Language Endangerment Status | |
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Extinct (EX) | |
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Endangered | |
Safe | |
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Other categories | |
Related topics | |
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]
Language | Users | Status | Comments | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
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] | 150 | Critically endangered | Also in the United States. | |
Atikamekw [1] | 6,165 | Vulnerable | Divergent R-dialect of Western Cree. Closely related to Eastern Cree and Innu. | |
Blackfoot/Siksiká (Canada) [1] | 4,915 | Definitely endangered | Southern Alberta, CA and Northern Montana, USA. [2] | |
Bungee [1] | 0–500 | Critically endangered | Possibly extinct. Cree-Ojibwe-Scots-Gaelic creole language. | |
Cayuga (Canada) [1] | 61 | Critically endangered | Split into 2 distinct groups, in Ontario and New York. | |
Central Ojibwe [1] | 8,000 | Vulnerable | ||
Chilcotin/Tsilhqotʹin [1] | 860 | Severely endangered | ||
Chinook Jargon | 1 | Critically endangered | ||
Chipewyan/Dene/Dënesųłiné [1] | 11,325 | Vulnerable | Athapaskan language in Canadian Subarctic. [3] Not to be confused with Chippewa (Ojibwe). | |
Comox-Sliammon/ʔayajuθəm [1] | 47 | Critically endangered | Mainland and Island dialects. Island dialect is extinct. | |
Dakota (Canada) [1] | 290 | Critically endangered | Also in the United States. | |
Dane-zaa/Beaver [1] | 220 | Definitely endangered | ||
Dogrib/Tłı̨chǫ [1] | 1,735 | Definitely Endangered | ||
Eastern Cree/James Bay Cree [1] | 13,000 | Vulnerable | Divided into 4 dialects. | |
Eastern Ojibwe/Ojibwa [1] | Severely endangered | |||
Gitxsan [1] | 1,020 | Severely endangered | ||
Gwich'in (Canada) [1] | 560 | Severely endangered | Also spoken in Alaska. | |
Haisla [1] | 240 | Critically endangered | ||
Halkomelem/Hul'qumi'num (Canada) [1] | 100-260 | Severely endangered | Three distinct Dialects. Also in the United States. | |
Hän/Han (Canada) [1] | 20 | Critically endangered | Also in Alaska. | |
Heiltsuk/Bella Bella [1] | 60 | Critically endangered | ||
Innu/Eastern Montagnais [1] | 10,075 | Vulnerable | ||
Inuinnaqtun [1] | 1,310 | Definitely endangered | Dialect of Inuvialuktun or Inuktitut. | |
Inuit Sign Language/Inuiuuk [4] | 47 | Critically endangered | Also known as Inuit Uukturausingit (IUR). | |
Inupiaq/Alaskan Inuit (Canada) [1] | 2,144 | Severely endangered | Also in Alaska. | |
Kaska [1] | 240 | Severely endangered | British Columbia and Yukon | |
Kivallirmiutut/Kivalliq [1] | Vulnerable | Inuktitut or Inuvialuktun dialect. | ||
Kutenai [1] | 345 | Severely endangered | Also use Ktunaxa Sign Language. Also in the United States. | |
Kwak'wala [1] | 450 | Critically endangered | 4-5 distinct dialects. Also in the United States. | |
Lakota (Canada) [1] | Critically endangered | 2,100 speakers in the United States. | ||
Lillooet/St̓át̓imcets [1] | 315 | Severely endangered | ||
Malecite-Passamaquoddy (Canada) [1] | 355 | Definitely endangered | Composed 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] | 730 | Critically endangered | Cree-French creole language. Also in the United States. | |
Mi'kmaq/Migmaw(Canada) [1] | 7,140 | Vulnerable | Also in the United States. | |
Mohawk/Kanienʼkéha (Canada) [1] | 3,875 | Definitely endangered | Also in the United States. | |
Moose Cree/Ililîmowin [1] | 3,000 | Vulnerable | L-dialect of Western Cree. | |
Munsee/Munsee Lenape/Ontario Delaware (Canada) [1] | 2 | Critically endangered | Unami language in the United States . | |
Naskapi/Iyuw Iyimuun [1] | 1,230 | Vulnerable | Eastern Cree dialect that shares features with Innu. | |
Natsilingmiutut/Netsilik [1] | Vulnerable | Dialect of Inuvialuktun. | ||
Nisga'a [1] | 470-1,500 | Severely endangered | Nisga'a is very closely related to Gitxsan. | |
Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth [1] | 130 | Severely endangered | https://nuuchahnulth.org/ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nuu-chah-nulth http://www.hesquiahtlanguage.org/ | |
North Slavey [1] | 800 | Definitely endangered | ||
Northern Haida [1] | Critically endangered | Divided 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] | 17 | Critically endangered | ||
Oji-Cree/Severn Ojibwa [1] | 13,630 | Vulnerable | ||
Okanagan [1] | Definitely endangered | 5 dialects. Also in the United States. | ||
Oneida (Canada) [1] | 47 | Critically endangered | Ontario, CA and Wisconsin, USA. [2] | |
Onondaga (Canada) [1] | 50 | Critically endangered | Also in the United States. | |
Odawa (Canada) [1] | 360 | Severely endangered | Also in the United States. | |
Plains Cree [1] | 34,000 | Vulnerable | Y-dialect of Western Cree. | |
Plains Indian Sign Language/Plains Sign Talk | Critically Endangered | |||
Potawatomi (Canada) [1] | Critically endangered | Also 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] | 0-3 | Critically endangered | Inuktitut/Nunatsiavut/Inttitut dialect. | |
Sarcee/Tsuutʼina [1] | 150 | Critically endangered | ||
Saulteaux/Nakawēmowin [1] | 10,000 | Vulnerable | Also known as Western or Plains Ojibwe. | |
Sechelt [1] | 7 | Critically endangered | ||
Sekani [1] | 200 | Critically endangered | ||
Seneca (Canada) [1] | Critically endangered | Also in the United States. | ||
Shuswap /Secwepemctsín [1] | 200-1,190 | Definitely endangered | Divided into 2 dialects. | |
Siglit dialect [1] | Severely endangered | Inuvialuktun dialect. | ||
South Slavey [1] | 1,000 | Definitely 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] | 450 | Critically endangered | 1 native speaker left, 449 L2 learners. | |
Stoney/Nakota/Nakoda [1] | 3,200 | Vulnerable | ||
North Straits Salish [1] | 105 | Severely endangered | Also in the United States. Divided into 6 dialects. | |
Swampy Cree/Maskekon/Omaškêkowak [1] | 1,805 | Vulnerable | N-dialect of Western Cree. | |
Tahltan [1] | 45 | Critically endangered | ||
Thompson/Nlaka'pamuctsin [1] | 130 | Severely endangered | ||
Tlingit (Canada) [1] | 120 | Critically endangered | Also in the United States. | |
Coast Tsimshian/Sm'álgyax [1] | 275 | Critically endangered | Also in Alaska. | |
Upper Tanana/Nabesna (Canada) [1] | 100 | Critically endangered | Also in Alaska. | |
Western Abenaki/Wôbanakiôdwawôgan (Canada) [1] | 14 | Critically endangered | Divided into 5 dialects. East Abenaki is extinct. Also in the United States. | |
Woods Cree/Bush Cree [1] | 20,000 | Vulnerable | TH-dialect of Western Cree. Merged with Rock Cree. | |
This section may require copy editing . (July 2024) |
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] This process 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 in 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.
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]
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]
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 to 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.
There are about 8,000 speakers in the central Ojibwe language, and it has been spread over 16 communities in Canada. The language is spoken from Ontario Canada 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.
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, there will be children fluent in Lakota. [11]
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]
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]
This 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]
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.
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]
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 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.
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]
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]
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 immediately discredits this theory. It is clear that Nootka, like all Canadian aboriginal languages, is endangered due to social factors alone. [30]
Michif is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations and fur trade workers of white ancestry. Michif emerged in the early 19th century as a mixed language and adopted a consistent character between about 1820 and 1840.
Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario. As of 2006, there were 2,680 Algonquin speakers, less than 10% of whom were monolingual. Algonquin is the language for which the entire Algonquian language subgroup is named; the similarity among the names often causes considerable confusion. Like many Native American languages, it is strongly verb-based, with most meaning being incorporated into verbs instead of using separate words for prepositions, tense, etc.
The Blackfoot language, also called Siksiká is an Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot or Niitsitapi people, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North America. There are four dialects, three of which are spoken in Alberta, Canada, and one of which is spoken in the United States: Siksiká / ᓱᖽᐧᖿ (Blackfoot), to the southeast of Calgary, Alberta; Kainai / ᖿᐟᖻ, spoken in Alberta between Cardston and Lethbridge; Aapátohsipikani / ᖳᑫᒪᐦᓱᑯᖿᖹ, to the west of Fort MacLeod which is Brocket (Piikani) and Aamsskáápipikani / ᖳᐢᔈᖿᑯᑯᖿᖹ, in northwestern Montana. The name Blackfoot probably comes from the blackened soles of the leather shoes that the people wore.
Ojibwe, also known as Ojibwa, Ojibway, Otchipwe, Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language family. The language is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects.
Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used in a number of indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. These languages had no formal writing system previously. They are valued for their distinctiveness from the Latin script and for the ease with which literacy can be achieved. For instance, by the late 19th century the Cree had achieved what may have been one of the highest rates of literacy in the world. Syllabics are an abugida, where glyphs represent consonant–vowel pairs, determined by the rotation of the glyphs. They derive from the work of linguist and missionary James Evans.
Caddo is a Native American language, the traditional language of the Caddo Nation. It is critically endangered, with no exclusively Caddo-speaking community and as of 2023 only two speakers who had acquired the language as children outside school instruction, down from 25 speakers in 1997. Caddo has several mutually intelligible dialects. The most commonly used dialects are Hasinai and Hainai; others include Kadohadacho, Natchitoches and Yatasi.
In phonetics, clipping is the process of shortening the articulation of a phonetic segment, usually a vowel. A clipped vowel is pronounced more quickly than an unclipped vowel and is often also reduced.
Cayuga is a Northern Iroquoian language of the Iroquois Proper subfamily, and is spoken on Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, Ontario, by around 240 Cayuga people, and on the Cattaraugus Reservation, New York, by fewer than 10.
Potawatomi is a Central Algonquian language. It was historically spoken by the Pottawatomi people who lived around the Great Lakes in what are now Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States, and in southern Ontario in Canada. Federally recognized tribes in Michigan and Oklahoma are working to revive the language.
The Assiniboine language is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains. The name Assiniboine comes from the term Asiniibwaan, from Ojibwe, meaning 'Stone Siouans'. The reason they were called this was that Assiniboine people used heated stone to boil their food. In Canada, Assiniboine people are known as Stoney Indians, while they called themselves Nakota or Nakoda, meaning 'allies'.
Ojibwe is an indigenous language of North America from the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is one of the largest Native American languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers and is characterized by a series of dialects, some of which differ significantly. The dialects of Ojibwe are spoken in Canada from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta and British Columbia, and in the United States from Michigan through Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as migrant groups in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Ottawa or Odawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken by the Odawa people in southern Ontario in Canada, and northern Michigan in the United States. Descendants of migrant Ottawa speakers live in Kansas and Oklahoma. The first recorded meeting of Ottawa speakers and Europeans occurred in 1615 when a party of Ottawas encountered explorer Samuel de Champlain on the north shore of Georgian Bay. Ottawa is written in an alphabetic system using Latin letters, and is known to its speakers as Nishnaabemwin 'speaking the native language' or Daawaamwin 'speaking Ottawa'.
Babine–Witsuwitʼen or Nadotʼen-Wetʼsuwetʼen is an Athabaskan language spoken in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Its closest relative is Carrier. Because of this linguistic relationship together with political and cultural ties, Babine–Witsuwitʼen is often referred to as Northern Carrier or Western Carrier. Specialist opinion is, however, that it should be considered a separate, though related, language.
The Ojibwe language is spoken in a series of dialects occupying adjacent territories, forming a language complex in which mutual intelligibility between adjacent dialects may be comparatively high but declines between some non-adjacent dialects. Mutual intelligibility between some non-adjacent dialects, notably Ottawa, Severn Ojibwe, and Algonquin, is low enough that they could be considered distinct languages. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects. The relative autonomy of the regional dialects of Ojibwe is associated with an absence of linguistic or political unity among Ojibwe-speaking groups.
Chippewa is an Algonquian language spoken from upper Michigan westward to North Dakota in the United States. It represents the southern component of the Ojibwe language.
Western Ojibwa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, a member of the Algonquian language family. It is spoken by the Saulteaux, a subnation of the Ojibwe people, in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan, Canada, west of Lake Winnipeg. Saulteaux is generally used by its speakers, and Nakawēmowin is the general term in the language itself.
Ottawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of communities in southern Ontario and a smaller number of communities in northern Michigan. Ottawa has a phonological inventory of seventeen consonants and seven oral vowels; in addition, there are long nasal vowels the phonological status of which are discussed below. An overview of general Ojibwa phonology and phonetics can be found in the article on Ojibwe phonology. The Ottawa writing system described in Modern orthography is used to write Ottawa words, with transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) used as needed.
Stoney—also called Nakota, Nakoda, Isga, and formerly Alberta Assiniboine—is a member of the Dakota subgroup of the Mississippi Valley grouping of the Siouan languages. The Dakotan languages constitute a dialect continuum consisting of Santee-Sisseton (Dakota), Yankton-Yanktonai (Dakota), Teton (Lakota), Assiniboine, and Stoney.
Gammalsvenska is an Estonian Swedish dialect spoken in the neighborhood of Gammalsvenskby in Zmiivka, Ukraine.
Cecelia "Meeks" Miksekwe Jackson was a Bodéwademi (Neshnabé/Potawatomi) woman from Kansas in the United States who worked to preserve Bodwéwadmimwen, a critically endangered Algonquian language. She was a native speaker.