Chippewa

Chippewa (native name: Anishinaabemowin; also known as Southwestern Ojibwa/Ojibwe/Ojibway/Ojibwemowin) 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.

Chippewa is part of the Algonquian language family and an indigenous language of North America. Chippewa is part of the dialect continuum of Ojibwe (including Chippewa, Ottawa, Algonquin, and Oji-Cree), which is closely related to Potawatomi. It is spoken on the southern shores of Lake Superior and in the areas toward the south and west of Lake Superior in Michigan and Southern Ontario. The speakers of this language generally call it Anishinaabemowin ('the Anishinaabe language') or more specifically, Ojibwemowin ('the Ojibwa language').

There is a large amount of variation in the language. Some of the variations are caused by ethnic or geographic heritage, while other variations occur from person to person. There is no single standardization of the language as it exists as a dialect continuum, according to Nichols: "It exists as a chain of interconnected local varieties, conventionally called dialects." Some varieties differ greatly and can be so diverse that speakers of two different varieties cannot understand each other.

From Wikipedia · Chippewa language · CC BY-SA 4.0