Geographic Distribution
The Ottawa communities for which the most detailed linguistic information has been collected are in Ontario. Extensive research has been conducted with speakers from Walpole Island in southwestern Ontario near Detroit, and Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. South of Manitoulin Island on the Bruce Peninsula are Cape Croker and Saugeen, for which less information is available. The dialect affiliation of several communities east of Lake Huron remains uncertain. Although "the dialect spoken along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay" has been described as Eastern Ojibwe, studies do not clearly delimit the boundary between Ottawa and Eastern Ojibwe.
Other Canadian communities in the Ottawa-speaking area extend from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario along the north shore of Lake Huron: Garden River, Thessalon, Mississauga (Mississagi River 8 Reserve, Serpent River, Whitefish River, Mattagami, and Whitefish Lake. In addition to Wikwemikong, Ottawa communities on Manitoulin Island are, west to east: Cockburn Island, Sheshegwaning, West Bay, Sucker Creek, and Sheguiandah. Other Ottawa communities in southwestern Ontario in addition to Walpole Island are: Sarnia, Stoney and Kettle Point, and Caradoc (Chippewas of the Thames), near London, Ontario.
Communities in Michigan where Ottawa linguistic data has been collected include Peshawbestown, Harbor Springs, Grand Rapids, Mount Pleasant, Bay City, and Cross Village. The descendants of migrant Ottawas live in Kansas and Oklahoma; available information indicates only three elderly speakers in Oklahoma as of 2006.
Reliable data on the total number of Ottawa speakers is not available, in part because Canadian census data does not identify the Ottawa as a separate group. One report suggests a total of approximately 8,000 speakers of Ottawa in the northern United States and southern Ontario out of an estimated total population of 60,000. A field study conducted during the 1990s in Ottawa communities indicates that Ottawa is in decline, noting that "Today too few children are learning Nishnaabemwin as their first language, and in some communities where the language was traditionally spoken, the number of speakers is very small." Formal second-language classes attempt to reduce the impact of declining first-language acquisition of Ottawa.
Read more about this topic: Ottawa Dialect
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