Anishinaabe language

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Anishinaabe language
ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒧᐎᓐ Anishinaabemowin 
Pronunciation: IPA: /ənɪʃɪnaːbeːmoɰɪn/
Spoken in: Canada, United States 
Region: Ontario, Manitoba and into Saskatchewan, with outlying groups as far west as British Columbia; in the United States, from Upper Michigan westward to North Dakota
Total speakers: 55,000
Language family: Algic
 Algonquian
  Anishinaabe language 
Writing system: Ojibwe syllabary
Language codes
ISO 639-1: oj
ISO 639-2: oji
ISO 639-3: variously:
oji — Ojibwa (generic)
ojc — Central Ojibwe
ciw — Chippewa
ojg — Eastern Ojibwe
ojb — Northwestern Ojibwe
otw — Ottawa
ojs — Severn Ojibwe
ojw — Western Ojibwe 

Pre-contact distribution of the Nakawēmowin, Ojibwemowin and Omaamiwininimowin dialects of the Anishinaabe language
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Anishinaabe language or the Ojibwe group of languages or Anishinaabemowin (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒧᐎᓐ in Eastern Ojibwe syllabics) is the second most commonly spoken Native language in Canada (after Cree), and the third most spoken in North America (behind Navajo and Cree). It is spoken by the Anishinaabeg who are the Algonquin, Nipissing, Ojibwa (Chippewa), Saulteaux, Mississaugas and Odawa (Ottawa). Very closely related to Anishinaabemowin and often included in this group are the Anishininimowin language and the Potawatomi language. As their fur trading with the French increased the Ojibwas’ power, the Anishinaabe language became the trade language of the Great Lakes region, and was for hundreds of years an extremely significant presence in the northern United States.

Contents

[edit] Classification

Anishinaabemowin, often simply called referred to as the "Ojibwe language," 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. This article deals primarily with the Southwestern Ojibwe dialect spoken in the northern United States, around Minnesota and Wisconsin. Therefore, some of the descriptions given here will not necessarily hold true for other dialects of the Anishinaabe language, unless an example is specifically given.

[edit] Geographic distribution

The Anishinaabe language 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 northern Montana, northern North Dakota, northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, Michigan and northern Indiana in the United States, and north into eastern British Columbia, southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, Ontario, and west-central Quebec in Canada.

[edit] Dialects

Main article: Anishinaabe language dialects

The Anishinaabe language has quite a few divergent dialects. The primary ones are Nipissing and Algonquin, Plains Ojibwe (Saulteaux), Eastern Ojibwe (Mississaugas), Northern Ojibwe (Northwestern Ojibwa/Ontario Saulteaux), Odaawaa (Ottawa), Severn Ojibwe (Oji-Cree/Northern Ojibwa), and Southwestern Ojibwe (Chippewa). Though now considered a separate language, due to relatively recent diversion from the Anishinaabe language, the Potawatomi language still exhibit strong characteristics to the Anishinaabe language. During the Fur Trade, a pidgin form of the Anishinaabemowin, known as "Broken Ojibwa" or "Broken Oghibbeway", developed, relying on Anishinaabemowin for its vocabulary. It is often debated whether the Bungee language, a mixed language, is a mixture of the Anishinaabe language with other languages, or a mixture of a Cree language with other languages.

[edit] Phonology

Main article: Ojibwe phonology

Ojibwe group of languages 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, the Anishinaabe language 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.

[edit] Grammar

Main article: Ojibwe grammar

Like many Native American languages, the Anishinaabe language 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.

[edit] 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, the Anishinaabe language 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 in Ojibwemowin, "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.

Cases like "battery" and "coffee" also demonstrate the often great difference between the literal meanings of the individual morphemes in a word, and the overall meaning of the entire word.

[edit] Writing system

Main article: Ojibwe writing systems

Ojibwemowin 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.

[edit] 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 <a>, <i> and <o> 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 <mb>, <nd>, <ng>, <n'>, <nj>, <nz>, <ns>, <nzh>, <sk>, <shp>, <sht> and <shk>.

[edit] Examples

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] Translation

  1. Once there were two women: an old lady, and one of her daughters.
  2. They were from over there towards Inger.
  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.

[edit] Gloss

Aabiding gii-ayaawag niizh ikwewag: mindimooyenh, odaanisan bezhig.
aabiding gii- ayaa -wag niizh ikwe -wag mindimooyenh, o- daanis -an bezhig.
once PAST- be in a certain place -3PL two woman -3PL old woman, 3SG.POSS- daughter -OBV one.
Once they were in a certain place two women: old woman, her daughter one.
Iwidi Chi-achaabaaning akeyaa gii-onjibaawag.
iwidi chi- achaabaan -ing akeyaa gii- onjibaa -wag.
over there big- bowstring -LOC that way PAST- come from -3PL.
Over there by Inger
(lit: by Big-Bowstring [River])		 that way they came from there.
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 -ing gaa- daa -waad igo.
look now long ago PAST- be so only EMPH there EMPH wigwam -LOC PAST.CONJ- live -3PL.CONJ EMPH.
Look now long ago it was, only there so in a wigwam that they lived just then.
Mii dash iwapii, aabiding igo gii-awi-bagida'waawaad, giigoonyan wii-amwaawaad.
mii dash iw- -apii aabiding igo gii- awi- bagida'waa -waad, giigoonh -yan wii- amw -aawaad.
it is that CONTR that- -then once EMPH PAST- go and- fish with a net -3PL.CONJ fish -OBV DESD- eat -3PL/OBV.CONJ
And then then, once just then that they went and fished with a net those fish that they are going to eat those

Abbreviations:

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

[edit] Well-known speakers of Anishinaabemowin

[edit] See also

[edit] 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. 2001. Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

[edit] External links

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