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Ojibwe language

Encyclopedia : O : OJ : OJI : Ojibwe language

 

Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa or Anishinaabemowin (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒧᐎᓐ in Eastern Ojibwe syllabics) is the third most commonly spoken Native language in Canada (after Cree and Inuktitut), and the fourth most spoken in North America (behind Navajo, Cree, and Inuktitut). It is spoken by the Ojibwe people (Anishinaabeg). As their fur trading with the French increased the Ojibwes’ power, the language became the trade language of the Great Lakes region, and was for hundreds of years an extremely significant presence in the northern US. In the Ojibwe language, the proper term for itself is Anishinaabemowin or Nishnaabemwin, which includes the Algonquin language and Mississauga language, though they are not considered Ojibwa due to not being part of the Council of Three Fires. Ojibwa forms of Anishinaabemowin are often called Ojibwemowin and Saulteaux form as Nakawêmowin. Many consider the Severn Ojibwe as a separate language functioning as a transitional language between Ojibwe and Cree; the Severn Ojibwe (or Oji-Cree) call themselves Anishinini and their language Anishininimowin.

Contents

Classification

Ojibwe is an Algonquian language, of the Algic family of languages, and is descended from Proto-Algonquian. Among its sister languages are Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Fox, Menominee, Potawatomi, and Shawnee. The Algic family contains the Algonquian languages and the so-called "Ritwan" languages, Wiyot and Yurok. Ojibwe is frequently referred to as a "Central Algonquian" language; however, Central Algonquian is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one. Among Algonquian languages, only the Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a true genetic subgroup.

Geographic distribution

Ojibwe is spoken by around 10,000 people in the United States and by as many as 45,000 in Canada, making it one of the largest Algic languages by speakers. The various dialects are spoken in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the US, and north into Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec in Canada.

Dialects

Ojibwe has quite a few divergent dialects. The primary ones are Nipissing, Plains Ojibwe (Saulteaux), Eastern Ojibwe (Mississaugas), Northern Ojibwe, Odaawaa (Ottawa), Severn Ojibwe (Oji-Cree), and Southwestern Ojibwe (Chippewa). Algonquin is considered by some to be a particularly divergent dialect of Ojibwe, and by others to be a distinct language which is very similar to Ojibwe. This article deals primarily with the dialect spoken in the northern United States, around Minnesota and Wisconsin, Southwestern Ojibwe. Therefore, some of the descriptions given here will not necessarily hold true for other dialects of Ojibwe. A defining characteristic of many of the more northern and eastern dialects is that they exhibit a great deal of vowel syncope, the deletion of vowels in certain positions within a word. In these dialects, generally all unstressed vowels are lost (see the article on Ojibwe phonology for a discussion of Ojibwe stress). For example, the name for the language itself in Odaawaa is Nishnaabemwin, where the unstressed vowels from Anishinaabemowin have been lost. Though Potawatomi was at one time part of the Ojibwe language, due to development of significant enough differences in the language since the contact period, it is now considered a separate language; however, among the Anishinaabeg, many still considers the Potawatomi language (known as Boodewaadamiimowin or Bodéwadmimwin) as a dialect of Anishinaabemowin.

Many dialects have separate Ethnologue entries and SIL codes: [ALQ] (Algonquin), [CIW] (Southwestern Ojibwe ("Chippewa")), [OJC] (Central Ojibwe), [OJG] (Eastern Ojibwe), [OJB] (North(west)ern Ojibwe), [OJS] (Severn Ojibwe), [OJW] (Plains Ojibwe/Salteaux ("Western Ojibwe")), and [OTW] (Odaawaa).

Phonology

Main article: Ojibwe phonology
Ojibwe dialects generally have 18 consonants. Obstruents are often said to have a lenis/fortis contrast, where those written as voiceless are pronounced more strongly, significantly longer in duration, and often aspirated or pre-aspirated, while those written as voiced are pronounced less strongly and significantly shorter in duration. For many communities, however, the distinction has become a simple voiced/voiceless one.

There are three short vowels, /i a o/, and three corresponding long vowels, /iː aː oː/, as well as a fourth long vowel which lacks a corresponding short vowel, /eː/. The short vowels differ in quality as well as quantity from the long vowels, are phonetically closer to [ɪ], [ə]~[ʌ], and [o]~[ʊ]. /oː/ is pronounced [uː] for many speakers, and /eː/ is for many [ɛː]. There are also nasal vowels, which are comparatively rare.

With regards to stress, Ojibwe divides words into metrical "feet," each foot containing a strong syllable and (if two-syllables long) a weak syllable. The strong syllables all receive at least secondary stress. In general, the strong syllable in the third foot from the end of a word receives the primary stress. In many dialects, unstressed vowels are frequently lost or change quality.

Grammar

Main article: Ojibwe grammar
Like many Native American languages, Ojibwe is polysynthetic, meaning it exhibits a great deal of synthesis and a very high morpheme-to-word ratio. It is agglutinating, and thus builds up words by stringing morpheme after morpheme together, rather than having several affixes, each of which carry numerous different pieces of information.

There is a distinction between two different types of third person, the proximate (the third person deemed more important or in-focus) and the obviative (the third person deemed less important or out-of-focus). Nouns can be singular or plural, and one of two genders, animate or inanimate. Separate personal pronouns exist, but are usually used for emphasis; they distinguish inclusive and exclusive first person plurals.

Verbs constitute the most complex word class. Verbs are inflected for one of three orders (indicative, the default, conjunct, used for participles and in subordinate clauses, and imperative, used with commands), as negative or affirmative, and for the person, number, animacy, and proximate/obviative status of both its subject and object, as well as for several different modes (including the dubitative and preterit) and tenses.

Vocabulary

Although it does contain a few loans from English (gaapii, "coffee," maam(aa), "mom") and French (naapaane, "flour" (from la farine, "the flour"), ni-tii, "tea" (from le thé, "the tea")), in general, Ojibwe is notable for its relative lack of borrowing from other languages. Instead, speakers far prefer to create words for new concepts from existing vocabulary. For example, "airplane" is bemisemagak, literally "thing that flies" (from bimisemagad, "to fly"), and "battery" is ishkode-makakoons, literally "little fire-box" (from ishkode, "fire," and makak, "box"). Even "coffee" is called makade-mashkikiwaaboo ("black liquid-medicine") by many speakers, rather than gaapii.

Writing system

Main article: Ojibwe writing systems
Ojibwe is written using a syllabary, which is usually said to have been developed by missionary James Evans around 1840 and based on Pitman's shorthand. In the United States, the language is most often written phonemically with Roman characters. Syllabics are primarily used in Canada. The newest Roman character-based writing system is the Double Vowel System, devised by Charles Fiero. Although there is no standard orthography, the Double Vowel System is quickly gaining popularity among language teachers in the United States and Canada because of its ease of use.

Double Vowel System

The Double Vowel System consists of three short vowels, four long vowels, 18 consonants and 1 nasal, represented with the following Roman letters:
a aa b ch d e g ' h i ii j k m n ny o oo p s sh t w y z zh
This system is called "Double Vowel" from the fact that the long vowel correspondences to the short vowels , and are written with a doubled value. In this system, the nasal "ny" as a final element is instead written as "nh." The allowable consonant clusters are , , , , , , , , , and .

Examples

This example text is taken, with permission, from the first four lines of [Niizh Ikwewag], a story originally told by John Nichols, on Professor Brian Donovan of Bemidji State University's webpage.

Text

  1. Aabiding gii-ayaawag niizh ikwewag: mindimooyenh, odaanisan bezhig.
  2. Iwidi Chi-achaabaaning akeyaa gii-onjibaawag.
  3. Inashke naa mewinzha gii-aawan, mii eta go imaa sa wiigiwaaming gaa-taawaad igo.
  4. Mii dash iwapii, aabiding igo gii-awi-bagida'waawaad, giigoonyan wii-amwaawaad.

Translation

  1. Once there were two women: an old lady, and one of her daughters.
  2. They were from over there towards Big-Bowstring.
  3. See now, it was long ago; they just lived there in a wigwam.
  4. And at that time, once they went net-fishing; they intended to eat fish.

Gloss

3PL > PL > OBV >
Aabiding gii-ayaawag niizh ikwewag: mindimooyenh, odaanisan bezhig.
aabiding gii- ayaa align="center"
niizh ikwe align="center"
mindimooyenh, o- daanis align="center"
bezhig.
once PAST- be in a certain place align="center"
two woman align="center"
old woman, 3SG.POSS- daughter align="center"
one.
Once they were in a certain place two women: old woman, her daughter one.

LOC > 3PL.>
Iwidi Chi-achaabaaning akeyaa gii-onjibaawag.
iwidi chi- achaabaan align="center"
akeyaa gii- onjibaa align="center"
over there big- bowstring align="center"
that way PAST- come from align="center"
Over there at Big-Bowstring that way they came from there.

LOC > 3PL.CONJ >
Inashke naa mewinzha gii-aawan, mii eta go imaa sa wiigiwaaming gaa-taawaad igo.
inashke naa mewinzha gii- aawan mii eta go imaa sa wiigiwaam align="center"
gaa- daa align="center"
igo.
look thus long ago PAST- be EMPH only EMPH there EMPH wigwam align="center"
PAST.CONJ- live align="center"
EMPH.
Look thus long ago it was, only there so in a wigwam that they lived just then.

3PL.CONJ > OBV > 3PL/OBV>
Mii dash iwapii, aabiding igo gii-awi-bagida'waawaad, giigoonyan wii-amwaawaad.
mii dash iw- align="center"
aabiding igo gii- awi- bagida'waa align="center"
giigoonh align="center"
wii- amw align="center"
EMPH CONTR that- align="center"
once EMPH PAST- go and- fish with a net align="center"
fish align="center"
DESD- eat align="center"
And then then, once just then that they went and fished with a net those fish they are going to eat those

Abbreviations:

SG singular
PL plural
POSS possessive
OBV obviative
LOC locative
EMPH emphatic
CONJ conjunct order
CONTR contrastive
FUT future
DESD desiderative

See also

References

  • Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: University Press.
  • Nichols, John D. and Earl Nyholm. 1995. A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Picard, Marc. 1984. On the Naturalness of Algonquian ɬ. International Journal of American Linguistics 50:424-37.
  • Rhodes, Richard A. 1985. Eastern Ojibwa-Chippewa-Ottawa Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Valentine, J. Randolph "Randy". 2001. Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

External links

 

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