Ojibwa is a
language spoken by perhaps 80,000 people in
Canada and the
USA.
Ojibwa is one of the Algonquian family of Amerind languages alternately called Chippewa and Chipewyan.
Once spoken north of Lake Huron and on both sides of Lake Superior and as far as what in now North Dakota, Ojibwa is still spoken from Ontario westwards to North Dakota in scattered Indian reservations.
The language of Ottawa is sometimes called Eastern Ojibwa. Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi (speakers of three related Algonquian languages) together made up an alliance known as the three fires.
In writing Ojibwa, a syllabary (based on the Cree syllabary, partly inspired by English shorthand) competes with the Roman alphabet.
How to count to ten in Ojibwa, with pronunciation in American pseudo-english and IPA/ASCII :
- peesheekwan /piSikwan/
- naishan /naISan/
- nissan /nisan/
- naiwan /naIwan/
- nainan /neInan/
- ninkotwaissan /ninkUtweIsan/
- nishwaissan /naISweIsan/
- nisshwaissan /niSweIsan/
- shankassan /SeInkasan/
- mintaissan /minteIsan/