Canada

Canadian English

The English of English-speaking Canada. Closer to General American than to British English in most features, but with its own vocabulary and the well-known Canadian raising.

Newfoundland English

also: Newfie English

The most distinctive variety of Canadian English, descended from 17th- and 18th-century West Country and Hiberno-English settlers. Strongly divergent from mainland Canadian English in vowels and grammar.

Quebec French

also: Québécois, Joual

The dominant French variety of Canada. Strongly distinct from European French in vowel realisation, lexicon, and the colloquial Joual register.

Acadian French

The French of the Maritime provinces, especially New Brunswick. Preserves several 17th-century features lost in both Quebec and Metropolitan French.

Franco-Ontarian

also: Ontario French, Français ontarien

The French of the historic Francophone communities of Ontario, especially around Sudbury, Ottawa, and the Northern shore. Closely related to Quebec French but with stronger English contact features.

Métis French

also: Mitchif Français, Prairie French

The French variety of the Métis Nation of the Canadian Prairies. Distinct from Quebec and Acadian French; not to be confused with Michif, the mixed Cree-French language of the same communities.

Plains Cree

also: Nēhiyawēwin, y-dialect Cree

The westernmost Cree variety, spoken across Saskatchewan and Alberta. The most populous Cree dialect and the basis of much published Cree literature.

Swampy Cree

also: n-dialect Cree, Maskēkowīhew

The Cree of the Hudson Bay lowlands across northern Manitoba and Ontario. Distinguished from Plains Cree by the use of /n/ where Plains Cree has /j/.

Eastern Cree

also: Iyiyiw-Iyimiwin, James Bay Cree

The Cree varieties of Quebec and Labrador, including the James Bay and Atikamekw communities. The Cree dialect cluster with the most active language-revitalisation infrastructure.

Central Ojibwe

also: Anishinaabemowin, Chippewa

The largest Ojibwe variety, spoken across Ontario, Manitoba, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. An Algonquian language with a continuous oral tradition and recent literary growth.

Odawa

also: Ottawa, Nishnaabemwin

The Ojibwe variety of Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula. Distinguished from Central Ojibwe by extensive vowel syncope and a distinct pronoun system.

Dakota

also: Dakhótiyapi, Santee-Sisseton

The eastern Siouan language closely related to Lakota. Spoken by the Santee, Sisseton-Wahpeton, and Yankton communities across Minnesota, the Dakotas, and southern Manitoba.

Inuktitut

also: Eastern Canadian Inuktitut

The Inuit language of Nunavut and Nunavik. The largest Eastern Canadian Inuit variety and one of Nunavut's official languages, written in the Inuktitut syllabary.

Inuvialuktun

also: Western Canadian Inuit

The Inuit language of the Inuvialuit communities of the western Canadian Arctic. Smaller than Inuktitut and historically split between three sub-varieties: Sallirmiutun, Uummarmiutun, and Kangiryuarmiutun.

Plautdietsch

also: Mennonite Low German

A Low German variety preserved by Mennonite diaspora communities since the 16th century. Spoken across colonies in Mexico, Paraguay, Bolivia, Belize, and the Canadian Prairies.

Tlingit

also: Lingít

A Na-Dené language of the Tlingit people of south-eastern Alaska and adjacent British Columbia and Yukon. Famous for its complex consonant system, including ejective fricatives.

Miʼkmaq

also: Mikmawisimk

An Eastern Algonquian language of the Miʼkmaq Nation across the Maritime provinces of Canada, Quebec, and Newfoundland, plus eastern Maine. Around 8,000 speakers, with a long oral and hieroglyphic tradition.

Blackfoot

also: Siksiká

A Plains Algonquian language of the Blackfoot Confederacy across southern Alberta and northern Montana. Around 5,000 speakers; one of the most divergent Algonquian languages.

Munsee

also: Munsee Delaware, Lunaape

An Eastern Algonquian language of the Lenape (Delaware), originally spoken around the lower Hudson, including present-day New York City. The last native-speaker community is the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown in south-western Ontario, where a single elderly first-language speaker was reported in the 2020s alongside a growing circle of second-language learners.

Halkomelem

also: Hulʼqʼumiʼnumʼ

A Coast Salishan language of the lower Fraser river valley and southeastern Vancouver Island. Around 200 fluent speakers across Upriver, Downriver, and Island dialect groups.

Kwakʼwala

also: Kwakiutl

The largest Wakashan language, of the Kwakwakaʼwakw peoples on northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent BC mainland. Famous to anthropology through Franz Boas's field documentation.

Nuu-chah-nulth

also: Nootka

A Wakashan language of the western coast of Vancouver Island. Internally diverse across 14 Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations; central to the early study of Pacific Northwest art and music.