User:Jomeara421/Ottawa History

History
Ottawa is considered one of the three dialects of Ojibwe that has innovated the most, along with Severn Ojibwe and Algonquin. The basic model for linguistic is that "a single ancestor language (a proto-language) develops dialects which in time through the accumulation of changes become distinct languages." Continued changes in the descendant languages result in the development of dialects which again over time develop into distinct languages. The key elements of Ottawa linguistic history are: (a) the development of Proto-Algonquian, the reconstructed ancestor language of the Algonquian languages, into its daughter languages and sub-families; (b) the relationship of Ojibwe and Potawatomi; (c) the differentiation of the Ojibwe language into a series of dialects.

Algonquian languages
The languages of the Algonquian family constitute a group of historically related languages descended from Proto-Algonquian, the reconstructed ancestor language from which the daughter languages descend. The consensus view of the history of the Algonquian family is that there is one recognized genetic subgroup, Eastern Algonquian, from which approximately seventeen Eastern Algonquian languages descend, and that the remaining Algonquian languages descend directly from Proto-Algonquian. The Algonquian languages are spoken across Canada from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast; on the American Plains; south of the Great Lakes; and on the Atlantic coast from the Maritime Provinces to North Carolina. Many of the Algonquian languages are now extinct. Algonquian is itself a member of the Algic language family, the other Algic languages being Wiyot and Yurok.

Ottawa and Potawatomi
Ojibwe and Potawatomi are viewed as being more closely related to each than to other Algonquian languages, suggesting that they form a genetic subgroup within Proto-Algonquian, although the required research to ascertain the linguistic history and status of a hypothetical “Ojibwe-Potawatomi” subgroup has not yet been undertaken: "Ojibwe-Potawatomi is another possibility that awaits investigation." A proposed consensus classification of Algonquian languages classifies Ojibwe and Potawatomi as "Ojibweyan".

The Central languages share a significant number of common features. These features can generally attributed to diffusion of features through borrowing: “Extensive lexical, phonological, and perhaps grammatical borrowing—the diffusion of elements and features across language boundaries—appears to have been the major factor in giving the languages in the area of the Upper Great Lakes their generally similar cast, and it has not been possible to find any shared innovations substantial enough to require the postulation of a genetically distinct Central Algonquian subgroup.” The possibility that the proposed genetic subgrouping of Ojibwa and Potawatomi can also be accounted for as diffusion has also been raised: “The putative Ojibwa-Potawatomi subgroup is similarly open to question, but cannot be evaluated with more information on Potawatomi dialects.”

Development of Ojibwe dialects
The recognized dialects of Ojibwe are spoken in the region surrounding the Great Lakes, in Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, with other groups of speakers in western Québec in the area along the Québec-Ontario border, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and a few communities in Alberta, North Dakota, Montana, British Columbia, Oklahoma and Kansas. While there is some variation in the classification of Ojibwe dialects, at a minimum the following are recognized, proceeding west to east: Western Ojibwe (Saulteaux), Southwestern Ojibwe (Chippewa), Northwestern Ojibwe, Severn Ojibwe (Oji-Cree), Ottawa (Odawa), Eastern Ojibwe, and Algonquin. Field research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s led to the recognition of several other dialects: Berens Ojibwe along the Berens River in northwestern Ontario, to be distinguished from Northwestern Ojibwe; North of (Lake) Superior; and Nipissing. The latter two cover approximately the same territory as Central Ojibwe, which is not recognized.