Potawatomi (also spelled Pottawatomie; in Potawatomi Bodéwadmimwen or Bodéwadmi Zheshmowen or Neshnabémwen) is a Central Algonquian language and is spoken around the Great Lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as in Kansas in the United States, and in southern Ontario in Canada, by fewer than 50 Potawatomi people, all elderly. There is currently an effort underway to revive the language.

Classification

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Potawatomi is a member of the Algonquian language family (itself a member of the larger Algic stock). It is usually classified as a Central Algonquian Language, along with languages such as Ojibwe, Cree, Menominee, Miami-Illinois, Shawnee and Fox but the label "Central Algonquian" signifies a geographic grouping, rather than that the group of languages descended from a common ancestor language within the Algonquian family. Of these languages, Potawatomi is most similar to Ojibwe, however it also shares a number of features as well as vocabulary that are found in Fox.

Writing systems

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Current writing system

Though no standard orthography have been agreed upon by the Potawatomi communities, the system most commonly used is the "Pedagogical System" developed by the Wisconsin Native American Languages Program. As the name suggests, this writing system was designed to be used in language teaching. The system is alphabetic (based on the Roman Alphabet), and is phonemic, with each letter or digraph representing a contrastive sound. The letters used are: a b ch d e é g h ' i j k m n o p s sh t w y z zh.

Traditional system

The "Traditional System" used in writing Potawatomi is an alphabetic system. Letters are written in syllable groups. Potawatomi, Ottawa, Sac, Fox and Winnebago communities all used this form of Syllabic writing. The System was derived from the Roman Alphabet, thus it resembles hand-written Roman text. However, unlike the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics or the Cherokee Alphabet, this writing system have not yet been incorporated into the Unicode standards.

Each Potawatomi Syllabic block in the Traditional System consists of at least two of the 17 alphabetic letters: 13 consonants and 4 vowels. Of the 13 phonemic consonantal letters, the written with ^* was considered optional.

Consonants		Consonants		Consonants		Vowels
Traditional System	Pedagogical System	Traditional System	Pedagogical System	Traditional System	Pedagogical System	Traditional System	Pedagogical System
l	b/p	(KA)	(k)	q	gw/kw	a	a
(lA)	(p)	s	z/s	(qA)	(kw)	e	e
t	d/t	(sA)	s	g	g of "-ng"	e	é
(tA)	(t)	sH	zh/sh	w	w	i	i
tt	j/ch	(sHA)	(sh)	y	y	o	o
(ttA)	(ch)	m	m		'/h
K	g/k	n	n	(A)	(h)

Sounds

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In this article, the phonology of the Northern dialect is described, which differs somewhat from that of the Southern dialect spoken in Kansas.

There are five vowel phonemes (plus four diphthongs) and nineteen consonant phonemes.

<é>, which is often written as , represents an open-mid front unrounded vowel, IPA . represents the schwa, , which has several allophonic variants. Before /n/, it becomes , and Before /k/, , and , and word-finally, it is . is pronounced /u/ in Michigan, and /o/ elsewhere; when it is in a closed syllable, it is pronounced . There are also four diphthongs, , spelled <éy éw ey ew>. Phonemic are realized as .

The obstruents, as in many Algonquian languages, do not have a voicing distinction per se, but rather what is better termed a "strong"/"weak" distinction. "Strong" consonants, written as voiceless (

), are always voiceless, are often aspirated, and are longer in duration than the "weak" consonants, which are written as voiced () and are often voiced and are never aspirated. Nasals before another consonant become syllabic. /t/, /d/, and /n/ are dental: .

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i
Close-mid			o
Mid		e
Open-mid	é
Open		a

Consonants

	Bilabial		Dental		Palatal		Velar		Labio-velar		Glottal
Plosive	p	b	t	d			k	g	kw	gw	’
Affricate					ch	j
Fricative			s	z	sh	zh					h
Nasal	m		n
Semivowel					y				w

Grammar

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Correspondence to the Ojibwe language

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Due to the relatively recent diversion from the Ojibwe language, the Potawatomi language still exhibit strong correspondences to the Ojibwe language, and more specifically with the Odaawaa (Ottawa) dialect.

Fiero Double Vowel System	Rhodes Double Vowel System	Potawatomi System	IPA Value
a (unstressed)
a (stressed)	a (stressed)	e
aa	aa	a	a~
b	b	b	b
ch	ch	ch
d	d	d	d
e (unstressed)	e (unstressed)	e
e (stressed)	e (stressed)	é
g	g	g
h	h	h	h
'	h	'
i (unstressed)
i (stressed)	i (stressed)	e
ii	ii	i
j	j	j
k	k	k/ch	k/
m	m	m	m
mb	mb	mb	mb
(not from PA *n) n/	n/	n/y	n/j
(from PA *n) n	n	n	n
nd	nd	nd	nd
ng	ng	ng
nj	nj	nj
ns	ns	s
nz	nz	z
ny/-nh	ny/-nh
nzh	nzh	zh
o (unstressed)	/w/o (unstressed)	/w/o/e	/w/o~/
o (stressed)	o (stressed)	o	o~
oo	oo	o
p	p	p	p
s	s	s	s
sh	sh	sh
shk	shk	shk
shp	shp	shp
sht	sht	sht
sk	sk	sk	sk
t	t	t	t
w	w/	w/	w/
wa (unstressed)	wa (unstressed)/o	w/o	w/o~
waa (unstressed)	waa (unstressed)/oo	wa/o	wa/o~
wi (unstressed)	wi (unstressed)/o	w/o	w/o~
y	y	y (initial glide)	j
		y (medial glide)	j
z	z	z	z
zh	zh	zh

External links

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• Potawatomi Grammar
• Potawatomi grammar, teaching materials, stories, etc.
• Ethnologue report for Potawatomi

Algonquian languages | Languages of the United States | Languages of Canada | Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands