Guide to Using the Dictionary - L&S Learning Support...

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • vii

Guide to Using the Dictionary1 This is a first version of a bilingual keBdUSCix (Anishinaabemowin)-English

dictionary, designed specifically for use in the northern Ontario Ojibwe communities of

Cat Lake, Frenchman’s Head, Lac Seul, Pikangikum, Poplar Hill, and Red Lake. The

dictionary is intended to be a resource for teachers and students of Anishinaabemowin

(Ojibwe), as an aid to spelling in both Syllabic and Roman writing traditions, as a help in

understanding meanings, and as a record of the richness of the Anishinaabemowin

language and culture as evidenced through its vocabulary. The dictionary should also be

useful in the development of other language-related materials. This version is

preliminary— we hope to keep adding to it in the coming years, especially as users make

suggestions for additional vocabulary and as new words are added to Anishinaabemowin.

Throughout this guide, keywords are identified with boldface type. All keywords are

also included in a glossary which follows the guide, so that grammatical concepts and

terms can be looked up at any time.

History of the Project

In 1989, a group of Native language teachers met in Sioux Lookout to discuss some

common concerns, such as the lack of a native language policy, the lack of teaching

materials in the Native languages, problems of dialect diversity, the need for the

development of Native language vocabulary for modern terminology, and the lack of

effective communication between teachers in different communities. A list of

recommendations was developed at the meeting, and used as the basis for drafting a

language proposal under the joint cooperation of Shibogama Education Authority,

1 These helps were prepared by Rand Valentine, for an as yet unpublished dictionary of Northern Ojibwe.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • viii

Windigo Education Authority, Independent First Nations Alliance and the Northern

Nishnawbe Education Council. In 1991 a Native Language Project steering committee

was formed with representatives from each of these First Nations councils. Initially,

research was carried out to assess the status of Native language vitality in the Ojibwe,

Oji-Cree, and Cree comunities in northern Ontario serviced by the participating education

authorities. In 1994, the results of this survey were published in a report translated into

each of the three language groups under consideration. The report showed clearly that

there is a great need for Native language materials if these languages are going to survive

and flourish.

In 1994 researchers developed plans for canvassing each of the three language areas,

and then carried out dictionary work in many of the communities represented by the

education authorities involved in the project. The beginning stages of work was greatly

aided by the willingness of others to share their materials. For example, the

Anishinaabemowin dictionary was based originally on a wordlist developed by John

Nichols for Oji-Cree, and the Cree dictionary benefitted from a wordlist compiled by the

Cree School Board of Chisasibi, Quebec, representing the speech of Coastal and East

Cree communities on the east coast of James Bay and points inland. All of these

languages are related, and share much structure and vocabulary, so having a headstart due

to another individual or group’s willingness to share their work made the task easier to

accomplish in the limited time frame for which research funding was available.

Three preliminaries dictionaries have been produced, an Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe),

an Anishininiimowin (Oji-Cree), and an Ininiw ayimiwin (Cree). To compile this

Anishinaabemowin dictionary, Pat Ningewance travelled to each of the six Ojibwe

communities from June to December of 1994, and gathered words by working with elders

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • ix

and other people interested in the dictionary, especially the education directors in the

communities. In this way, many thousands of words were gathered and checked,

including some very common vocabulary and some more specialized vocabulary. Both

kinds of words have been preserved in this edition of the dictionary, so that users can

have access to the full range of Anishinaabemowin vocabulary. The reader should keep in

mind though that the language has an almost limitless stock of words, so no dictionary

will ever include every word in the language.

Dialect Variation

It is well known that aboriginal languages show much variation from place to place,

giving rise to different dialects and languages. In northern Ontario there is even variation

between nearby communities, especially for terms for modern technology, but in other

vocabulary as well. For example, the words for ‘airplane’ in different northern

communities include KCjoqfx (ombwaasijigan), fuwOsfc (gaa-bimisemagak), and

uwOCix (bimisewin), among others. One challenge in making a dictionary for a dialect

region is giving a proper account of what vocabulary exists and how widespread in usage

each item of vocabulary is. If a dictionary of northern Ontario Anishinaabemowin were to

list just one of the words for ‘airplane’ above, it would not be giving a complete picture

for all of the communities. At the same, however, only some of these words, but not all,

may be used in any one community, and it would be wrong to suggest that every

community uses all three words with the same frequency. An effort has been made in the

dictionary to specify where each item of vocabulary is used, but this is not easy to do.

One problem is that speakers in one community may not regularly use a word

themselves, but may still understand the word on the basis of its meaning. For example,

fuwOsfc (gaa-bimisemagak) literally means ‘that (thing) which flies,’ so it isn’t too

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • x

hard to figure out that this refers to an airplane, especially if the conversation is about

travel, even for people who don’t happen to use that word as their regular word for an

airplane. Within any given community, too, elders may pronounce words somewhat

differently from youth, or use different words from the younger. Elders usually have a

richer and more precise vocabulary than others, especially in areas of traditional life such

as hunting and trapping, in part because the elders have had more opportunity to live the

traditional life, while younger generations have grown up on reserves or in towns. On the

other hand, the youth may have special vocabulary for things of interest to them, such as

terms for rock music and hockey gear. And these “youth” words may show different

patterns of variation across communities than the elders’ vocabulary does. So the picture

is very complex, and it is hard to know exactly where each word is actively used, where it

is recognized but not used locally, and where it is neither recognized with a given

meaning nor used. The only way to really be sure is to do an exhaustive check of many

speakers in all communities, but this is never possible, so some measure of guessing must

be done. Users can easily check forms in their own communities if they have any doubts.

As has been already mentioned, to gather and check vocabulary in the dictonary the

prinicipal researcher travelled to each of the six communities and worked with local

elders and language specialists. After a rough draft of the dictionary was made, it was

distributed to each of the communities, with the request that it be checked for vocabulary,

spellings, and meanings. If an item of vocabulary is used only by some communities but

not all, a special community code appears next to it, indicating where it is used. The

following community codes are used:

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xi

Code Community

CL Cat Lake

FH Frenchman’s Head

LS Lac Seul

PI Pikangikum

PH Poplar Hill

RL Red Lake

Community Codes

A dictionary entry that has no community code specified is assumed to be used in all

of the communities, though local preferences should be confirmed whenever there is

doubt.

The Basic Dictionary Entry

In the notes which follow, key words appear in bold type. Many of these words are

grammatical terms, and are defined as they are introduced. However, all boldfaced

words are also listed and defined in the brief glossary which follows these notes.

Each word (entry) listed in this dictionary has four types of information, and some

have more. A standard, four-part entry, consists of: 1., a syllabic spelling; 2., a Roman

spelling; 3., a specification of the word’s part of speech (also called its word category);

and 4., a simple English translation (also called a gloss) of the word. The following

example shows these components:

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xii

IhLuJx • endaso-biboon

pc every winter.

Here is a breakdown of the parts:

Part 1 Syllabic Spelling

Part 2 Roman Spelling

Part 3 Part of Speech

Part 4 English Gloss

IhLuJx endaso-biboon pc every winter

Some words have additional information, such as the plurals, locatives, diminutive,

or pejoratives of certain nouns. These elements are described below. We will first

address each of the common components of the dictionary entry.

Part 1. Syllabic Spelling






This is the syllabic spelling of the word. There are many different ways of writing

Syllabics. For example, the word for ‘meat’ might be written in any of the following

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xiii

ways.

Eastern Syllabics I Cigm

Eastern Syllabics II Cigo

Western Syllabics I iCgµ

Western Syllabics II Cigµ

Each of these ways of writing represents a tradition in a particular region, though there

are two main traditions, an Eastern and a Western. The syllabic tradition used in this

dictionary is identified as Eastern Syllabics I in the list above, which is the most common

tradition used by writers of Anishinaabemowin in the area represented by the dictionary.

Space has not allowed us to include all of the different ways of spelling each word within

these different traditions. This is not a very significant problem, though, because all

Syllabic traditions in Anishinaabemowin share the same basic stock of symbols and

values to represent syllables, and it is only the minor characters which vary. The

following characters are shared by all Anishinaabemowin Syllabic traditions. They are

given with letter correspondences to the Roman (English-letter) writing system that is

also used in this dictionary. The Roman writing system is discussed elsewhere in the

Guide.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xiv

e i/ii o/oo a/aa

I i K k

w CI Ci CK Ck

p/b U u J j

t/d Y y H h

k/g R r F f

ch/j Q q A a

m W w S s

n E e D d

z/s O o L l

y T t G g

Basic Syllabary Common to Eastern and Western Traditions

In addition to these letters, most Anishinaabemowin Syllabic writers use the following

set of characters for the sh-syllables:

e i/ii o/oo a/aa

zh/sh V B N M

The group of characters that varies in the Eastern and Western traditions are called

finals, the small, raised letters used to represent a consonant sound which occurs at the

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xv

end of a syllable. The correspondences between these finals in the Eastern and Western

Syllabic traditions are shown in the following chart.

Eastern Western East. Example West. Example Roman

b/p n ñ kln klñ asab

d/t b ∫ Rfb Rf∫ gegaad

g/k c ç wyc wyç mitig

j/ch z Ω eFhz eFhΩ nigotaaj

m Z b eheBdUZ eheBdUb nidanishinaabem

n x ≈ qsx qs≈ jiimaan

z/s m µ eOrm eOrµ nizegiz

zh/sh X ˛ wX w ˛ miizh

y v ´ wlv wl mizay

Correspondences Between Finals in Eastern and Western Syllabic Traditions

The other area where there is variation is in the position of the character that

represents the w-sound (sometimes called w-dot). In the Eastern tradition it comes before

the Syllabic character it is associated with, while in the Western tradition, it follows. Here

are a few examples to show the differences.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xvi

Eastern Western Eastern

Example Western Example

Roman

Ck kC CkCkx kCkC≈ waawan

CI IC CIjox ICjo≈ webaasin

Ci iC Cigm iCgµ wiiyaas

Cu uC kCu kuC abwi

Ch hC Ch/iR hC/iR dwaa’ige

Table Showing Position of W-Dot in Eastern and Western Syllabic Traditions

Using these two tables, the Eastern spellings used in this dictionary can easily be

converted to Western, if desired, or a word spelled with Western conventions can easily

be converted to the Eastern system used here.

Syllabic Spelling Order

Just as there is a specified order of letters in the English alphabet, a, b, c, d…, there is

an accepted order of letters in the syllabary as well. This order is used in the sorting of

words in the dictionary. The following chart gives the order of syllabic characters. The

order is across each row and then down to the next row.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xvii

I i K k √

CI Ci CK Ck

U u J j n

CU Cu CJ Cj

Y y H h b

CY Cy CH Ch

R r F f c

CR Cr CF Cf

Q q A a z

CQ Cq CA Ca

W w S s Z

CW Cw CS Cs

E e D d x

CE Ce CD Cd

O o L l m

CO Co CL Cl

V B N M X

CV CB CN CM

T t G g v

Syllabic Spelling Order

Notice that each series of Syllabic symbols is followed in order by the same series

with w-dot. The finals come after all of the large symbols, so that, for example krZ

(aagim), ‘snowshoe,’ comes after krsc (aagimaak), ‘willow,’ because Z comes after s in

the sort order.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xviii

We have chosen to ignore the symbol / in the sort order, since there is a tendency for

many speakers not to represent it in writing. Also, since n and m before a consonant, as in

waabandan, ‘see s.t. (in.)’ and ombizigan, ‘yeast,’ are not written in standard Syllabics,

they too have no effect on sort order.

Writers show considerable variation in the representation of a gliding sound that

sometimes occurs between two long vowels, as in wiisaande’aakwaa, ‘the trees are

mossy and have few needles,’ which may also be written as wiisaandeyaakwaa. We have

followed the dictionary compiler’s preferences in the spelling of such forms.

Dialect variation also occurs in the pronunciation and spelling of words such as

waabigwan versus waabigon, ‘flower.’ Spellings with both «o» and «wa» occur in the

dictionary, depending on the dialect source of the form.

Part 2. Roman Spelling






This is the Roman (English-letter) spelling of the word. It is included as a guide to

pronunciation for those who desire to learn the language. Anyone not fluent in

Anishinaabemowin will not be able to correctly pronounce a word based only on its

Syllabic spelling, because Syllabics is a kind of “shorthand” way of spelling, and many

important aspects of pronunciation are not represented in Syllabic writing. For example,

the Syllabic form krZ could be the word that means, ‘count him or her or it’ (a boy, a

girl, or a pipe), or it could be the word meaning ‘snowshoe.’ These two words are often

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xix

spelled the same way in Syllabics, even though they are pronounced differently. In

Roman spelling, they are spelled differently in order to capture the difference between

pronunciations:

agim ‘count him or her’ aagim ‘snowshoe’

The Roman system of writing adopted here is the most popular one used to write

Anishinaabemowin today, and has been used in several dictionaries and story collections

in other dialects, including Chippewa and Ottawa/Odawa. By knowing this system,

students will have access to a wide variety of materials available in these dialects and can

gain a better sense of the diversity of Anishinaabemowin linguistic heritage.

The Roman letters used to write Anishinaabemowin, their rough English equivalents

of pronunciation, and example Anishinaabemowin words are listed below, organized into

sets of vowels and consonants.

Vowels

Letter English Equiv. Example Translation

a puck animosh ‘dog’

aa pod omaa ‘here’

e bed, made miigwech ‘thank you’

i pit abin ‘sit!’

ii pea niin ‘I, me, my’

o put ozaam ‘too much’

oo soup, soap boozhoo ‘hi!’

Roman Spelling Vowels of Anishinaabemowin

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xx

The vowels written with double letters, aa, ii, and oo are long vowels. The vowel e is

also a long vowel. The vowels a, i, and o are short vowels.

Consonants

Letter English Equiv. Example Translation

b balloon, speed abin ‘sit!’

p top prize apii ‘when’

d dog, stop mindido ‘s/he is big’

t boat top mitig ‘tree’

g go, scone gaag ‘porcupine’

k pick corn amikwag ‘beavers’

j jack, chip ajina ‘a short time’

ch beach chair miigwech ‘thank you’

z zap, sap mizay ‘eel’

s gas station baaso ‘s/he is dry’

zh pleasure azhigan ‘sock’

sh bush shirt asham ‘feed her/him!’

m money minik ‘that much’

n nose niin ‘I, me, my’

w wiggle wiiyaas ‘meat’

y yellow ayaa ‘s/he is there’

’ button ma’iingan ‘wolf’

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxi

Roman Spelling Consonants of Anishinaabemowin

For some speakers of northern Ontario Anishinaabemowin, the sounds associated with

p, t, k, and ch have a breath of air before the consonant sound. This breath of air is called

aspiration, and sounds a bit like English h at the beginning of a word such as ‘hot.’

The Roman writing system used here capitalizes the first word in a sentence just as

English does. Prenouns and preverbs are set off with hyphens in Roman writing, but

person prefixes are not. These rules are shown in the following example:

Aabiding iinzan mewinzha mawinzoobaniig anishinaabeg e-niibing,

waasa noopimiing gaa-izhi-miinikaanig, ikwe, inini, ogozisensiwaan dash.

‘Once it seems, long ago, some people gathered berries in the summer, a

man, a woman and their little son went to get berries deep in the woods.’

Part 3. Part of Speech (Word Category)






The words of Anishinaabemowin group into different classes, or parts of speech. The

main classes are nouns, verbs, pronouns, and particles. Each word listed in the

dictionary has its class listed, in the form of an abbreviation. Nouns and verbs are

grouped into subclasses on the basis of various properties discussed below.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxii

The following part of speech categories are recognized in the dictionary. The

abbreviation used with each is also listed.

Abbrev. Part of Speech Example (Syllabics) Example (Roman)

expr expression fCix Ljsq/Ko gaawiin zaabamanji’osii

na noun, animate kwc

iCR

amik

ikwe

ni noun, inanimate qsx

SFsx

jiimaan

mookomaan

nad noun, animate, dependent DFZ

eeZ

nookom

niinim

nid noun, inanimate dependent

efb

eec

nikaad

ninik

na-pt noun, animate, participle fefduhsRb gaa-niigaanabiitamaaged

ni-pt noun, inanimate, participle fsodYOc

fuwOsfc

gaa-mazinaateseg

gaa-bimisemagak

place placename wmCffwCiouxc

Ckufx

Miskwaagamiwiziibiing

Waabigoon

pre pre-element used with both nouns and verbs

rq

eF

gichi-

ningo-

pref prefix e ni+

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxiii

r gi+

Abbrev. Part of Speech Example (Syllabics) Example (Roman)

pr pronoun rdCk

kCig

giinawaa

awiya

pv preverb h

r

daa-

gii-

vai verb, animate intransitive irH

Cioe

ikido

wiisini

vai/ii verb, animate intransitive

and inanimate intranstive

KCUXf

sqYO

ombweshkaa

majidese

vii verb, inanimate

intransitive

oCfx

uwuY

ziigwan

bimibide

vta verb, transitive animate CkjZ

jFEuX

waabam

bagonebizh

vti verb transitive inanimate Ckjhx

kjqHx

waabandan

aabajitoon

Parts of Speech in Anishinaabemowin

Nouns

Nouns typically refer to persons, spirits, animals, plants, and physical objects in the

world. Nouns are typically free words that answer the questions “Who?” or “What?”

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxiv

Most nouns are countable, and can be either singular or plural. Nouns function as the

subjects (actors) and objects (goals) of verbs, as in the following sentence:

SLx KrCkjsx iee. Moozoon ogii-waabamaan inini.

‘The man saw a moose.’

Here there are two nouns, Sm (mooz), ‘moose’ and iee (inini), ‘man’. The subject of

this sentence is iee (inini), ‘man,’ and the object is SLx (moozoon) ‘moose.’

Nouns in Anishinaabemowin group into animate and inanimate genders or classes,

and dependent and independent sub-groups. In addition, there are participial forms,

that is, verbs used as nouns but keeping some of their verbal properties as well. These are

all discussed below.

Gender: Animate and Inanimate Nouns

Nouns in Anishinaabemowin group into two classes, or genders, animate and

inanimate. All words for people, animals, birds, fish, insects, spirits, and trees belong to

the animate class. Most non-living things belong to the inanimate class, but there are

exceptions: for example spoons, (smoking) pipes and pails are animate. A few words

vary in their animacy from one community to another, being in some communities

animate and in others inanimate. Animate nouns have plurals that end in c (g), as in

ieeCkc (ininiwag) ‘men’, while inanimate nouns have plurals that end in x (n), as in

qsdx (jiimaanan) ‘boats’. Because the animacy of a noun is not always predictable, the

dictionary lists nouns with the following codes to show whether they are animate or

inanimate.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxv

na noun, animate ni noun, inanimate

Anishinaabemwin words can have a variety of elements called prefixes and suffixes

attached to them to signal different meanings. A prefix is an element attached to the front

of a basic word in order to add some kind of meaning, for example eqsx (ninjiimaan),

‘my boat’ has the prefix e (ni) added to the basic word qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’. Here this

prefix adds the meaning ‘my’. A suffix is an element attached to the end of a basic word

to add meaning. For example, qsdx (jiimaanan) ‘boats’, has the suffix kx (an), which

adds the meaning ‘more than one’ (inanimate plural). A word can have both a prefix and

suffix, or more than one prefix or suffix, as in eqsedex (ninjiimaaninaanin), ‘our

boats,’ which has the prefix e (ni) and the suffixes idx (inaan), meaning ‘we’, and ix

(in) meaning ‘more than one’ (plural). The prefixes and suffixes taken together are called

the inflections of the word.

All of the following forms of the basic word BBn (zhiishiib) with different prefixes

and suffixes might be found, for example.

Syllabics Roman English

BBjc zhiishiibag ‘ducks’

BBjx zhiishiiban ‘other duck’

BBj/ zhiishiiba’ ‘other ducks’

eBBuZ nizhiishiibim ‘my duck’

KBBusx ozhiishiibiman ‘her|his duck’

Various Forms of the Word BBn (Zhiishiib) ‘Duck’

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxvi

To look up a simple noun in the dictionary, you must remove any prefixes and suffixes

attached to it. So, in these examples, several different elements would have to be

removed:

Prefix(es) Stem Suffix(es)

BBn kc (-ag) BBn kx (-an) BBn k/ (-ah)

e (ni-) BBn iZ (-im)

K (o-) BBn isx (-iman) These must be

removed before looking up this

word

Examples of Prefixes and Suffixed to be Removed from Nouns before Looking them up

Dependent and Independent Nouns

In Anishinaabemowin, the words for relatives (family members, kinship terms) and

body parts are almost never used without identifying whose body part or relative is being

referred to, by means of elements (prefixes and suffixes) added to the basic noun. For

example, the word -nik ‘arm’ does not usually occur alone, but with a prefix, such as

eec ninik, ‘my arm,’ rec ginik, ‘your arm’, or Kec onik ‘his/her arm’. Nouns that

require such specification of relationship are called dependent nouns, and those that do

not are called independent nouns. Nouns whose part of speech is given simply as na and

ni in the dictionary are independent, but dependent nouns have special codes. Just as with

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxvii

independent nouns, dependent nouns can be animate or inanimate. The following codes

are used to identify dependent nouns:

nad noun, animate, dependent

nid noun, inanimate, dependent

Since dependent nouns must be used with a prefix that specifies relationship, there is a

question of what form or forms should be listed in the dictionary. We have chosen to

standardly represent body parts with a third person form, that is the one meaning

‘her/his __,’ for example, Kob (ozid) ‘her/his foot’, Kfb (okaad) ‘her/his leg.’ This

means that if you want to look up a word such as eob (nizid) ‘my foot’, you will have to

remove the prefix e (ni) meaning ‘my’ and add the prefix K (o) or C (w) meaning ‘her or

his’ in order to find the word in the dictionary. In the case of words for relatives, the ‘my’

(first person) form has been used, for example, DFZ (nookom), ‘my grandmother’, or

eFom (ningozis) ‘my son.’ Again, attention must be given to the prefix, and the form that

means ‘my…’ looked up.

Participial Nouns

Some nouns in Anishinaabemowin are made from verbs, and keep some of their

verbal properties, even though the words are used as nouns. A participle is a kind of

hybrid word somewhere between a noun and a verb. For example, some speakers refer to

an airplane as fuwOsfc (gaa-bimisemagak), or a typewriter as fKBu/ROc (gaa-

ozhibii’igeseg). Both of these words refer to things and can be used as the subject or

object of a verb, so they are nouns, but they also have verbal properties, such as the way

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxviii

they make their plurals. Also, unlike other kinds of nouns, you can’t just attach a prefix

e (ni) to the front of these words to mean ‘my airplane’ or ‘my typewriter,’ because

these participles don’t behave like simple nouns.

Participial nouns may be animate or inanimate. The following codes are used for each

sub-class of participial noun.

na-pt noun, animate, participle

ni-pt noun, inanimate, participle

In northern Ontario Anishinaabemowin, participial nouns all begin with the element f

(gaa–). Participles must be distinguished from abstract nouns, which are also nouns

made from verbs, usually by adding the ending Cix (win), as in irHCix (ikidowin)

‘word, utterance’, and kDrCix (anokiiwin) ‘work.’ These words, although they have

been made from the verbs irH (ikido) ‘speak’ and kDr (anokii) ‘work’ are regular

nouns, which you can tell by the fact that they can have a prefix added to them to signal

‘my’, ‘your,’ or ‘her/his,’ for example, ehDrCix (nindanokiiwin) ‘my work,’ rhDrCix

(gidanokiiwin) ‘your work,’ etc.

Specification of Other Categories of Nouns

Certain assumptions are made in the dictionary about the way that nouns work in

Anishinaabemowin, in the form of default behaviours. These include the forms of

plurals, locatives, possessives, diminutives, and pejoratives. Basically, the following

default patterns are assumed:

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxix

Category Default Form Example Example Translation

Animate Plural Add suffix -ag BBjc zhiishiibag ‘ducks’

Inanimate Plural Add suffix -an qsdx jiimaanan ‘boats’

Locative Add suffix -ing qsec jiimaaning ‘in the boat’

Possessive No -im Suffix eqsedx ninjiimaaninaan ‘our boat’

Diminutive Add suffix -ens qsEm jiimaanens ‘little boat’

Pejorative Add suffix -ish qseX jiimaanish ‘worn-out boat’

Default Forms for Various Noun Categories

When nouns conform to the patterns above their forms do not have to be listed in the

dictionary. For example, the plural of BBn need not listed, because it is predictably

formed by adding kc (ag) to the basic noun. The plural of wyc (mitig) ‘tree,’ however, is

more likely to be listed in the dictionary, because its plural wyFc (mitigoog) is not

predictable. In the cases of some common words, however, even regular plurals are

included as illustrations of the standard patterns.

Plurals

The plural refers to more than one of whatever the noun refers to, for example, BBjc

(zhiishiibag) refers to more than one duck, ‘ducks.’ Plurals of nouns are formed in

Anishinaabemowin by adding a suffix sensitive to gender. The following words show a

variety of plural endings:

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Syllabic Roman English Gloss

Kfhx okaadan ‘his or her legs’

KfYgux okaadeyaabiin ‘tent ropes’

CkfCfHx waagaakwadoon ‘axes’

krFc akikoog ‘pails, kettles’

kYCfc aandegwag ‘crows’

koec asiniig ‘stones, rocks’

Some Anishinaabemowin Plural Forms

In many cases, the plural for an animate noun ends in kc, for example, as in KCjfdc,

‘pipes.’ Inanimate nouns often have plurals that end with kx, as in SFsdx, ‘knives.’ As

mentioned above, usually such predictable plurals aren’t listed in the dictionary, but a

few are, as illustrations of standard patterns.

The obviative (backgrounded) form of animate nouns can always be determined by

changing the last sound of the plural to x (n) for obviative singulars and / (’) for obviative

plurals. So, for example, the plural of kox (asin) ‘stone’ is koec (asiniig); the

obviative singular is koex (asiniin) and the obviative plural is koe/ (asinii’). Example:

koec eCkjsc. (Asiniig niwaabamaag.) ‘I see stones’; koe/ KCkjs/. (Asinii’

owaabamaa’.) ‘S/he sees stones’

Plural forms are identified in the dictionary with the abbreviation pl.

Locatives

The locative form is used to express a location, equivalent to English concepts such as

‘on’ or ‘in,’ for example, KCiuhc, (owiibidaang) ‘on his or her tooth.’ The most

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxi

common form of the locative ending is ic (ing), as in Kfyc (okaading) ‘on his or her

leg,’ and nouns that form their locative in this way do not usually have their locative form

listed in the dictionary. The locative forms are most commonly given for words that

define parts of the body, because they are somewhat exceptional in their behaviour.


KuCfdc obikwanaang ‘on his or her back’

KCRfec okweganing ‘on his or her neck’

KFec okoning ‘on his or her liver’

Kohc ozidaang ‘on his or her foot’

Locatives of Some Body Part Words

Locative forms are identified in the dictionary with the abbreviation loc.

Possessed Forms

In English, possession (ownership or having in one’s possession) of something or

relationship to someone is shown by the addition of a pronoun or noun that indicates who

the possessor is, for example ‘my book’ or ‘our book.’ In Anishinaabemowin, possession

of a noun is shown by adding prefixes and endings onto words. For example, among the

possessed forms of the word ‘book’ might be the following:

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxii


esod/ifx nimazina’igan ‘my book’

rsod/ifx gimazinag’igan ‘your (sing.) book’

Ksod/ifx omazina’igan ‘her or his book’

esod/ifedx nimazina’iganinaanin ‘our (but not your) books’

rsod/ifeCk gimazinag’iganiwaa ‘your (plural) book’

Ksod/ifeCk omazina’iganiwaa ‘their book’

Some Possessive Forms

In some cases possessed words have an additional suffix, having the form iZ (im) or

KZ (om), as in ehxYFZ (nindaandegom) ‘my crow.’ Where the addition of the

possessive suffix is unpredictable for a noun, we have included it in the dictionary.

Possessive forms are indicated with the abbreviation poss.

Diminutives

The diminutive ending is put on words to indicate that something is a young (non-

adult) or small version of a person, animal, or thing. For example, a young crow is

expressed with the following Ojibwe word:

kYFxm aandegoons ‘young or small crow’

The usual way to make a diminutive is to add the ending Im (ens), as in qsEm

(jiimaanens), ‘small boat.’ When a diminutive ends in something other than Im (ens), we

usually list it in the dictionary. Diminutive forms are identified with the abbreviation dim.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxiii

Pejoratives

The pejorative form is used to communicate the idea that something is worn out or

disliked, for example, qseX (jiimaanish), ‘worn out boat.’ We have listed a few

pejorative forms of nouns to illustrate their usage. The most common pejorative form is

made with suffix iX (ish), as in the example here, and most nouns with this form of the

pejorative suffix do not have their pejoratives listed in the dictionary. Pejoratives are

identified with the abbreviation pej.

Placenames

Placenames, such as WWCRBCiLf/ifexc (Memegweshiwi-zaaga’iganiing), ‘North

Spirit Lake, Ontario’ and Ckjlyfxc (Waabazaadiikaang) ‘Poplar Hill, Ontario’ are

indicated with the following abbreviation:

place placename

Pronouns

Pronouns are usually described as ‘words that stand in for nouns.’ These are words in

English such as ‘I,’ ‘you,’ ‘someone,’ and ‘those’, among many others.

Anishinaabemowin is rich in a variety of distinct types of pronouns, including personal

pronouns, such as ex (niin), ‘I’, indefinite pronouns, such as kCig (awiya) ‘someone’,

demonstrative pronouns, such as i/iCI (i’iwe) ‘that (inanimate)’, interrogative

(question) pronouns, such as CIFEx (wegonen) ‘what? (inanimate),’ and many other

kinds. Pronouns are identified in the dictionary with the following code:

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxiv

pr pronoun

Verbs

Verbs refer to actions, states, experiences, and qualities. Verbs answer the questions

‘What is happening?’ or ‘What’s the state of things?’ Verbs in Anishinaabemowin are

subclassified according to their transitivity and the gender of their subjects or objects.

These concepts are discussed in detail below.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

One way that verbs are classified in Anishinaabemowin is on the basis of how many

distinct noun roles they have associated with them. One class of verbs has only one role

associated with the verbal idea. For example, the verb uSO (bimose) ‘s/he walks along’

has only one role, that of the walker; the verb ew (niimi) ‘s/he dances’ has only one role,

that of the dancer. Verbs that have only one role associated with them are called

intransitive. Another way of describing intransitive verbs is to say that they have only

subjects, but no objects.

There are also two subclasses of intransitive verbs in Anishinaabemowin, based on

the grammatical gender ofwhatever fills the single role of the verb, whether animate or

inanimate. The following forms show this difference.

animate wyH mindido ‘s/he is big’ inanimate wa michaa ‘it is big’ animate kfBt agaashiinyi ‘s/he is small’ inanimate kfox agaasin ‘it is small’

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxv

Verbs that have a single animate role are called animate intransitive verbs (vai);

verbs that have a single inanimate role are called inanimate intransitive verbs (vii).

The codes for these two classes are as follows:

vai verb, animate intransitive vii verb, inanimate intransitive

Transitive Verbs

Other verbs have more than one role associated with them. For example, the verb

yj/ks√ (diba’amaw) ‘pay s.o.’ has a role of a payer and a payee; the verb KqZ (ojiim)

‘kiss him or her’ has the role of a giver of a kiss and the role of a receiver of a kiss. Verbs

that have more than one role associated with them are called transitive. And just as

Anishinaabemowin divides intransitive verbs into two types on the basis of the animacy

of the one playing the role, so too it divides transitive verbs into two classes on the basis

of the animacy of one of the roles. The relevant role in transitive verbs is the one

specifying the receiver of the action, in the examples above, the receiver of the pay and

the receiver of the kiss. If the receiver of the action is animate, the verb is a transitive

animate verb; if the receiver of the action is inanimate, the verb is a transitive

inanimate verb, as in qsx Klwdx CrCioxm. (Jiimaan ozaaminaan gwiiwizens.) ‘The

boy is touching the boat’. Here qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’, an inanimate noun, is the recipient

of the action of touching.

The following codes are used for these two classes.

vta verb, transitive animate

vti verb, transitive inanimate

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The Citation Forms of Verbs

Verbs are very rich in inflection in Anishinaabemowin, that is, in the combinations of

prefixes and suffixes that indicate participants in the action, the time of the action,

whether the statement about the action is positive or negative, whether the speaker is

certain that the action has actually taken place or is speculating, whether the action takes

place toward the speaker or away from the speaker, and so on. There are many thousand

potential forms, and it is simply not possible to list them all, or even a significant portion

of them. Rather, a consistent way of representing each subclass of verb must be used, and

one by which, with the proper knowledge, a dictionary user can derive any needed verb

form, with all of the appropriate prefixes and suffixes. This can really only be done with

native speaker fluency or with access to a very complete grammar of the language. But

for now we can at least consistently represent and consistently label verbs in the

dictionary.

Consider the following list, showing a few of the forms of the verb ew (niimi) ‘s/he

dances’:

Syllabics Roman English Gloss

ew niimi ‘s/he dances’

eeZ niniim ‘I dance’

ewCkc niimiwag ‘they dance’

ewgx niimiyaan ‘(that) I dance’

ewHCRdc niimidogwenag ‘perhaps they’re dancing’

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxvii

Syllabics Roman English Gloss

ewCkjx niimiwaapan ‘when they had danced’

eewowdjx niniimisiiminaaban ‘we hadn’t been dancing’

(RF) ewRx (gego) niimiken ‘don’t dance!’

A Few of the Many Forms of the Verb ew (niimi) ‘s/he dances’

The list here represents only a very small portion of the possible distinct forms of this

verb. We have chosen to list the form that means ‘she or he is __’ in the dictionary for

animate intransitive verbs (vai), because this form has no prefixes and no apparent

suffixes— it seems to represent the simplest, most straightforward form. In the case of

the word above, ew (niimi) is listed. In the case of inanimate intransitive verbs (vii),

we have also used the simplest form possible, the one that means ‘it is __’, as in rwCkx

(gimiwan), ‘it is raining.’

In the case of transitive verbs, however, there is no form that is quite as simple as the

forms that we use for intransitive verbs, because almost every transitive verb form has a

prefix or suffix or both. We have chosen to use the simple command (imperative) form

for transitive verbs. The imperative form expresses a simple command, such as Ciq/

(wiiji’) ‘help her/him!’ or Cixhs√ (wiindamaw) ‘tell her/him!’. These verbs are both

transitive animate verbs (vta), because they have two roles, a helper and someone helped,

a teller and someone told, and the one on the receiving end is animate. Transitive

inanimate verbs (vti) are also listed in their simple command forms, for example,

kjqHx (aabajitoon) ‘use it!’ and fdCkjxhx (ganawaabandan), ‘look at it!’.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxviii

To summarize, the following citation forms for the main verb classes are used in this

dictionary.

Verb Class Code Form Syllabics Roman Meaning

Animate Intransitive

VAI 3rd person singular, present tense

ew niimi ‘s/he dances’

Inanimate Intransitive

VII 3rd person singular, present tense

rwCkx gimiwan ‘it’s raining’

Transitive Animate

VTA 2nd person sing. acting on 3rd sing. command

Ciq/ wiiji’ ‘help her/him!’

Transitive Inanimate

VTI 2nd person singular actiing on 3rd sing. command

kjqHx aabajitoon ‘use it!’

List Forms for the Major Verb Classes

There are some transitive animate verbs that vary the last consonant of their stems.

Such verbs show the following kinds of variation:

wX miizh ‘give it to her/him!’

ewd nimiinaa ‘I give it to her/him’

hFuX dakobizh

‘tie her/him up’ ehFud nindakobinaa ‘I tie her/him up’

eB nishi ‘kill her/him!’ eel ninisaa ‘I kill her/him’

iB izhi ‘say to her/him!’ eyd nindinaa ‘I say to her/him’

Verbs Showing Variation in Stem Form

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xxxix

The problem here is that the basic verb form shows variation— in some cases the

basic verb appears to end with X (zh or sh), while in other cases the same basic verb ends

with x (n) or m (s). In a few such cases, we list both the simple imperative form and the

form that means ‘I do __ to her/him.’ These forms are identified with the code 1sg, which

stands for ‘first person singular (‘I’) acting upon third person singular (him, her, or it

(animate).’ So, an example entry is the following:

iB izhi vta say to s.o. 1sg eyd nindinaa.

A simple rule that accounts for vast amounts of stem variation of this sort is that if a

vta imperative form ends in «zh», it will have a stem-alternant that ends in «n», as in

webizh, ‘

VAI/VII Verbs

Most animate intransitive and inanimate intransitive verbs have different forms for the

same meaning, for example, jrBx (bangishin), ‘s/he falls’ and jrox (bangisin), ‘it

falls.’ Both of these verbs express the idea of falling, but the animate verb of falling is

pronounced and spelled slightly differently from the inanimate verb of falling. For some

concepts, though, the basic verbal form is the same for animate and inanimate subjects,

for example, jRXf (bakeshkaa), can mean either ‘s/he moves to the side’ or ‘it

(inanimate) moves to the side’; jfwO (bagamise), can mean either ‘s/he arrives’ or ‘it

(inanimate) arrives.’ Rather than list such words twice, once as an animate intransitive

verb (vai) and again as an inanimate intransitive verb (vii), a single code is used to

collapse these two together, having the form:

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vai/vii verb, animate intransitive and verb inanimate intransitive

VAI+O Verbs

There is a small set of animate intransitive verbs which can optionally have a second

role associated with them. Such verbs include weCR (minikwe) ‘s/he drinks (it)’ and

khCI (adaawe) ‘s/he buys (it).’ These verbs are labeled as follows:

vai+o verb, animate intransitive with optional object

Prefixes, Prenouns and Preverbs

There is a very small group of prefixes, elements which attach to the beginning of

verbs to indicate first, second, or third person subject or object, and to nouns to indicate

the possessor of the noun. The most common prefixes are e (ni+) ‘first person’, r (gi+)

‘second person’ and K (o+), ‘third person.’ The Roman forms of prefixes in the

dictionary have a following (+) to show that they are attached directly to a word, rather

than with a hyphen as in the case of prenouns and preverbs. Prefixes are identified with

the following code.

pref prefix

Prenouns are elements which attach to the front of nouns and describe them or pick

them out in some way, such as DV (noozhe-) ‘female’ and dU (naabe) ‘male,’ as in

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DVSm (noozhe-mooz) and dUSm (naabe-mooz). Prenouns are identified with the

following codes:

pn, pren prenoun

Preverbs are like prenouns, except they are attached to the front of verbs. Preverbs

include elements such as r (gii-) ‘past tense,’ h (daa-) ‘should, may, can’ (modal

preverb), and u (bi-) ‘towards speaker,’ among many others. Preverbs are indicated with

the following abbreviations:

pv, prev preverb

Particles

The class of particles includes all of the items that do not belong to any of the other

classes named. Particles include single words that indicate place (uxHdc biindoonag

‘inside the boat’), time (DsT noomaaye ‘recently’), quantity and repetition (eBc

niizhing or eCM niizhwaa ‘twice’), negation (fCix gaawiin, RF gego), and many other

concepts. Particles are identified with the following abbreviation:

pc particle

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Interjections

An interjection is a word that expresses strong emotion or surprise, and is usually

capable of standing alone, such as Ugh! or Wow! in English. Interjections are indicated

with the code int.

int interjection

Expressions

In a few cases, phrases, groups of words with a special meaning, have been included.

An example is fCix Ljsxq/Ko (gaawiin zaabamanji'osii), ‘s/he is not feeling too

good.’ These are identified with the following code:

expr expression consisting of several words

Part 4. English Gloss (Translation)






This is the English meaning of the Anishinaabemowin word in very rough, simple

translation. One problem in glossing dictionary items is that there are some clumsy

matches between Anishinaabemowin and English. For example, consider how eCkjs

(niwaabamaa) might be translated into English:

If talking about a woman… [iCR) eCkjs ‘I see her.’

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xliii

If talking about a man… [iee) eCkjs ‘I see him.’

If talking about a kettle… [krc) eCkjs ‘I see it.’

So the word eCkjs (niwaabamaa) should be translated as ‘I see her/him/it

(animate).’ This is very clumsy, though, and it is customary in Anishinaabemowin

dictionaries to use an abbreviation for an animate object, usually s.o., which is related to

the English word ‘someone’ but different from it, because someone is never used in

English to refer to things such as stones, pipes, and kettles, or even animals, but only

people. We have also chosen to represent many animate objects with the abbreviation s.t.

(an.), ‘s.t. animate.’ Inanimate objects are identified in this dictionary with the

abbreviation s.t. The following entries illustrate these conventions for glosses:

CkjZ waabam vta see s.t. (an.)

Ckjhx waabandan vti see s.t.

In the case of intransitive verbs, no subject is provided in the gloss, as in the

following examples:

wa michaa vii is big.

wyH mindido vai is big.

It is only by its part of speech designation that one can see that wa (michaa) is used to

describe grammatically inanimate things such as qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’ and Ckf/ifx

(waakaa’igan) ‘house’, and that wxyH (mindido) is used to describe grammatically

animate things, such as iee (inini) ‘man and KCjfx (opwaagan) ‘pipe.’ Since wa

(michaa) is labeled vii, for verb inanimate intransitive, we know that it applies to

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xliv

inanimate noun and pronoun subjects; since wyH (mindido) is labeled vai, for verb

animate intransitive, we know that it applies to animate noun and pronoun subjects.

Example Sentences

In some cases, example sentences are given to help illustrate the meaning of a word. For

example, for the verb, km (as) ‘put s.o. there’. is Khlx KYwCfdx. ‘S|he puts his|her spoon there.’ KrhHJCix ehl ehrFZ. ‘I put my pot on top of the table.’

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xlv

Glossary

This glossary contains entries for all of the grammatical concepts introduced in the

notes on the dictionary. At the end of each entry cross-references to related entries are

given.

ABSTRACT NOUN. A noun made from a

verb, usually by adding the suffix Cix (win), as in lr/iCICix (zaagi’iwewin) ‘love’, made from the verb lr/iCI (zaagi’iwe) ‘s/he loves’. These nouns are called abstract because they don’t refer to physical objects such as trees, animals, or people, but rather to general ideas and principles, concepts, or actions in a very general sense. Nouns that refer to physical objects, such as iee (inini) ‘man’ and lf/ifx (zaaga’igan) ‘lake’, are called concrete nouns. See Noun, Verb.

ALGONQUIAN. The family of languages that Anishinaabemowin belongs to. This family includes Abenaki, Arapaho, Atikamekw-Cree-Montag-nais-Naskapi, Blackfoot, Delaware, Fox, Kickapoo, Malecite- Passama-quoddy, Menomini, Micmac, Pota-

watomi, and many others. See Language.

ANIMATE. One of the two gender classes of Anishinaabemowin nouns, consisting mostly of words referring to living things, though some other nouns as well. Animate nouns have plurals that end in c (g), such as CkFMc (waagoshag) ‘foxes’. See Gender, Noun.

ANIMATE INTRANSITIVE VERB. A verb which has only one role associated with it, a subject, and that role is filled by an animate noun. Examples: hFBx (dagoshin) ‘s/he arrives’ (single role of ‘one arriving’); kDr (anokii) ‘s/he works’ (single role of ‘one working’); Cke/iR (wanii’ige) ‘s/he traps’ (single role of ‘one trapping’). See Transitivity, Verb.

ASPIRATION. A very brief puff of air that can be heard in the pronunciation of some

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xlvi

Anishinaabemowin speakers when saying the sounds spelled p, t, and k, as in ku (apii) ‘when’, wyc

(mitig) ‘tree’ and sCf (makwa) ‘bear’. See Consonant.

COMMAND. See Imperative.

COMMUNITY CODE. A two-letter code used in this dictionary to identify particular communities where a word is used or a particular meaning is found. Codes are CL Cat Lake; FH Frenchman’s Head; LS Lac Seul; PI Pikangikum; PH Poplar Hill; RL Red Lake.

CONSONANT. One of the two basic types of speech sounds (the other is Vowels). Consonants begin or end syllables, while vowels occupy the middle (core) of a syllable. Most consonants are not pronounced alone, but only with an accompanying vowel. The consonants of Anishinaabemowin are b, ch, d, g, ’, j, k, m, n, p, s, t, w, y, and z. Compare Vowel.

DEFAULT. The expected, normal, most common form of a grammatical element. For example, the default plural of animate nouns is kc (ag), as in SLxlc (moozoonsag) ‘little moose’. Other (non-default) animate

plural forms are Kc (oog) as in SLc (moozoog) ‘moose’ (pl.), and ic (iig) as in koec (asiniig) ‘rocks’. The default plural of inanimate nouns is kx (an), as in Sfsdx (mookomaanan) ‘knives’. If the plural of a noun is not listed in the dictionary, then it is assumed to be made in the default way. See Diminutive, Locative, Noun, Pejora-tive, Plural.

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN. A pronoun which singles out or picks out a particular member or members of a class of nouns. For example, K/KCI qsx (ohowe jiimaan) ‘this boat’ picks out a particular boat that the speaker is referring to. See Pronoun.

DEPENDENT NOUN. A noun that must have a possessor prefix indicating the possessor, owner, or person in relationship to the noun, for example eob (nizid) ‘my foot’, with possessor prefix e (ni) ‘my’, and rFom (gigozis) ‘your son’, with possessive prefix r (gi) ‘your.’ Nouns for body parts and relatives (family relations) are dependent, as well as a few others. Compare Independent Noun. See also Noun.

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xlvii

DIALECT. A distinctive variety of a language used by speakers in a particular geographical regions or in a particular social group. The dialects of Anishinaabemowin include Al-gonquin, Chippewa, Odawa/ Otta-wa, Oji-Cree, Ojibwe, Nipissing, and Saulteaux. See Language.

DIMINUTIVE. A noun having an ending that indicates that the word refers to someone or something that is a young, immature, or especially small member of the group identified by the noun. For example, kYFm (aandegoons) ‘young or small crow’ is the diminutive of kxYc (aandeg) ‘crow’; qsEm

(jiimaanens) ‘small boat’ is the diminutive of qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat.’ See Noun, Suffix.

EASTERN SYLLABICS. One of the two basic Syllabic traditions. Eastern Syllabics uses finals which resemble smaller versions of the basic syllable characters, for example, final x (n) corresponds to basic syllable character d (na/naa). Also in the Eastern tradition, the w-dot symbol precedes the symbol for the syllable it is associated with, for example, CkCkx (waawan) ‘egg’,

and iCR (ikwe) ‘woman’. Compare Western Syllabics. See Syllabics.

ENDING. See Suffix.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION. See Gloss.

ENTRY. An individual word, as listed separately in the dictionary.

FINALS. In Syllabic writing, the small, raised letters used to represent an isolated consonant sound at the end of a syllable, as in ejn (nimbaap) ‘I laugh’, or krc (akik) ‘pail, kettle’. See Syllabics.

FIRST PERSON. One of the three ‘persons’ or speech roles in language communication. First person refers to the one or ones speaking. In English, the pronouns ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ are all first person singular, and ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ first person plural. In Anishinaabemowin first person pronouns include ex (niin) ‘I’, eehZ (niinitam) ‘my turn, me first’, edCixb (niinawind), ‘we, us (but not you)’ and rdCixb (giinawind) ‘we, us (you and I),’ among others. Compare Second Person, Third Person.

GENDER. The grammatical noun groups or classes in a language. Anishinaabemowin groups nouns

ANISHINAABEMOWIN DICTIONARY GUIDE • xlviii

into two genders, animate and inanimate. Members of the animate class include people, animals, spirits, trees, many plants, and many other objects such as pipes, spoons, and the sun and moon. Members of the inanimate class include non-living things and a few plants. Each class requires verbs of the appropriate type. See Noun.

GLOSS. The simple English translation associated with an Anishinaabe-mowin word in the dictionary. For example, the gloss for BBn

(zhiishiib) is simply ‘duck’.

GRAMMAR. The patterns and rules of a language, including pronunciation, how words are made from parts of words, and how words are put together to make words, phrases and sentences.

GRAMMATICAL. Anything having to do with grammar. See Grammar.

HYPHEN. A punctuation mark (-) used to separate prenouns and pre-verbs from their stems in the Roman writing system, for example, gichi-Anishinaabe, ‘great Anishi= naaabe’, gichi-anokii ‘s/he is really working’. See Prenoun, Preverb.

IMPERATIVE. The form of a verb used when giving someone a command to do something, when telling someone to do something. For example, Cioex (wiisinin), ‘eat!’. See Verb.

INANIMATE. One of the two genders of Anishinaabemowin nouns, mostly words referring to non-living things. Inanimate nouns have plurals ending in x (n), such as qsdx (jiimaanan) ‘boats’. Compare Animate. See Gender, Noun.

INANIMATE INTRANSITIVE VERB (VII). One of the four main subclasses of verbs. An inanimate intransitive verb is a verb that has a single role associated with it, and the noun filling the single role is inanimate, as in wa qsx. (Michaa jiimaan.) ‘The boat is big.’ See also Verb, Transitivity. Compare Animate Intransitive Verb (vai). INDEFINITE PRONOUN. A pronoun used when the identity of a thing or individual is not fully known, for example kCig (awiya) ‘someone’ and RFx (gegoon) ‘something’. See Pronoun.

INDEPENDENT NOUN. A noun that can be used without a possessor, a noun that can stand alone, independently. Independent nouns are contrasted

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with dependent nouns, which require a possessor. Examples: qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’, Ckf/ifx (waakaa’igan) ‘house’. See Noun. Compare Dependent Noun.

INFLECTION. Any prefix or suffix added to a word to add a meaning such as who or what the subject is, who or what the object is, the plurality of the subject or object, etc. Example: ehDrwx (nindanokii= min), ‘we are working’ has the inflectional prefix eb (nid) and the inflectional suffix wx (min). See Noun, Prefix, Suffix.

INTERJECTION. A word that expresses strong emotion or surprise, and is usually capable of standing alone, such as Oh! or Wow! in English.

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN. A pronoun used in asking questions, such as CIFEx (wegonen) ‘what? (inanimate) or kCkEx (awanen) ‘who’. See Pronoun.

LANGUAGE. A system of communi-cation used by human beings, in which meanings are associated with combinations of sounds. Sounds group together to form word parts and words, and words group together to form sentences. There

are believed to be approximately 5,500 languages spoken in the world today.

LOCATIVE. The locative form of a noun expresses the noun as a location, for example, eohxc (nizidaang) means ‘on my foot’ from the basic word eob (nizid) ‘my foot.’ Another example is Kfyxc (okaading) ‘on his or her leg.’ The locative is formed by adding a suffix (ending) to the noun stem. The default locative suffix is ixc (ing), as in qsexc (jiimaaning) ‘in the boat’. See Noun.

LONG VOWELS. The long vowels in Anishinaabemowin are aa, ii, oo and e. See Vowels.

NOMINAL. Having to do with a noun. See Noun.

NOUN. One of the main parts of speech of Anishinaabemowin. Nouns are words for living and non-living things, such as CrCiOxm (gwiiwi= zens) ‘boy’, and srox (makizin) ‘shoe’. Nouns answer the question ‘who’ or ‘what’. There are two genders or classes of nouns, animate and inanimate. Nouns can be singular or plural. Nouns in Anishinaabemowin are also marked

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for obviation, that is, whether they are in focus in the story being told, or not. Nouns can also be diminutive or pejorative. Nouns can be locative. See all of these categories for additional notes.

NOUN PHRASE. A noun along with any associated helping words, such as demonstrative pronouns (kCI iee awe inini ‘that man’), or a number (UBc iee bezhig inini ‘one man’). See Noun.

OBJECT. The noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in a sentence that expresses the receiver of the action, that is, the one whom the action is done to. Also called a Direct Object. Only transitive verbs have objects, and a few exceptional animate intransitive verbs. Compare Subject.

OBVIATIVE. In Algonquian languages, third persons (nouns and pronouns) are distinguished as being more prominent or less prominent in the discourse. Only one noun or third person pronoun may be in focus at any given time. Nouns which less prominent (background) have a special ending, called the obviative. Take, for example, the sentence ieeCkx KrCkjsx iCR. (Ininiwan ogii-waabamaan ikwe.)

‘The woman saw a man.’ Here the word for man, which in its basic form is iee (inini), has an ending (kx -an) attached which designates it as being out of focus (obviative). The noun iCR (ikwe) ‘woman’, however, has no such ending, and so is in focus, or highlighted in this sentence.

PART OF SPEECH. Also called Word Category. Any of the small number of classes or types into which the words of a language group, on the basis of their meanings, their word structures, and the way they are used in sentences. The main parts of speech in Anishinaabemowin are Nouns, Verbs, Pronouns and Particles.

PARTICIPLE. A verb which is used as a noun. Many nouns in Anishinaabemowin are made from verbs which describe the behaviour or use of the object, for example, fuwOsfc (gaa-bimisemagak) ‘air-plane’ (literally, ‘that (inanimate) thing which flies along’). See Verb, Noun.

PARTICLE. One of the main parts of speech (word classes) of Anishinaabemowin. Particles are simple words that express ideas

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such as location (UN (besho) ‘near’ and Ckl (waasa) ‘far’), time (DxFZ (noongom) ‘now, today’, emphasis (l (sa) and iF (igo)), and many other concepts.

PEJORATIVE. The pejorative form is used to communicate the idea that something is old, worn-out or disliked, for example, qseX (jiimaanish), ‘old boat.’

PERSON. See First Person, Second Person, Third Person.

PERSONAL PRONOUN. A pronoun which identifies one of the basic communicative roles of speaker (first person), listener (second person) or item of conversation (third person). Personal pronouns may be singular or plural. Some examples are ex (niin) ‘I’ and CidCk (wiinawaa), ‘they’. See Pronoun.

PLACENAME. A word that names a place, such as WWCRBCiLf/ifec (Memegweshiwi-zaaga’iganiing), ‘North Spirit Lake, Ontario’.

PLURAL. Plural indicates more than one of a thing. The plural is made from the singular in Anishinaabemowin by adding an ending onto the singular. For example, the plural of

BBn (zhiishiib) ‘duck’ is BBjc (zhiishiibag) ‘ducks’. Plural is contrasted with singular, which refers to one of a thing, for example, BBn (zhiishiib) refers to one duck. Compare Singular. See Noun.

POSSESSION. Possession has to do with close association between one or more persons or thing and other persons or things. Possession may relate to close relationship, such as one’s relatives or the parts of one’s own body, or it may have to do with ownership or caretaking. Possession of a noun is signalled by means of prefixes and suffixes that indicate who the possessor is, for example, esod/ifx (nimazina’igan) takes the basic noun sod/ifx (mazina’igan) ‘book’ and adds a prefix e (ni-) which indicates a first person possessor, giving the meaning ‘my book.’

POSSESSOR. See Possession.

PREFIX. A word-element attached to the front of the main word. For example, the word esod/ifx

(nimazina’igan) ‘my book’ has a prefix e (ni-) attached to the main word sod/ifx (mazina’igan) ‘book’ to produce the word with the

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meaning ‘my book.’ See also stem, suffix.

PRENOUN. A word-building element which attaches to the front of a noun. In Roman spelling prenouns are set off by hyphens. Some examples: rqkeBdU (gichi-Anishinaabe) ‘great Anishinaabe’;

PRONOUN. A member of a small class of words which are used as replacements or substitutes for nouns, for example rx (giin) ‘you’, i/iCI (i’iwe) ‘that (inanimate)’, and RFx (gegoon) ‘something’. There are many subtypes of pronouns, including personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, interrogative pronouns, etc. See Part of Speech.

ROLE. A relationship which a noun has to a verb. For example, in the sentence kDr iee. (Anokii inini.) ‘The man is working.’— the noun iee (inini) ‘man’ has the role of worker. In the sentence CkJLx Krelx iee.

(Waaboozoon ogii-nisaan inini.) ‘The man killed the rabbit.’— the noun iee (inini) ‘man’ has the role of killer, and the noun CkJLx (waaboozoon) ‘rabbit’ has the role

of the one(s) killed. See Verb, Transitivity.

ROMAN WRITING. Writing based on the original letters of the Latin alphabet, such as the writing system used by English. Compare Syllabics. See Consonant, Vowel.

SECOND PERSON. One of the three ‘persons’ or speech roles in communication. Second person refers to whoever is being spoken to at the time of speaking. In English, the word ‘you’ is used to represent second person. In Anishinaabemowin, there are many second person pronouns, such as rx (giin) ‘you’ (singular), rehZ (giinitam) ‘your turn, you first’, rdCk (giinawaa), ‘you (plural)’ and rdCib (giinawind) ‘we, us (you and I),’ among others. Compare First Person, Third Person.

SHORT VOWELS. The short vowels of Anishinaabemowin are a, i, o. See Vowels.

SINGULAR. One of a thing, for example, the word BBn (zhiishiib) refers to one duck. Singular (one item) is contrasted with Plural (more than one item). Compare Plural.

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STEM. A word or word part to which other parts may be added in building words. For example, to make the plural of BBn (zhiishiib) ‘duck’ a suffix kc (-ag) is added to the stem BBn, producing BBjc (zhiishiibag).

SUBJECT. The noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in a sentence that represents the doer of the action. In sentences with intransitive verbs, the subject is the noun or pronoun filling the verb’s one role. Compare Object.

SYLLABARY. 1. A writing system in which the basic letters stand for syllables, that is, groupings of consonants and vowels. 2. A list of the symbols making up the Syllabic writing system.

SYLLABICS. A writing system used to write Anishinaabemowin in which each basic letter stands for a syllable, that is, a combination of a consonant and a vowel sounded together. There are two main ways of writing Syllabics, an Eastern tradition and a Western tradition. These traditions differ in the way small Consonant value letters are written and in the position of the dot used to write the sound w. Compare Roman Writing.

SYLLABLE. A sound grouping of 1. a single vowel, as in krZ (aagim) ‘snowshoe’; 2. a consonant followed by a vowel, as in ef (nika) ‘Canada goose’; 3. a consonant followed by a vowel, followed by one or more additional consonants, as in sc (maang) ‘loon’ or UXc (beshk) ‘nighthawk’. See Syllabics, Consonant, Vowel.

THIRD PERSON. One of the three ‘persons’ or speech roles in communication. Third person refers to whoever or whatever is being spoken about. In English, the words ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’, and many others, are used to represent third person. In Anishinaabemowin, there are many third person pronouns, such as Cix (wiin) ‘she/her, he/him, it (animate)’, and CidCk (wiinawaa) ‘they’. In English, third persons are grouped into three genders, masculine (he), feminine (she), and neuter (it). In Anishinaabemowin, third person divides into two genders or groups, animate and inanimate. So, for example, there are different third person pronouns meaning ‘this’ when referring to animate things as opposed to inanimate: i/iCI (i’iwe) ‘that’

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(inanimate), k/kCI (a’awe) ‘that’ (animate). Compare First Person and Second Person.

TRANSITIVITY. Transitivity is a property of verbs. Verbs express actions, states, experiences, etc. Each verb has one or more roles associated with it. The roles are filled by nouns or pronouns. Some actions have only a single role involved, for example, in kDr iee. (Anokii inini) ‘The man is working’ the verb kDr (anokii) ‘work’ has only the role of the one working, in this case filled by the noun iee (inini) ‘man’. But in KFolx KrkDrHsCkx iee. (Ogozisan ogii-anokiitamawaan inini.), ‘The man worked for his son’ there are two roles: the role of the one working, filled by the man, and the role of the one being worked for, filled by the son. Verbs that have only one role are intransitive. Verbs that have two or more roles are transitive. Intransitive verbs are subclassified according to whether their one role is filled by an animate noun or an inanimate noun. If the noun filling the single role is animate, the verb is an animate intransitive verb (vai), for

example, wyH iee. (Mindido inini.) ‘The man is big.’ If the noun filling the the single role is inanimate, the verb is an inanimate intransitive verb (vii), for example wa qsx. (Michaa jiimaan.) ‘The boat is big.’ Transitive verbs are subclassified on the basis of the animacy of their objects: if the object is animate, the verb is a transitive animate verb (vta), as in SLx KrCkjsx idd.

(Moozoon ogii-waabamaan inini.) ‘The man saw a moose.’ Here the object is SLx (moozoon) ‘moose’, which is animate. In qsx

KrCkjhx idd. (Jiimaan ogii-waabandaan inini.) ‘The man saw a boat.’ the object is inanimate, qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’. Verbs used with inanimate objects are called transitive inanimate verbs (vti).

TRANSITIVE ANIMATE VERB (VTA). A transitive verb having an animate object, as in SLx KrCkjsx

idd. (Moozoon ogii-waabamaan inini.) ‘The man saw a moose.’ Here the object is the animate noun SLx (moozoon) ‘moose’. Compare Transitive Inanimate Verb. See Verb, Transitivity.

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TRANSITIVE INANIMATE VERB (VTI). A transitive verb having an inanimate object, as in qsx

KrCkjhx idd. (Jiimaan ogii-waabandaan inini.) ‘The man saw a boat.’. Here the object is inanimate, qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’. Compare Transitive Animate Verb. See Verb, Transitivity.

TRANSLATION. SEE GLOSS.

VERB. One of the major parts of speech in Anishinaabemowin. Verbs refer to actions, states, experiences, and qualities. Verbs answer the questions ‘What is happening?’ or ‘What’s the state of things?’ or ‘What does it look like?’ Two very important properties of verbs are their transitivity and the gender of their subjects and objects. Based on these properties, there are four main subclasses of verbs, animate intransitive, inanimate intransitive, transitive animate, and transitive inanimate. See these topics for additional information.

VOCABULARY. 1. An individual word in a language. 2. All the words of a language taken together. See Word.

VOWELS. One of the two basic types of speech sounds (the other is

Consonants). Vowels occupy the middle (core) of a syllable. The vowels of Anishinaabemowin are a aa e i ii o and oo. The vowels aa, e, ii and oo are long vowels. The vowels a, i, and o are short vowels. Compare Consonants.

W-DOT. The symbol in Syllabics used to represent the sound w, as in CkCkx (waawan) ‘egg’. See Syllabics.

WESTERN SYLLABICS. One of the two basic Syllabic traditions. Western Syllabics uses finals which have shapes that are not like the basic syllable characters, for example, final ≈ (n) has no correspondence to basic syllable character d (na/naa). As well, in the Western tradition, the w-dot symbol follows the symbol for the syllable it is associated with, for example, kCkC≈ (waawan) ‘egg’, and iRC (ikwe) ‘woman’. Compare Eastern Syllabics.

WORD. The smallest unit of meaning in a language that is spoken by itself. For example, in answer to the question, CIFEx fCkjhsb

(Wegonen gaa-waabandaman?) ‘What do you see?’, one can answer qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’, or rqsx (gijiimaan) ‘your boat’, but not just

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r (gi) ‘your…’, because qsx and rqsx are words, but r is only part of a word. The basic, core part of a word is called the stem. Elements added to the front of the stem to give additional meaning are called prefixes. Elements added to the end of the stem to give additional meanings are called suffixes. The prefixes and suffixes together are the inflections of the word. Some words consist of a stem alone, such as qsx (jiimaan) ‘boat’; other words have inflections as well, such as rqsidx (gijiimaaninaan) ‘our boat’ have prefixes and suffixes. See Prefix, Suffix, Stem.

WORD CATEGORY. See Part of Speech.

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