Ojibwe grammar
Encyclopedia
The Ojibwe language
is an Algonquian
American Indian language
spoken throughout the Great Lakes
region and westward onto the northern plains. It is one of the largest American Indian languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers, and exhibits a large number of divergent dialects. For the most part, this article describes the Minnesota variety of the Southwestern dialect. The orthography used is the Fiero Double-Vowel System.
Like many American languages, Ojibwe is polysynthetic, meaning it exhibits a great deal of synthesis
and a very high morpheme
-to-word ratio (e.g., the single word for "they are Chinese" is aniibiishaabookewininiiwiwag, which contains seven morphemes: elm-PEJORATIVE-liquid-make-man-be-PLURAL, or approximately "they are leaf-soup [i.e., tea] makers"). It is agglutinating
, and thus builds up words by stringing morpheme after morpheme together, rather than having several affixes which carry numerous different pieces of information.
Like most Algonquian languages, Ojibwe distinguishes two different kinds of third person, a proximate and an obviative. The proximate is a traditional third person, while the obviative (also frequently called "fourth person") marks a less important third person if more than one third person is taking part in an action. In other words, Ojibwe uses the obviative to avoid the confusion that could be created by English sentences such as "John and Bill were good friends, ever since the day he first saw him" (who saw whom?). In Ojibwe, one of the two participants would be marked as proximate (whichever one was deemed more important), and the other marked as obviative.
contrast such as masculine/feminine, Ojibwe instead distinguishes between animate
and inanimate
. Animate nouns are generally living things, and inanimate ones generally nonliving things, although this is not a simple rule due to the cultural understanding as to whether a noun possesses a "spirit" or not (generally, if it can move, it possesses a "spirit"). Objects which have great spiritual importance for the Ojibwe — such as rocks — are very often animate rather than inanimate, for example. Some words are distinguished purely by their gender; for example, mitig can mean either "tree" or "stick:" if it is animate (plural mitigoog), it means "tree," and if it is inanimate (plural mitigoon), it means "stick."
in Ojibwe is a simple singular/plural contrast. Nouns and pronouns can be either singular or plural, and verbs inflect for the number of their subject and object, although some nouns and verbs lack singular forms. Plural forms differ from word to word depending on the word's gender, root, and historical stress. By examining the plural form of the word, one can generally determine the word's gender and root. Animate plurals end in -g, while inanimate plural nouns (and obviative nouns) end in -n. The underlying form of a root determines the "linking vowel" — the vowel that appears before the plural suffix (-g or -n) but after the root itself.
/gender combinations for each of the two numbers (singular and plural). However, the singular and plural categories do not always exactly correspond. The total number of 14 "persons" arises from taking into consideration all the contrasts of animate/inanimate, proximate/obviative, and singular/plural.
Animate gender (singular)
Animate gender (plural)
Inanimate gender
Characteristics of the resulting 14 persons are built into Ojibwe nouns and pronouns, thus dictating which verb forms would be used in speech. In nouns and verbs, all 14 forms of persons may or may not present themselves, as words are divided as either animate or inanimate genders and very few words exist as both, but all 14 forms of persons generally do appear with pronouns.
An inclusive first person plural indicates that the pronoun includes the addressee, i.e., "we including you" (giinawind). An exclusive first person plural indicates that the addressee is not included, i.e., "we excluding you" (niinawind).
The other personal pronouns are the first singular niin, second singular giin, third singular wiin, second plural giinawaa, and third plural wiinawaa.
Like the independent words, Ojibwe pronominal prefixes indicate first person with n-, second person with g- and third person with w-. However, the associated suffixes for these persons will be different depending on if the word is a verb or a noun.
In many Ojibwe-speaking communities, the first person prefix is used without the initial n. Due to vowel syncope in some communities, those prefixes are further reduced without the initial i. However, among Saulteaux communities, the first person prefix nim- and nin- are instead reduced to ni-, nind- to nid- and nindo- to nido-.
Ojibwe also has a set of demonstrative pronouns, distinguishing animate/inanimate, here/there/yonder/over here, singular/plural, and proximate/obviative. The demonstratives differ in their phonetic forms very significantly across Ojibwe dialects and communities, so this table, based on the Minnesota dialect of Southwestern Ojibwe, will not be entirely correct for many speakers:
Ojibwe also has a set of interrogative pronouns (awenen, "who?", awegonen, "what?"), dubitative pronouns (awegwen, "I don't know who", wegodogwen, "I don't know what"), and "indefinite" pronouns (awiiya, "someone", gegoo, "something," both of which can be preceded by gaawiin or akina to mean "no one, nothing" and "everyone, everything," respectively).
or intransitive
, and whether they take animate or inanimate subjects. The main classes of verbs are abbreviated VAI (intransitive with animate subject), VII (intransitive with inanimate subject), VTA (transitive with animate object), and VTI (transitive with inanimate object).
Verbs mark tenses with prefixes (gii-, past, ga- and da-, future, and wii-, desiderative future), but also can take a myriad of affixes known as "preverbs", which convey a great amount of additional information about an action. For example, the preverb izhi- means "in such a way," and so its addition to the verb root -ayaa-, "to be," makes the verb izhi-ayaa, "to be a certain way." The preverb bimi-, "along," combines with the verb root -batoo-, "to run," to form bimibatoo, "to run along, run by." The preferred order of these prefixes are personal prefix, tense prefix, directional prefix, relative prefix, any number of preverbs, and finally the verb. In addition, the initial syllable may be modified by an initial vowel change or by an initial syllable reduplication.
Furthermore, there are three so-called "orders" of Ojibwe verbs. The basic one is called Independent Order, and is simply the indicative mood. There is also a Conjunct Order, which is most often used with verbs in subordinate clauses, in questions (other than simple yes-no questions), and with participles (participles in Ojibwe are verbal nouns, whose meaning is roughly equivalent to "someone who is (VERB), does (VERB)," for example, the word for "traveler," bebaamaadizid, is the third singular conjunct of babaamaadizi, "to travel about," and literally means "someone who travels about"). The final order is the Imperative Order, used with commands and corresponding to the imperative mood
.
Negatives are generally introduced by the leading word gaawiin, which is usually translated as "no," before introducing the actual words in their negative form. Negatives are generally formed by adding sii (or zii) for independent order and si (or zi) for conjunct order, both adding the negative element immediately after the root but before other suffixes. The sii/si are found after vowels while the zii/zi are found after n. In some words, the final consonant is dropped and the sii/si are added to the remaining vowel, in other words the final m is converted to n before adding zii/zi, yet in other words a linking vowel i (or aa) is added after the final consonant and then the sii/si added. Imperatives do not follow the sii (zii)/si (zi) pattern.
There are three imperatives in Ojibwe: the immediate imperative, used to indicate that the action must be completely right away (nibaan!, "Sleep (right now)!"), the delayed imperative, used to indicate that the action should be completely eventually, but not immediately (nibaakan!, "Sleep (in a little bit)!"), and the prohibitive imperative, used to indicate that the action is prohibited ((gego) nibaaken!, "Don't sleep!"). Like the negatives, the "k" in -k, -ken, -keg and -kegon take on the lenis form and become "g" after n. Also like the negatives, the general the connector vowel between the imperative suffix and the terminal consonant here is i; however, for k/g, the connector vowel instead is o.
All verbs can also be marked for four "modes:" indicative (neutral), dubitative
(the speaker is unsure about the validity of what they are saying, for example: bakade, "he is hungry," but bakadedog, "he must be hungry; he could be hungry"), preterit (which emphasizes that the action occurred in the past, and is also used to refer to attempted or intended but uncompleted actions, for example: imaa ninamadabi, "I'm sitting there," but imaa ninamadabiban, "I was sitting there; I meant to sit there"), or preterit-dubitative (which expresses doubt about a past action: imaa namadabigoban, "she must have sat there; she could have sat there").
Also as an example of some of the Ojibwe verbal distinctions at work, consider the conjugation of positive and negative indicative long-vowel-final VII verbs (using the example ozhaawashkwaa, "to blue"). Note that unlike VAI verbs, VII do not have imperatives:
distinctions among agent, patient and experiencer theta roles, so in a transitive verb with two participants, the only way to distinguish subject from object is through direct/inverse/goal suffixes.
1. In the Oji-Cree language
, this is -ishi-.
For the first person and second person GOALs, their ACTORs are specified if the words are in their Independent Order, and can also be known as local direct (first person GOAL) and local inverse (second person GOAL). A DIRECT suffix indicates that the action is performed by someone higher on the person hierarchy on someone lower on the person hierarchy (e.g., by the addressee on the speaker, or by a proximate third person on an obviative):
An inverse suffix indicates that the action is performed by someone lower on the person hierarchy on someone higher on the person hierarchy (e.g., by the speaker on the addressee, or by an obviative third person on a proximate):
As can be seen, the only difference between these two verbs is the direct–inverse opposition, rather than case markers (or word order, when distinct nominals are used). An inverse verb is not equivalent to a passive verb. There is a separate passivity marker, distinct from the direct–inverse markers:
s, including a locative
(e.g., wiisiniwigamig, "restaurant," wiisiniwigamigong, "in the restaurant") and a vocative plural
(e.g., Ojibwedog, "(you) Ojibwes!"). Other suffixes are: pejorative (e.g., jiimaan, "canoe," jiimaanish, "worthless canoe"), diminutive (e.g., zhooniyaa, "money," zhooniyaans, "coin"), contemptive (e.g., odaabaan, "car", odaabaanenh, "just some old car"), preterit (which marks a deceased or no-longer existent person or object, e.g. nookomis, "my grandmother," nookomisiban, "my late grandmother"), and preterit-dubitative (which maks a deceased or no-longer existent person or object which was never known by the speaker, e.g. a'aw mindimooyenh, "that old woman", a'aw mindimooyenyigoban, "that late old woman I never knew").
Some nouns are considered "dependent
" and cannot be presented by themselves. Instead, these dependent nouns are presented with pronoun prefixes/suffixes attached to them. An example of a dependent noun is nookomis ("my grandmother") where the dependent root -ookomis- ("grandmother") must be presented with a pronoun affix, which in this case is n-.
Other nouns are derived from verbs by transforming them to their participle form. Of the choices, third person (and thus third person plural) is the most common form. Though each class of verbs may have their own pariciple-forming patterns, for simplicity, only the VAI neutral mode, positive participles are shown in the example, again, using nibaa ("sleep").
Note: C and V are used in some of the tables below to indicate a consonant
or a vowel
, respectively.
* For participles, the word experiences initial vowel change.
1 In Oji-Cree language
, this is a "j" and not a "d".
1 In Oji-Cree language
, this is a "j" and not a "d".
and certain areas of northwestern Ontario
, often contemptives are reduced from -nh/-ny- forms to -ø/-y-. In Odaawaa, the frequency of contemptives in fauna are higher than in other Anishinaabemowin dialects. For example, it is from the Daawaamwin word jidmoonh ("red squirrel") where the English word "chipmunk" has its origins, while the same word in Ojibwemowin is ajidamoo.
Vocative plurals mimic pejorative conjugation patterns. It is identified with the -dog suffix, which in the Ottawa dialect shows up instead as -dig suffix. Some nouns have special vocative singlular forms that do not fit into any common patterns. For example "my grandmother" is nookomis and "Grandmother!" is nookoo, but "my father" is noos and "Father!" is noose.
Rarely do either the possessive theme -m or the obviative possessor theme -ni stand by themselves. The above examples for the possessive theme -m were for the first person singular. For other persons or number, again using the possessive theme -m as an example, the word is conjugated as following:
1 In the Algonquin
, the plural suffix remains as -an/-ag, rather than becoming -in/-ig.
2 Terminal -n is not found in Algonquin language
.
However, in some words beginning in dan-, dazh-, das-, dash- or daa- instead take on the prefix en- to form endan-, endazh-, endas-, endash- or endaa-. The directional prefix bi-, meaning "over here," instead becomes ba-.
In some words, the reduplicated consonant shifts from their lenis value to their fortis value. Yet in some stems, initial Cw- retains the -w- while others do not. Those words experiencing the prefix en- may change to in- before experiencing reduplication.
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...
is an Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
American Indian language
Indigenous languages of the Americas
Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...
spoken throughout the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
region and westward onto the northern plains. It is one of the largest American Indian languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers, and exhibits a large number of divergent dialects. For the most part, this article describes the Minnesota variety of the Southwestern dialect. The orthography used is the Fiero Double-Vowel System.
Like many American languages, Ojibwe is polysynthetic, meaning it exhibits a great deal of synthesis
Synthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
and a very high morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
-to-word ratio (e.g., the single word for "they are Chinese" is aniibiishaabookewininiiwiwag, which contains seven morphemes: elm-PEJORATIVE-liquid-make-man-be-PLURAL, or approximately "they are leaf-soup [i.e., tea] makers"). It is agglutinating
Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
, and thus builds up words by stringing morpheme after morpheme together, rather than having several affixes which carry numerous different pieces of information.
Like most Algonquian languages, Ojibwe distinguishes two different kinds of third person, a proximate and an obviative. The proximate is a traditional third person, while the obviative (also frequently called "fourth person") marks a less important third person if more than one third person is taking part in an action. In other words, Ojibwe uses the obviative to avoid the confusion that could be created by English sentences such as "John and Bill were good friends, ever since the day he first saw him" (who saw whom?). In Ojibwe, one of the two participants would be marked as proximate (whichever one was deemed more important), and the other marked as obviative.
Gender
Rather than a genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
contrast such as masculine/feminine, Ojibwe instead distinguishes between animate
Animacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
and inanimate
Animacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
. Animate nouns are generally living things, and inanimate ones generally nonliving things, although this is not a simple rule due to the cultural understanding as to whether a noun possesses a "spirit" or not (generally, if it can move, it possesses a "spirit"). Objects which have great spiritual importance for the Ojibwe — such as rocks — are very often animate rather than inanimate, for example. Some words are distinguished purely by their gender; for example, mitig can mean either "tree" or "stick:" if it is animate (plural mitigoog), it means "tree," and if it is inanimate (plural mitigoon), it means "stick."
Number
NumberGrammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
in Ojibwe is a simple singular/plural contrast. Nouns and pronouns can be either singular or plural, and verbs inflect for the number of their subject and object, although some nouns and verbs lack singular forms. Plural forms differ from word to word depending on the word's gender, root, and historical stress. By examining the plural form of the word, one can generally determine the word's gender and root. Animate plurals end in -g, while inanimate plural nouns (and obviative nouns) end in -n. The underlying form of a root determines the "linking vowel" — the vowel that appears before the plural suffix (-g or -n) but after the root itself.
Person
There are seven Ojibwe inflectional categories expressing personGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
/gender combinations for each of the two numbers (singular and plural). However, the singular and plural categories do not always exactly correspond. The total number of 14 "persons" arises from taking into consideration all the contrasts of animate/inanimate, proximate/obviative, and singular/plural.
Animate gender (singular)
- X — unspecified actor
- 1 — first person singular
- 2 — second person singular
- 3 — third person, animate
- 3’ — animate obviative, or fourth person, animate
- 3’’ — third person animate, possessed by obviative
Animate gender (plural)
- 1p — first person plural, exclusive
- 21 — first person plural, inclusive
- 2p — second person plural
- 3p — third person plural, animate
- 3’p — third person plural, animate obviative, or animate fourth person proximate plural
Inanimate gender
- 0 — third person singular, inanimate
- 0’ — third person singular, inanimate obviative
- 0p — third person plural, inanimate
- 0’p — third person plural, inanimate obviative
Characteristics of the resulting 14 persons are built into Ojibwe nouns and pronouns, thus dictating which verb forms would be used in speech. In nouns and verbs, all 14 forms of persons may or may not present themselves, as words are divided as either animate or inanimate genders and very few words exist as both, but all 14 forms of persons generally do appear with pronouns.
Pronouns
Ojibwe pronouns, along with distinguishing singular and plural number and first, second, third, and fourth (obviative) persons, also carry a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Pronouns may present themselves either as independent words or as series of prefixes and suffixes.An inclusive first person plural indicates that the pronoun includes the addressee, i.e., "we including you" (giinawind). An exclusive first person plural indicates that the addressee is not included, i.e., "we excluding you" (niinawind).
The other personal pronouns are the first singular niin, second singular giin, third singular wiin, second plural giinawaa, and third plural wiinawaa.
Like the independent words, Ojibwe pronominal prefixes indicate first person with n-, second person with g- and third person with w-. However, the associated suffixes for these persons will be different depending on if the word is a verb or a noun.
| Word begins with... | 1 or "n-" |
2 or "g-" |
3 or "w-" |
|---|---|---|---|
| |
(n)ind- | gid- | od- |
| |
n- | g- | od- |
| |
n- | g- | w- |
| |
(n)indo- | gido- | odo- |
| |
(n)im- | gi- | (o)- |
| |
(n)in- | gi- | (o)- |
| |
ni- | gi- | (o)- |
In many Ojibwe-speaking communities, the first person prefix is used without the initial n. Due to vowel syncope in some communities, those prefixes are further reduced without the initial i. However, among Saulteaux communities, the first person prefix nim- and nin- are instead reduced to ni-, nind- to nid- and nindo- to nido-.
Ojibwe also has a set of demonstrative pronouns, distinguishing animate/inanimate, here/there/yonder/over here, singular/plural, and proximate/obviative. The demonstratives differ in their phonetic forms very significantly across Ojibwe dialects and communities, so this table, based on the Minnesota dialect of Southwestern Ojibwe, will not be entirely correct for many speakers:
| Animate | Inanimate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Obviative | Singular | Plural | |
| Here | wa'aw | ongow | onow | o'ow | onow |
| There | a'aw | ingiw | iniw | i'iw | iniw |
| Over there/ Yonder |
a'awedi | ingiwedig | iniwedin | i'iwedi | iniwedin |
| Over here | wa'awedi | ongowedig | onowedin | o'owedi | onowedin |
Ojibwe also has a set of interrogative pronouns (awenen, "who?", awegonen, "what?"), dubitative pronouns (awegwen, "I don't know who", wegodogwen, "I don't know what"), and "indefinite" pronouns (awiiya, "someone", gegoo, "something," both of which can be preceded by gaawiin or akina to mean "no one, nothing" and "everyone, everything," respectively).
Verbs
Ojibwe verbs mark information not only on the subject (their animacy, person, and plurality), but also on the object. There are several different classes of verbs in the language, which differ based on whether they are transitiveTransitive verb
In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
or intransitive
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
, and whether they take animate or inanimate subjects. The main classes of verbs are abbreviated VAI (intransitive with animate subject), VII (intransitive with inanimate subject), VTA (transitive with animate object), and VTI (transitive with inanimate object).
Verbs mark tenses with prefixes (gii-, past, ga- and da-, future, and wii-, desiderative future), but also can take a myriad of affixes known as "preverbs", which convey a great amount of additional information about an action. For example, the preverb izhi- means "in such a way," and so its addition to the verb root -ayaa-, "to be," makes the verb izhi-ayaa, "to be a certain way." The preverb bimi-, "along," combines with the verb root -batoo-, "to run," to form bimibatoo, "to run along, run by." The preferred order of these prefixes are personal prefix, tense prefix, directional prefix, relative prefix, any number of preverbs, and finally the verb. In addition, the initial syllable may be modified by an initial vowel change or by an initial syllable reduplication.
Furthermore, there are three so-called "orders" of Ojibwe verbs. The basic one is called Independent Order, and is simply the indicative mood. There is also a Conjunct Order, which is most often used with verbs in subordinate clauses, in questions (other than simple yes-no questions), and with participles (participles in Ojibwe are verbal nouns, whose meaning is roughly equivalent to "someone who is (VERB), does (VERB)," for example, the word for "traveler," bebaamaadizid, is the third singular conjunct of babaamaadizi, "to travel about," and literally means "someone who travels about"). The final order is the Imperative Order, used with commands and corresponding to the imperative mood
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
.
Negatives are generally introduced by the leading word gaawiin, which is usually translated as "no," before introducing the actual words in their negative form. Negatives are generally formed by adding sii (or zii) for independent order and si (or zi) for conjunct order, both adding the negative element immediately after the root but before other suffixes. The sii/si are found after vowels while the zii/zi are found after n. In some words, the final consonant is dropped and the sii/si are added to the remaining vowel, in other words the final m is converted to n before adding zii/zi, yet in other words a linking vowel i (or aa) is added after the final consonant and then the sii/si added. Imperatives do not follow the sii (zii)/si (zi) pattern.
There are three imperatives in Ojibwe: the immediate imperative, used to indicate that the action must be completely right away (nibaan!, "Sleep (right now)!"), the delayed imperative, used to indicate that the action should be completely eventually, but not immediately (nibaakan!, "Sleep (in a little bit)!"), and the prohibitive imperative, used to indicate that the action is prohibited ((gego) nibaaken!, "Don't sleep!"). Like the negatives, the "k" in -k, -ken, -keg and -kegon take on the lenis form and become "g" after n. Also like the negatives, the general the connector vowel between the imperative suffix and the terminal consonant here is i; however, for k/g, the connector vowel instead is o.
All verbs can also be marked for four "modes:" indicative (neutral), dubitative
Dubitative mood
Dubitative mood is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, that indicates that the statement is dubious, doubtful, or uncertain. It may subsist as a separate morphological category, as in Bulgarian, or else as a category of use of another form, as of the conditional mood of...
(the speaker is unsure about the validity of what they are saying, for example: bakade, "he is hungry," but bakadedog, "he must be hungry; he could be hungry"), preterit (which emphasizes that the action occurred in the past, and is also used to refer to attempted or intended but uncompleted actions, for example: imaa ninamadabi, "I'm sitting there," but imaa ninamadabiban, "I was sitting there; I meant to sit there"), or preterit-dubitative (which expresses doubt about a past action: imaa namadabigoban, "she must have sat there; she could have sat there").
Intransitives
As an example of some of the Ojibwe verbal distinctions at work, consider the conjugation of positive and negative indicative long-vowel-final VAI verbs (using the example nibaa, "to sleep"):| Subject | Independent | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positive | Negative | |||||||||
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||||
| Niin | n | _ | 0 | ninibaa | "I sleep" | n | _ | sii(n)¹ | ninibaasiin | "I don't sleep" |
| Giin | g | _ | 0 | ginibaa | "You sleep" | g | _ | sii(n)¹ | ginibaasiin | "You don't sleep" |
| Wiin | 0 | _ | 0 | nibaa | "S/he/it sleeps" | 0 | _ | sii(n)¹ | nibaasiin | "S/he/it doesn't sleep" |
| Obviative | 0 | _ | wan | nibaawan | "S/he/it (obviate) sleeps" | 0 | _ | siiwan | nibaasiiwan | "S/he/it (obviate) doesn't sleep" |
| Indefinite | 0 | _ | m | nibaam | "Someone sleeps" | 0 | _ | siim | nibaasiim | "Someone doesn't sleep" |
| Niinawind | n | _ | mi(n)¹ | ninibaamin | "We (exclusive) sleep" | n | _ | siimi(n)¹ | ninibaasiimin | "We (exclusive) don't sleep" |
| Giinawind | g | _ | mi(n)¹ | ginibaamin | "We (inclusive) sleep" | g | _ | siimi(n)¹ | ginibaasiimin | "We (inclusive) don't sleep" |
| Giinawaa | g | _ | m | ginibaam | "You guys sleep" | g | _ | siim | ginibaasiim | "You guys don't sleep" |
| Wiinawaa | 0 | _ | wag | nibaawag | "They sleep" | 0 | _ | siiwag | nibaasiiwag | "They don't sleep" |
| Subject | Conjunct | |||||||||
| Positive | Negative | |||||||||
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||||
| Niin | 0 | _ | yaan | nibaayaan | "That I sleep" | 0 | _ | siwaan(h)² | nibaasiwaan | "That I don't sleep" |
| Giin | 0 | _ | yan | nibaayan | "That you sleep" | 0 | _ | siwan | nibaasiwan | "That you don't sleep" |
| Wiin | 0 | _ | d | nibaad | "That s/he/it sleeps" | 0 | _ | sig | nibaasig | "That s/he/it don't sleeps" |
| Obviative | 0 | _ | nid | nibaanid | "That s/he/it (obviate) sleeps" | 0 | _ | sinid/g | nibaasinid nibaasinig |
"That s/he/it (obviate) don't sleep" |
| Indefinite | 0 | _ | ng | nibaang | "That someone sleeps" | 0 | _ | sing | nibaasing | "That someone don't sleep" |
| Niinawind | 0 | _ | yaang | nibaayaang | "That we (exclusive) sleep" | 0 | _ | siwaang | nibaasiwaang | "That we (exclusive) don't sleep" |
| Giinawind | 0 | _ | yang | nibaayang | "That we (inclusive) sleep" | 0 | _ | siwang | nibaasiwang | "That we (inclusive) don't sleep" |
| Giinawaa | 0 | _ | yeg | nibaayeg | "That you guys sleep" | 0 | _ | siweg | nibaasiweg | "That you guys don't sleep" |
| Wiinawaa | 0 | _ | waad | nibaawaad | "That they sleep" | 0 | _ | siwaa | nibaasiwaa | "That they don't sleep" |
| Subject | Imperative (Immediate) | Imperative (Prohibitive) | ||||||||
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||||
| Giin | 0 | _ | n | nibaan | "You! Sleep!" (now) | 0 | _ | ken | nibaaken | "You! Don't Sleep!" |
| Giinawind | 0 | _ | daa | nibaadaa | "Let's sleep!" (now) | 0 | _ | siidaa | nibaasiidaa | "Let's not sleep!" |
| Giinawaa | 0 | _ | (o)k/(o)g | nibaak nibaag |
"You guys! Sleep!" (now) | 0 | _ | kegon | nibaakegon | "You guys! Don't Sleep!" |
| Subject | Imperative (Delayed) | |||||||||
| Positive | Negative | |||||||||
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||||
| Giin | 0 | _ | (:)kan³ | nibaakan | "You! Sleep!" (soon) | 0 | _ | siikan | nibaasiikan | "You! Don't sleep!" (soon) |
| Giinawaa | 0 | _ | (:)keg³ | nibaakeg | "You guys! Sleep!" (soon) | 0 | _ | siikeg | nibaasiikeg | "You guys! Don't sleep!" (soon) |
- 1 In OdaawaaOttawa languageOttawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, spoken by the Ottawa people in southern Ontario in Canada, and northern Michigan in the United States. Descendants of migrant Ottawa speakers live in Kansas and Oklahoma...
, the final n is absent. - 2 In OdaawaaOttawa languageOttawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, spoken by the Ottawa people in southern Ontario in Canada, and northern Michigan in the United States. Descendants of migrant Ottawa speakers live in Kansas and Oklahoma...
, nh is used instead of n. - 3 Short vowels are lengthened before adding the suffix.
Also as an example of some of the Ojibwe verbal distinctions at work, consider the conjugation of positive and negative indicative long-vowel-final VII verbs (using the example ozhaawashkwaa, "to blue"). Note that unlike VAI verbs, VII do not have imperatives:
| Subject | Independent | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positive | Negative | |||||||||
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||||
| Singular | 0 | _ | (w)¹ | ozhaawashkwaa | "It blues" | 0 | _ | siinoon | ozhaawashkwaasiinoon | "It doesn't blue" |
| Singular Obviative | 0 | _ | ni(w)¹ | ozhaawashkwaani | "It (obviate) blues" | 0 | _ | sinini(w)¹ | ozhaawashkwaasinini | "It (obviate) doesn't blue" |
| Plural | 0 | _ | wan | ozhaawashkwaawan | "They blue" | 0 | _ | siinoon | ozhaawashkwaasiinoon | "They don't blue" |
| Plural Obviative | 0 | _ | niwan | ozhaawashkwaaniwan | "They (obviate) blue" | 0 | _ | sininiwan | ozhaawashkwaasininiwan | "They (obviate) don't blue" |
| Subject | Conjunct | |||||||||
| Positive | Negative | |||||||||
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||||
| Singular | 0 | _ | g | ozhaawashkwaag | "That it blues" | 0 | _ | sinog | ozhaawashkwaasinog | "That it don't blue" |
| Singular Obviative | 0 | _ | nig | ozhaawashkwaanig | "That it (obviate) blues" | 0 | _ | sininig | ozhaawashkwaasininig | "That it (obviate) don't blue" |
| Plural | 0 | _ | g | ozhaawashkwaag | "That they blue" | 0 | _ | sinog | ozhaawashkwaasinog | "That they don't blue" |
| Plural Obviative | 0 | _ | nig | ozhaawashkwaanig | "That they (obviate) blue" | 0 | _ | sininig | ozhaawashkwaasininig | "That they (obviate) don't blue" |
- 1 In some words, a final w is present.
Transitives
Ojibwe, as with other Algonquian languages, also exhibits a direct–inverse system, in which transitive verbs are marked for whether or not the direction of the action follows a "topicality hierarchy" of the language. The topicality hierarchy in Ojibwe is 2 > 1 > X > 3 > 3’ > 0, determined by 1) person, 2) gender, and 3) obviation. Ojibwe has no caseGrammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
distinctions among agent, patient and experiencer theta roles, so in a transitive verb with two participants, the only way to distinguish subject from object is through direct/inverse/goal suffixes.
| Direction Type |
ACTOR | DIRECTION | GOAL | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIRECT | → | 3 | -aa- | |
| INVERSE | ← | 3 | -igw- | |
| 1-GOAL | (2) | → | 1 | -i-¹ |
| 2-GOAL | (1) | → | 2 | -iN- |
1. In the Oji-Cree language
Oji-Cree language
The Severn Ojibwa or the Oji-Cree language is the indigenous name for a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of Oji-Cree communities in northern Ontario and at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada...
, this is -ishi-.
For the first person and second person GOALs, their ACTORs are specified if the words are in their Independent Order, and can also be known as local direct (first person GOAL) and local inverse (second person GOAL). A DIRECT suffix indicates that the action is performed by someone higher on the person hierarchy on someone lower on the person hierarchy (e.g., by the addressee on the speaker, or by a proximate third person on an obviative):
| obizindawaan | |||
| o- | bizindaw | -aa | -n |
| 3- | listen.to | -DIRECT | -3OBVIATIVE |
| "He listens to the other one" | |||
An inverse suffix indicates that the action is performed by someone lower on the person hierarchy on someone higher on the person hierarchy (e.g., by the speaker on the addressee, or by an obviative third person on a proximate):
| obizindawigoon | |||
| o- | bizindaw | -igoo | -n |
| 3- | listen.to | -INVERSE | -3OBVIATIVE |
| "The other one listens to him" | |||
As can be seen, the only difference between these two verbs is the direct–inverse opposition, rather than case markers (or word order, when distinct nominals are used). An inverse verb is not equivalent to a passive verb. There is a separate passivity marker, distinct from the direct–inverse markers:
| bizindaawaa | |||
| bizindaw | -aa | ||
| listen.to | -PASSIVE | ||
| "He is listened to" | |||
Nouns
Nouns distinguish plurality, animacy, obviation, and case with suffixes. Animacy is only overtly marked on plural nouns. There are no core cases to distinguish categories such as "subject" or "object," but rather various oblique caseOblique case
An oblique case in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition...
s, including a locative
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
(e.g., wiisiniwigamig, "restaurant," wiisiniwigamigong, "in the restaurant") and a vocative plural
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
(e.g., Ojibwedog, "(you) Ojibwes!"). Other suffixes are: pejorative (e.g., jiimaan, "canoe," jiimaanish, "worthless canoe"), diminutive (e.g., zhooniyaa, "money," zhooniyaans, "coin"), contemptive (e.g., odaabaan, "car", odaabaanenh, "just some old car"), preterit (which marks a deceased or no-longer existent person or object, e.g. nookomis, "my grandmother," nookomisiban, "my late grandmother"), and preterit-dubitative (which maks a deceased or no-longer existent person or object which was never known by the speaker, e.g. a'aw mindimooyenh, "that old woman", a'aw mindimooyenyigoban, "that late old woman I never knew").
Some nouns are considered "dependent
Inalienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession refers to the linguistic properties of certain nouns or nominal morphemes based on the fact that they are always possessed. The semantic underpinning is that entities like body parts and relatives do not exist apart from a possessor. For example, a hand...
" and cannot be presented by themselves. Instead, these dependent nouns are presented with pronoun prefixes/suffixes attached to them. An example of a dependent noun is nookomis ("my grandmother") where the dependent root -ookomis- ("grandmother") must be presented with a pronoun affix, which in this case is n-.
Other nouns are derived from verbs by transforming them to their participle form. Of the choices, third person (and thus third person plural) is the most common form. Though each class of verbs may have their own pariciple-forming patterns, for simplicity, only the VAI neutral mode, positive participles are shown in the example, again, using nibaa ("sleep").
Note: C and V are used in some of the tables below to indicate a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
or a vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
, respectively.
| Subject | VAI Neutral Mode, Positive Participles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conjugation | Example | Gloss | |||
| Niin | 0 | * | yaan | nebaayaan | "Sleeper" |
| Giin | 0 | * | yan | nebaayan | "Sleeper" |
| Wiin | 0 | * | d1 | nebaad1 | "Sleeper" |
| Obviative | 0 | * | nijin | nebaanijin | "Sleeper" |
| Indefinite | 0 | * | ng | nebaang | "Sleeper" |
| Niinawind | 0 | * | yaang | nebaayaang | "Sleepers" |
| Giinawind | 0 | * | yang | nebaayang | "Sleepers" |
| Giinawaa | 0 | * | yeg | nebaayeg | "Sleepers" |
| Wiinawaa | 0 | * | jig | nebaajig | "Sleepers" |
* For participles, the word experiences initial vowel change.
1 In Oji-Cree language
Oji-Cree language
The Severn Ojibwa or the Oji-Cree language is the indigenous name for a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of Oji-Cree communities in northern Ontario and at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada...
, this is a "j" and not a "d".
Plurals and Obviative
Plurals and obviative suffixes are the easiest to add to Ojibwe words. By examining the plural, one can generally determine the underlying root of the word. Generally, animate plurals end with -g, while inanimate plurals and obviatives end with -n. Often, a linking vowel is required to join the root to one of these endings. Underlying -w or -y or an augment may affect the choice of linking vowels.| Singular | Inanimate Plural |
Animate Plural |
Obviative | Singular Example |
Plural Example |
Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consonant Stem | ||||||
| C | Can | Cag | Can | miin | miinan | "blueberries" |
| Long-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CVV | CVVn | CVVg | CVVn | ajidamoo | ajidamoog | "squirrels" |
| CVV | CVVwan | CVVwag | CVVwan | bine | binewag | "partridges" |
| CV | CVwan | CVwag | CVwan | wado | wadowag | "bloodclots" |
| CVVw | CVVwan | CVVwag | CVVwan | niwiiw | niwiiwag | "my wives" |
| CVV | CVVyan | CVVyag | CVVyan | nimaamaa | nimaamaayag | "my mamas" |
| CVVnh | CVVnyan | CVVnyag | CVVnyan | giigoonh | giigoonyag | "fishes" |
| Short-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CV | CVwan | CVwag | CVwan | inini | ininiwag | "men" |
| CVw | CVwan | CVwag | CVwan | bigiw | bigiwan | "gums" |
| W Stem | ||||||
| C | Coon | Coog | Coon | mitig | mitigoon | "sticks" |
| C | Cwan | Cwag | Cwan | nigig | nigigwag | "otters" |
| Cwa | Cwan | Cwag | Cwan | makwa | makwag | "bears" |
| Cwa | Cwan | Cwag | Cwan | ikwa | ikwag | "lice" |
| Y Stem | ||||||
| C | Ciin | Ciig | Ciin | aniib | aniibiig | "elms" |
| Ci | Ciin | Ciig | Ciin | anwi | anwiin | "bullets |
| C | Cwiin | Cwiig | Cwiin | nining | niningwiin | "my armpits" |
| Augment Stem | ||||||
| C | Can | Cag | Can | ninow | ninowan | "my cheeks" |
| C | Coon | Coog | Coon | nikatig | nikatigoon | "my foreheads" |
| Ca | Cawan | Cawag | Cawan | oodena | oodenawan | "towns" |
| Cay | Cayan | Cayag | Cayan | omooday | omoodayan | "bottles" |
| C | Can | Cag | Can | nindengway | nindengwayan | "my faces" |
| Can | Canan | Canag | Canan | ma'iingan | ma'iinganag | "wolves" |
| Can | Canan | Canag | Canan | nindooskwan | nindooskwanan | "my elbows" |
| Cana | Canan | Canag | Canan | mikana | mikanan | "roads" |
| Participle Stem | ||||||
| C | Cin | Cig | Cin | maaniwang | maaniwangin | "fruits" |
| d1 | jin | jig | jin | naawogaaded | naawogaadejig | "quadrupeds" |
1 In Oji-Cree language
Oji-Cree language
The Severn Ojibwa or the Oji-Cree language is the indigenous name for a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of Oji-Cree communities in northern Ontario and at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada...
, this is a "j" and not a "d".
Diminutives and Contemptives
Diminutives in Ojibwe express an idea of something that is smaller or younger version of the noun. All diminutives are treated as a Consonant Stem when made into one of the plural forms or into the obviative form, thus taking on the linking vowel -a-. Contemptives are formed in a similar fashion as diminutives and are used to express negative or depreciative attitude the speaker may have of the noun. Contemptive plurals and obviatives remain as contemptives, but can take on the linking vowel -i- to add a possible pejorative. Many words to express fauna are often in contemptive forms. In the Ojibwemowin spoken in WisconsinWisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and certain areas of northwestern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, often contemptives are reduced from -nh/-ny- forms to -ø/-y-. In Odaawaa, the frequency of contemptives in fauna are higher than in other Anishinaabemowin dialects. For example, it is from the Daawaamwin word jidmoonh ("red squirrel") where the English word "chipmunk" has its origins, while the same word in Ojibwemowin is ajidamoo.
| Singular | Diminutive | Contemptive | Singular Example |
Diminutive Example |
Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consonant Stem | ||||||
| C | Cens | Cenh | miin | miinens | "little blueberry" | |
| Long-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CVV | CVVns | CVVnh | ajidamoo | ajidamoons | "little squirrel" | |
| CVV | CVVns | CVVnh | bine | binens | "little partridge" | |
| CV | CVns | CVnh | wado | wadons | "little bloodclot" | |
| CVVw | CVVns | CVVnh | niwiiw | niwiins | "my little wife" | |
| CVV | CVVns | CVVnh | nimaamaa | nimaamaans | "my little mama" | |
| CVVnh | CVVns | CVVnh | giigoonh | giigoons | "little fish" | |
| Short-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CV | CVVns | CVVnh | inini | ininiins | "little man" | |
| CVw | CVVns | CVVnh | bigiw | bigiins | "little gum" | |
| W Stem | ||||||
| C | Coons | Coonh | mitig | mitigoons | "twig" | |
| C | Coons | Coonh | nigig | nigigoons | "little otter" | |
| Cwa | Coons | Coonh | makwa | makoons | "bear cub" | |
| Cwa | Coons | Coonh | ikwa | ikoons | "little louse" | |
| Y Stem | ||||||
| C | Ciins | Ciinh | aniib | aniibiins | "young elm" | |
| Ci | Ciins | Ciinh | anwi | anwiins | "little bullet" | |
| C | Cwiins | Cwiinh | nining | niningwiins | "my little armpit" | |
| Augment Stem | ||||||
| C | Cens | Cenh | ninow | ninowens | "my little cheek" | |
| C | Cwens | Cwenh | nikatig | nikatigwens | "my little forehead" | |
| Ca | Cawens | Cawenh | oodena | oodenawens | "hamlet" | |
| Cay | Cayens | Cayenh | omooday | omoodayens | "vial" | |
| C | Caans | Caanh | nindengway | nindengwayaans | "my little face" | |
| Can | Caans | Caanh | ma'iingan | ma'iingaans | "little wolf" | |
| Can | Caans | Caanh | nindooskwan | nindooskwaans | "my little elbow" | |
| Cana | Caans | Caanh | mikana | mikaans | "trail" | |
| Participle Stem | ||||||
| C | Coons | Coonh | maaniwang | maaniwangoons | "little fruit" | |
| d | doons | doonh | naawogaaded | naawogaadedoons | "little quadruped" | |
Locatives
Locatives indicate a location, and are indicated with -ng. Locatives do not take on any plurals or obviative suffixes, but obviation possessor or the number can be added before the locative suffix.| Singular | Locative | Singular Example |
Locative Example |
Gloss | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consonant Stem | ||||||
| C | Cing | miin | miining | "by/on the blueberry" | ||
| Long-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CVV | CVVng | ajidamoo | ajidamoong | "by/on the squirrel" | ||
| CVV | CVVng | bine | bineng | "by/on the partridge" | ||
| CV | CVng | wado | wadong | "by/on the bloodclot" | ||
| CVVw | CVVng | niwiiw | niwiing | "by/on my wife" | ||
| CVV | CVVying | nimaamaa | nimaamaaying | "by/on my mama" | ||
| CVVnh | CVVnying | giigoonh | giigoonying | "by/on the fish" | ||
| Short-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CV | CVVng | inini | ininiing | "by/on the man" | ||
| CVw | CVVng | bigiw | bigiing | "by/on the gum" | ||
| W Stem | ||||||
| C | Cong | mitig | mitigong | "by/on the tree" | ||
| C | Cong | nigig | nigigong | "by/on the otter" | ||
| Cwa | Coong | makwa | makoong | "by/on the bear" | ||
| Cwa | Cong | ikwa | ikong | "by/on the louse" | ||
| Y Stem | ||||||
| C | Ciing | aniib | aniibiing | "by/on the elm" | ||
| Ci | Ciing | anwi | anwiing | "by/on the bullet" | ||
| C | Cwiing | nining | niningwiing | "by/on my armpit" | ||
| Augment Stem | ||||||
| C | Caang | ninow | ninowaang | "by/on my cheek" | ||
| C | Cwaang | nikatig | nikatigwaang | "by/on my forehead" | ||
| Ca | Caang | oodena | oodenawaang | "by the village" | ||
| Cay | Caang | omooday | omoodaang | "by/on the bottle" | ||
| C | Caang | nindengway | nindengwayaang | "by/on my face" | ||
| Can | Caning | ma'iingan | ma'iinganing | "by/on the wolf" | ||
| Can | Canaang | nindooskwan | nindooskwanaang | "by/on my elbow" | ||
| Cana | Canaang | mikana | mikanaang | "by/on the road" | ||
| Participle Stem | ||||||
| C | Cong | maaniwang | maaniwangong | "by/on the fruit" | ||
| d | dong | naawogaaded | naawogaadedong | "by/on the quadruped" | ||
Pejoratives and Vocative Plurals
Pejoratives, marked with the -sh suffix, generally indicates a stronger negative feelings a speaker may have than that of the contemptive. However, pejorative may also indicate a term of affection. Some words take on different meaning in the pejorative, such as aniibiish, which means "no good elm" but also means "leaf". In some dialects, some words are always shown in their pejorative forms, such as animosh for "dog".Vocative plurals mimic pejorative conjugation patterns. It is identified with the -dog suffix, which in the Ottawa dialect shows up instead as -dig suffix. Some nouns have special vocative singlular forms that do not fit into any common patterns. For example "my grandmother" is nookomis and "Grandmother!" is nookoo, but "my father" is noos and "Father!" is noose.
| Singular | Pejorative | Vocative Plural | Singular Example |
Pejorative Example |
Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consonant Stem | ||||||
| C | Cish | Cidog | miin | miinish | "no good blueberry" | |
| Long-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CVV | CVVsh | CVVdog | ajidamoo | ajidamoosh | "no good squirrel" | |
| CVV | CVVsh | CVVdog | bine | binesh | "no good partridge" | |
| CV | CVsh | CVdog | wado | wadosh | "no good bloodclot" | |
| CVVw | CVVsh | CVVdog | niwiiw | niwiish | "my no good wife" | |
| CVV | CVVsh | CVVdog | nimaamaa | nimaamaash | "my no good mama" | |
| CVVnh | CVVsh | CVVdog | giigoonh | giigoosh | "no good fish" | |
| Short-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CV | CVwish | CVwidog | inini | ininiwish | "no good man" | |
| CVw | CVwish | CVwidog | bigiw | bigiwish | "no good gum" | |
| W Stem | ||||||
| C | Cosh | Codog | mitig | mitigosh | "no good tree" | |
| C | Cosh | Codog | nigig | nigigosh | "no good otter" | |
| Cwa | Coosh | Coodog | makwa | makoosh | "no good bear" | |
| Cwa | Cosh | Codog | ikwa | ikosh | "no good louse" | |
| Y Stem | ||||||
| C | Ciish | Ciidog | aniib | aniibiish | "no good elm" | |
| Ci | Ciish | Ciidog | anwi | anwiish | "no good bullet" | |
| C | Cwiish | Cwiidog | nining | niningwiish | "my lousy armpit" | |
| Augment Stem | ||||||
| C | Caash | Caadog | ninow | ninowaash | "my no good cheek" | |
| C | Cwaash | Cwaadog | nikatig | nikatigwaash | "my no good forehead" | |
| Ca | Caash | Caadog | oodena | oodenawaash | "damn village" | |
| Cay | Caash | Caadog | omooday | omoodaash | "no good bottle" | |
| C | Caash | Caadog | nindengway | nindeshwayaash | "my no good face" | |
| Can | Canish | Canidog | ma'iingan | ma'iishanish | "no good wolf" | |
| Can | Canaash | Canaadog | nindooskwan | nindooskwanaash | "my no good elbow" | |
| Cana | Canaash | Canaadog | mikana | mikanaash | "no good road" | |
| Participle Stem | ||||||
| C | Cosh | Cidog | maaniwang | maaniwangosh | "no good fruit" | |
| d | dosh | jidog | naawogaaded | naawogaadedosh | "no good quadruped" | |
Possessives and Obviative Possessor Themes
Another set of affixes in the Anishinaabe language is indicated by the possessive theme -m or the obviative possessor theme -ni. Generally, dependent nouns and nouns ending with either -m or -n do not take the possessive theme -m. A small group of nouns also do not ever take the possessive theme suffix.| Singular | Possessive Theme |
Obviative Possessor Theme |
Singular Example |
Possessive Theme Example |
Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consonant Stem | ||||||
| C | Cim | Cini | miin | nimiinim | "my blueberry" | |
| Long-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CVV | CVVm | CVVni | ajidamoo | nindajidamoom | "my squirrel" | |
| CVV | CVVm | CVVni | bine | nimbinem | "my partridge" | |
| CV | CVm | CVni | wado | niwadom | "my bloodclot" | |
| CVVw | CVVm | CVVni | niwiiw | niwiim | "my wife" | |
| CVV | CVVm | CVVyini | nimaamaa | nimaamaam | "my mama" | |
| CVVnh | CVVm | CVVnyini | giigoonh | ningiigoom | "my fish" | |
| Short-vowel Stem | ||||||
| CV | CVVm | CVVni | inini | nindininiwim | "my man" | |
| CVw | CVVm | CVVni | bigiw | nimbigiim | "my gum" | |
| W Stem | ||||||
| C | Com | Coni | mitig | nimitigom | "my tree" | |
| C | Com | Coni | nigig | ninigigom | "my otter" | |
| Cwa | Coom | Cooni | makwa | nimakoom | "my bear" | |
| Cwa | Com | Coni | ikwa | nindikom | "my louse" | |
| Y Stem | ||||||
| C | Ciim | Ciini | aniib | nindaniibiim | "my elm" | |
| Ci | Ciim | Ciini | anwi | nindanwiim | "my bullet" | |
| C | Cwiim | Cwiini | nining | niningwiim | "my armpit" | |
| Augment Stem | ||||||
| C | Caam | Caani | ninow | ninowaam | "my cheek" | |
| C | Cwaam | Cwaani | nikatig | nikatigwaam | "my forehead" | |
| Ca | Caam | Caani | oodena | noodenawaam | "my village" | |
| Cay | Caam | Caani | omooday | nindoomoodayaam | "my bottle" | |
| C | Caam | Caani | nindengway | nindengwayaam | "my face" | |
| Can | Canim | Canini | ma'iingan | nima'iinganim | "my wolf" | |
| Can | Canaam | Canaani | nindooskwan | nindooskwanaam | "my elbow" | |
| Cana | Canaam | Canaani | mikana | nimikanaam | "my road" | |
| Participle Stem | ||||||
| C | Com | Coni | maaniwang | nimaaniwangom | "my fruit" | |
| d | dom | doni | naawogaaded | ninaawogaadedom | "my quadruped" | |
Rarely do either the possessive theme -m or the obviative possessor theme -ni stand by themselves. The above examples for the possessive theme -m were for the first person singular. For other persons or number, again using the possessive theme -m as an example, the word is conjugated as following:
| Subject | Possessive | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conjugation | 3s Example | Gloss | ||||||||||||||||||
| 0 Possessum |
0p Possessum |
3 Possessum |
3p Possessum |
Locative Possessum |
3' Possessum |
|||||||||||||||
| Niin | n | _ | m | n | _ | man | n | _ | m | n | _ | mag | n | _ | ming | n | _ | man | nimiinim | "my blueberry" |
| Giin | g | _ | m | g | _ | man | g | _ | m | g | _ | mag | g | _ | ming | g | _ | man | gimiinim | "your (sg.) blueberry" |
| Wiin | w | _ | m | w | _ | man | w | _ | man | w | _ | man | w | _ | ming | w | _ | man | omiiniman | "his/her/its blueberry" |
| Niinawind | n | _ | minaan | n | _ | minaanin1 | n | _ | minaan | n | _ | minaanig1 | n | _ | minaaning | n | _ | minaanin | nimiiniminaan | "our (exclusive) blueberry" |
| Giinawind | g | _ | minaan | g | _ | minaanin1 | g | _ | minaan | g | _ | minaanig1 | g | _ | minaaning | g | _ | minaanin | gimiiniminaan | "our (inclusive) blueberry" |
| Giinawaa | g | _ | miwaa | g | _ | miwaan2 | g | _ | miwaa | g | _ | miwaag | g | _ | miwaang | g | _ | miwaan | gimiinimiwaa | "your (pl.) blueberry" |
| Wiinawaa | w | _ | miwaan2 | w | _ | miwaan2 | w | _ | miwaan | w | _ | miwaan | w | _ | miwaang | w | _ | miwaan | omiinimiwaan | "their blueberry" |
| Obviative | w | _ | manini | |||||||||||||||||
1 In the 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...
, the plural suffix remains as -an/-ag, rather than becoming -in/-ig.
2 Terminal -n is not found in Algonquin language
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...
.
Adjectives
Ojibwe has no adjectives per se, but rather verbs which function as adjectives. Thus, instead of saying "the flower is blue," you would say something which is actually closer to "the flower blues" (ozhaawashkwaa waabigwan) or "be a blueing flower" (waabigwan-ozhaawashkwaa). Ojibwe does have a copula in some situations, in that it has a verb (several, in fact) that can be translated as "to be" and used in situations to equate one thing with another; however, a copula is not always used in Ojibwe—for example, when using demonstrative pronouns (jiimaan o'ow, "this is a canoe").Modifications of sound
Ojibwe initials of words may experience morphological changes under two modification strategies: initial vowel change and initial syllable reduplication.Initial vowel change
In general, verbs in conjunct and partitive orders and nouns of subjunctive order change the vowel quality of the first syllable in the manner shown in the table below.| unchanged | changed |
|---|---|
| -a- | -e- |
| -aa- | -ayaa- |
| -e- | -aye- |
| -i- | -e- |
| -ii- | -aa- |
| -o- | -we- |
| -oo- | -waa- |
However, in some words beginning in dan-, dazh-, das-, dash- or daa- instead take on the prefix en- to form endan-, endazh-, endas-, endash- or endaa-. The directional prefix bi-, meaning "over here," instead becomes ba-.
Initial syllable reduplication
Words typically conveying repetitive actions have their very first syllable experience reduplication. Reduplication may be found in both verbs and in nouns. Vowel syncope process Eastern Ojibwe and Odaawaa experiences happen after the word has gone through reduplication. The most general reduplication pattern for the initial syllable is C1V1 → C1V2C2V1 but the table below shows the most common reduplication strategies.| unchanged | reduplicated | unchanged | reduplicated |
|---|---|---|---|
| a- | aya- | Ca- | CaCa- |
| aa- | aayaa- | Caa- | CaaCaa- |
| e- | eye- | Ce- | CeCe- |
| i- | ayi- | Ci- | CaCi- or CeCi- |
| ii- | aayii- | Cii- | CaaCii- or CeCii- or CiiCii- |
| o- | wawo- or wawi- | Co- | CaCo- |
| oo- | oo'oo- | Coo- | CaaCoo- or CeCoo- or CooCoo- |
In some words, the reduplicated consonant shifts from their lenis value to their fortis value. Yet in some stems, initial Cw- retains the -w- while others do not. Those words experiencing the prefix en- may change to in- before experiencing reduplication.
Syntax
As Ojibwe is highly synthetic, word order and sentence structure is relatively free, since a great deal of information is already encoded onto the verb. The subject can go before or after the verb, as can the object. In general, whichever participant is deemed more important or in-focus by the speaker is placed first, before the verb, and the less important participant follows the verb. Ojibwe tends to prefer a VS order (verb–subject) when subjects are specified with separate nominals or pronouns (e.g., bakade a'aw asabikeshiinh, be.hungry that.there.ANIMATE net.make.PEJORATIVE.CONTEMPTIVE, "that spider is hungry").External links
- Ojibwe Language Society
- OLS Miinawaa — Yahoo Group extension of the Ojibwe Language Society
- Rand Valentine's introduction to Ojibwe
- Grammar, lessons, and dictionaries
- Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary — Freeware off-line dictionary, updated with additional entries every 6–10 weeks.
- Our Languages: Nakawē (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
- Ethnologue report for Ojibwe
- Native Languages: A Support Document for the Teaching of Language Patterns, Ojibwe and Cree