Ojibwe phonology  The phonology of the Ojibwe language (also Ojibwa, Ojibway, or Chippewa, and most commonly referred to in the language as Anishinaabemowin) varies from dialect to dialect, but all varieties share common features. Ojibwe is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family spoken in Canada and the United States in the areas surrounding the Great Lakes, and westward onto the northern plains in both countries, as well as in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec. The article on Ojibwe dialects discusses linguistic variation in more detail, and contains links to separate articles on each dialect. There is no standard language and no dialect that is accepted as representing a standard. Ojibwe words in this article are written in the practical orthography commonly known as the Double vowel system. Ojibwe dialects have the same phonological inventory of vowels and consonants with minor variations, but some dialects differ considerably along a number of phonological parameters. For example, the Ottawa and Eastern Ojibwe dialects have changed relative to other dialects by adding a process of vowel syncope that deletes short vowels in specified positions within a word. This article primarily uses examples from the Southwestern Ojibwe dialect spoken in Minnesota and Wisconsin, sometimes also known as "Ojibwemowin". Ojibwe dialects tend to have 29 phonemes: 11 vowels (seven oral and four nasal) and 18 consonants. All dialects of Ojibwe have seven oral vowels. Vowel length is phonologically contrastive, hence phonemic. Although the long and short vowels are phonetically distinguished by vowel quality, recognition of vowel length in phonological representations is required, as the distinction between long and short vowels is essential for the operation of the metrical rule of vowel syncope that characterizes the Ottawa and Eastern Ojibwe dialects, as well as for the rules that determine word stress. There are three short vowels, ; and three corresponding long vowels, , in addition to a fourth long vowel , which lacks a corresponding short vowel. The short vowel typically has phonetic values centering on ; typically has values centering on ; and typically has values centering on . Long is pronounced for many speakers, and is for many . but more generally as  Ojibwe has a series of three short oral vowels and four long ones.