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Ojibwa dialects are characterized by an enormous amount of dialect variation. Dialect features very often form a continuum, with adjacent dialects being transitional in sharing some features of their neighbours.^[1] The Northern tier of Ojibwa dialects consists of Severn Ojibwa and Algonquin; both morphological and lexical (vocabulary) data support the existence of the Northern tier showing significant differences from the Southern tier of dialect and the transition zone. A significant number of dialectal features assigned to the Northern tier are shared by the two dialects, although both Severn and Algonquin have undergone independent innovations as well.^[2]

Severn has a certain amount of distinctive vocabulary. Some of this appears to reflect forms either borrowed from a number of Cree dialects, or words that are cognate with Cree forms but otherwise not occurring in other Ojibwa dialects.

Severn has a set of particles (words that are invariant in shape, i.e. do not occur with prefixes or suffixes) that appear to be borrowings form Cree.^[3] Examples include egwa ‘and, so’ compared with for example zhigwa found in some other dialects. Other distinctively Severn particles include midoni ‘really,’ aadit ‘some,’ maawaj ‘really,’ maaskooj, and mistahi ‘much, a lot.’ The term mistahi can only be a borrowing since the cluster <st> does not occur in native Ojibwa words.^[4] Similarly, Severn aadit ‘some’ corresponds directly to the corresponding Cree term, while other Ojibwe dialects have aanind, which is the historically expected form.^[5]

In addition to grammatical particles, Severn has other vocabulary that appears to be borrowed from Cree. A number of Severn terms are identical to or closely match Swampy Cree terms; the Swampy Cree community of Fort Severn, Ontario, is directly to the north of the Severn Ojibwa area, on the coast of Hudson Bay. The following presents a sample of such words.^[6]

These apparent direct borrowings from Cree can be distinguished from distinctively Severn words (i.e. not occurring in other Ojibwa dialects) that appear to be cognate with Cree terms rather than direct borrowings.^[7] For example, Severn uses the distinctive word mitigowazh ‘box’ as opposed to the more broadly used general Ojibwa term makak. The Severn term consists of the noun <mitig> ‘wooden’ and a suffix <-wazh> ‘container.’ The Severn term resembles the Swampy Cree term mistikowat, which the same morphological structure: <mistik> ‘wooden’ and suffix <-wat> ‘container.’ However, while the Severn term is arguably cognate with the Cree term it is not a direct borrowing.^[8]

Plains Cree has been suggested as a possible source of some terms in the set of Severn numerals. For example, Severn uses the numeral ayinaanew ‘eight’ which closely resembles Plains Cree ayenaaniw and is less similar to Swampy Cree niyaanaanew. As noted previously, the use of Plains Cree as a liturgical language by Severn speakers may be significant here.

Firm conclusions are not possible, but it is likely that there are multiple Cree sources for some borrowings into Severn.^[9]

Other distinctively Severn vocabulary does not appear to reflect Cree sources. ^[10]

Severn has a number of morphological features that distinguish from other Ojibwa dialects, although a number of morphological features as shared with the Algonquin dialect. Some are shared with Algonquin while others are unique.

• Anishinaabe language dialects

• Anishininimowin language at LanguageGeek.com
• Anishininimowin language resources at knet.ca, including dictionary prototype and downloadable syllabic font