Geography & Travel

Algonquian languages

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Also known as: Algonkian languages
Also spelled:
Algonkian
Key People:
John Eliot
Horatio Hale
Leonard Bloomfield

Algonquian languages, North American Indian language family whose member languages are or were spoken in Canada, New England, the Atlantic coastal region southward to North Carolina, and the Great Lakes region and surrounding areas westward to the Rocky Mountains. Among the numerous Algonquian languages are Cree, Ojibwa, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Mi’kmaq (Micmac), Arapaho, and Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo. The term Algonquin (often spelled this way to differentiate it from the family) refers to a dialect of Ojibwa. Algonquian languages have been classified by some scholars as belonging to a larger language group, the Macro-Algonquian phylum. See also Macro-Algonquian languages.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.