a family of North American languages whose speakers ranged over an area stretching from the Atlantic between Newfoundland and Delaware to the Rocky Mountains, including Micmac, Mahican, Ojibwa, Fox, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, and Shawnee. Some linguists relate it to Muskogean in a Macro-Algonquian phylum
2. Word forms: plural-ans or -an
a member of any of the indigenous North American peoples that speak one of these languages
adjective
3.
denoting, belonging to, or relating to this linguistic family or its speakers
Algonquian in American Englishesp collectively
(ælˈɡɑŋkiən, -kwiən) (noun(for 2)plural -ans or -an)
noun
1.
a family of languages spoken now or formerly by Native Americans in an area extendingfrom Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains, west-southwestward through Michigan and Illinois, and southwestward along the Atlantic coast to Cape Hatteras, including esp. Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Fox, Massachusett, Micmac, Ojibwa,and Powhatan