This process is described as the loss of voicing in the vowel of the last syllable of a word. [2] It is vital to the preservation of the language, and has been changing among the speakers, such that some speakers have introduced a degree of voiced vowels in these final forms, which poses additional stress on the small population of speakers. [2] The introduction of voicing the last syllable in words that typically are unvoiced changes the traditional morphology of the language, pushing the original dialect towards language death, especially since the majority of speakers are older in age.

Blackfoot (Algonquian Language)

The Blackfoot language features the loss of voicing in the last syllable of a word, which is typically inaudible. [2] Certain inflections, or the use of inaudible vowels has been identified as "old Blackfoot" (traditional), and are not in frequent use by younger speakers. [2] Similarly, a minority of Blackfoot speakers use the "soundless" suffixes, which is pushing the traditional language towards more extreme language endangerment and potentially language death. [2]

Chipewyan (Athapaskan Language)

The Chipewyan language exhibits morphological characteristics that are far more complex than the majority of European languages. [3] This includes conditioning of tone and morphology of phonemes, as well as frequent contractions, elisions, metatheses, and consonantal substitutions. [3] Chipewyan is mainly endangered due to its complex structure, which makes it difficult to decipher the morphological code, as well as the fact that the majority of the speakers are in their mid-late adulthood. [3]

Assiniboine

Assinibone is one of the language divisions out of five main language divisions within the Dakotan group of the Siouan family. The sound of this language differs from the other languages in the group because it merges voiceless stops with voiced stops. There are reports that syllabics have been used by Assinibone speakers. (A written character to represent a syllable). The Assiniboine language is spread over 2 communities in Canada, and is mainly used by older adults.

Central Ojibwe

There are about 8,000 speakers in the central Ojibwe language, and it is spread over 16 communities in Canada. The language is spoken from Ontario to Manitoba. It is also spoken in places from Michigan to Montana next to the Great Lakes which is the home of the Ojibwe people. The language today is spoken by people over the age of 70. The people of the Ojibwe language note that double vowels in their language are treated as standing for unit sounds, therefore they are alphabetized after corresponding single values.

Lakota (Siouan Language)

There are about 6,000 speakers in the Northern Plain States of North Dakota and South Dakota. Most native speakers are in their mid-50s. [11] There is a growing interest to revitalize the language. [12] At the Red Cloud Indian school, there are immersion classes for children to teach the language. However, at the moment, there are no children on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that are fluent in the language. [11] Within the next ten years, it is expected that there will be children fluent in Lakota. [11]

Dakota (Siouan Language)

There are about 20,000 native speakers, primarily in the North Dakota and South Dakota area, about 4,000 of which live in Minnesota. [13] Dakota Wicohon is an after-school camp that helps children learn the language, since it is not taught in the government-run boarding schools for American Indian youth. [13] To help preservation efforts, technology like phraselators come into play, allowing learners to type in the words they want or orally speak the word they want and the machine will find it for them. [14]

Dogrib (Northern Athabaskan Language)

There are about 2,640 speakers of the language in the Canadian Northwest Territories from the Great Slave Lake to the Great Bear Lake. Dogrib phonology is rather intricate and is organized into 5 levels. [15] The first person to write a book in Dogrib was Herb Zimmerman, who translated the Bible into the language in 1981. [16] Unlike many other Native American languages, there are children who are fluent in the language. [17]

Kaska (Athabaskan Language)

Kaska was typically a First Nations speaking language, and mainly lived in northern British Columbia and some from southeast Yukon in Canada. [18] People who speak Kaska today still live within the British Columbia and Yukon Territory area. The speakers are elders, such as grandparents, and their children and grandchildren would speak English. First Nations have started work to re-create and preserve their heritage language. [19]

Ottawa (Ojibwe Language)

The number of people who speak the Ottawa dialect is unknown, though it is predicted to be around 13,000. Native communities received $5 million a year for 7 years (2007–2014) to help them in their efforts to preserve their languages and teach it to their children. [20] The language is written with Latin letters and is a dialect of the Ojibwe language. Many descendants of migrants now live in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Stoney (Siouan Language)

There are roughly 3,200 people who speak Stoney in the Northern Plains and the Alberta province of Canada. Stoney has a Latin alphabet. The stress is one of the harder aspects about the language. [21] The Stoney Indian Language Project was created to help make a standard format of the Stoney language. The project created 6 books for adults and children, as well as a videotape for third graders. [22]

Potawatomi (Central Algonquian Language)

The Potawatomi Language is critically endangered because there are only 52 fluent speakers left surrounding the Great Lakes region in Michigan. [24] Within a decade, those who are fluent (the majority being the elderly) will soon be dead, causing the culture to die out with them, along with the knowledge of history that has been passed down from previous generations. English has become the predominant language spoken in homes due to the halt of parents speaking Potawatomi to children from 20 to more than 50 years ago. [23] Currently there are no teachings of the language but there are revitalization efforts to bring back the language and the culture that could possibly be gone forever.

Tuscarora (Northern Iroquoian Language)

Tuscarora entails complex morphology dealing with the copying of words, roots, stems, and affixes. [26] There was a time where the Tuscarora language was spoken 'as the mother tongue,' used for all situations, (formal and informal) but now there are approximately only four to five remaining elders who are fluent in the language. All of the elders are around the ages of seventy to eighty years old, where a possible result is the extinction of the Tuscarora language.

Cayuga (Northern Iroquoian Language)

The Native American Cayuga speaking people are located in Oklahoma and Ontario. With the splitting of the people into two geographical locations, they now begin to differ in terms of language usage, morphology and phonology. In the setting of Oklahoma, Cayuga has become influenced by other tribes and has to a certain extent, lost their original vocabulary. [27] Cayuga contains a pitch accent where the placement of it can be predicted by metrical structure and constraints on the structure of the syllables. [28]

Upper Tanana Language

The Upper Tanana Language originally was spoken in only five villages, each with a different dialect. Those villages were Beaver Creek, Scottie Creek, Northway, Nabesna, and Tetlin. Today, the language is only spoken by about 95 people, above the age of 50, in eastern interior Alaska. Depending on the dialect, the Upper Tanana Language has about six to seven phonemic vowels. the primary difference between the dialects is by the pitch of the tone. Also a major factor in the split of different dialects is that different dialects have different vowel inventories. [29]

Nootka Language

Despite misinterpretation of studies which describe the phonetic inventory of Nootka, these studies do not suggest that its phonemic inventory is the main reason why the Nootka language may be severely endangered. A process known as glottalization is a key factor in being able to articulate certain sounds in the language, called ejective consonants. Though these sounds are not found in English, they are not linguistically rare. Many languages with a large body of speakers, including Arabic and Amharic, contain these sounds, an observation which discredits this theory. It is clear that Nootka, like all Canadian aboriginal languages, is endangered due to social factors alone. [30]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Memory of Peoples (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN   978-92-3-104096-2 . Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Gick, Bryan; Bliss, Heather; Michelson, Karin; Radanov, Bosko (January 2012). "Articulation without acoustics: 'Soundless' vowels in Oneida and Blackfoot". Journal of Phonetics. 40 (1): 46–53. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2011.09.002.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Rice, Sally; Libben, Gary; Derwing, Bruce (April 2002). "Morphological Representation in an Endangered, Polysynthetic Language". Brain and Language. 81 (1–3): 473–486. doi:10.1006/brln.2001.2540. PMID   12081415. S2CID   1823874 .
  4. ↑ "Cataloguing Endangered Sign Languages". UNESCO.
  5. ↑ "Figure 4.5. Aboriginal identity population by both sexes, total - age, % change (from 2006 to 2016) - 2016 Canadian Census". Statistics Canada. August 2, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  6. 1 2 "What Are Phonological Processes?" (PDF). Super Duper Inc. Super Duper Publications. 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  7. ↑ Crystal, David (2000). Language Death. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN   0-521-65321-5.
  8. ↑ "the definition of contraction". Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  9. ↑ "the definition of transpose". Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  10. ↑ "metathesis | a change of place or condition: as". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 "Lakota: The Revitalization of Language and the Persistence of Spirit". Truthout. October 8, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  12. ↑ Henne, Richard Brian (2003). Tongue -Tied: Sociocultural Change, Language, and Language Ideology Among the Oglala Lakota (Pine Ridge Sioux) (Thesis). hdl:2142/79725. ProQuest   305329568.
  13. 1 2 Guntzel, Jeff Severns (September 10, 2011). "Dakota language a resurgence among Native youth". The Circle News. ProQuest   893756015.
  14. ↑ "Recording and preserving the Dakota language". The Native Voice. July 12, 2007. ProQuest   368736984.
  15. ↑ Jaker, Alessandro Michelangelo (2012). Prosodic reversal in Dogrib (Weledeh dialect) (Thesis). ProQuest   922660326.
  16. ↑ Malcolm, Andrew H. (February 1, 1981). "A Dogrib Bible, 'Enitl'e-Cho,' Takes Shape in Canada". The New York Times. ProQuest   121496604.
  17. ↑ MacIntyre, Joan Elaine (1993). First language influences in the reading behaviors of a sample of grade six Dogrib-speaking children (Thesis). ProQuest   304122812.
  18. ↑ Meek, Barbra A. (2014). ""She can do it in English too": Acts of intimacy and boundary-making in language revitalization". Language & Communication. 38: 73–82. doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2014.05.004.
  19. ↑ Meek, Barbra A.; Messing, Jacqueline (June 2007). "Framing Indigenous Languages as Secondary to Matrix Languages". Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 38 (2): 99–118. doi:10.1525/aeq.2007.38.2.99. JSTOR   25166611. ProQuest   218126971.
  20. ↑ Burns, Shannon (January 3, 2007). "Canada's language preservation funding cut strongly protested". Indian Country Today. ProQuest   362648263.
  21. ↑ Erdman, Rhyasen; Lee, Corrie (1997). Stress in Stoney (Thesis). doi:10.11575/PRISM/15699. hdl:1880/26811. ProQuest   304340124.
  22. ↑ Friesen, John W.; Kootenay, Clarice; Mark, Duane (June 1989). The Stoney Indian Language Project (Report). ERIC   ED354769.
  23. 1 2 Wetzel, Christopher (2006). "Neshnabemwen Renaissance: Local and National Potawatomi Language Revitalization Efforts". The American Indian Quarterly. 30 (1): 61–86. doi:10.1353/aiq.2006.0012. S2CID   162208517.
  24. ↑ Buszard-Welcher, Laura (1997). "Language Use and Language Loss in the Potawatomi Community: A Report on the Potawatomi Language Institute". The Algonquin Papers. 28.
  25. ↑ Burnaby, Barbara; Reyhner, Jon Allan (2002). Indigenous Languages Across the Community. Northern Arizona University. ISBN   978-0-9670554-2-8. ERIC   ED462231.[ page needed ]
  26. ↑ Mithun, Marianne (2013). "Challenges and Benefits of Contact among Relatives: Morphological Copying". Journal of Language Contact. 6 (2): 243–270. doi: 10.1163/19552629-00602003 .
  27. ↑ Dorian, Nancy C. (1992). Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-43757-8.[ page needed ]
  28. ↑ Dyck, Carrie (June 27, 2016). "Cayuga Accent: A Synchronic Analysis". Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 42 (3): 285–322. doi:10.1017/S0008413100016959. S2CID   147736886.
  29. ↑ "Web of Science [v.5.19] - Web of Science Core Collection Full Record". apps.webofknowledge.com. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  30. ↑ Esling, John H.; Fraser, Katherine E.; Harris, Jimmy G. (October 1, 2005). "Glottal stop, glottalized resonants, and pharyngeals: A reinterpretation with evidence from a laryngoscopic study of Nuuchahnulth (Nootka)". Journal of Phonetics. 33 (4): 383–410. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2005.01.003.
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