The Algonquian languages (icon or æ;
also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic

Algic languages

The Algic languages are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian family, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada...

 language family

Language family

A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...

. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin

Algonquin language

Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario...

 dialect of the Ojibwe language

Ojibwe language

Ojibwe , also called Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems...

, which is a member of the Algonquian language family. The term "Algonquin" has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word elakómkwik , "they are our relatives/allies".