The Ojibwe language is an Algonquian North American indigenous language spoken throughout the Great Lakes region and westward onto the northern plains. It is one of the largest indigenous language north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers, and exhibits a large number of divergent dialects. For the most part, this article describes the Minnesota variety of the Southwestern dialect. The orthography used is the Fiero Double-Vowel System.
Like many North American languages, Ojibwe is polysynthetic, meaning it exhibits a great deal of synthesis and a very high morpheme-to-word ratio (e.g., the single word for "they are Chinese" is aniibiishaabookewininiiwiwag, which contains six morphemes: leaf-liquid-make-man-be-PLURAL, or approximately "they are leaf-drink [i.e., tea] makers"). It is agglutinating, and thus builds up words by stringing morpheme after morpheme together, rather than having several affixes which carry numerous different pieces of information.
Like most Algonquian languages, Ojibwe distinguishes two different kinds of third person, a proximate and an obviative. The proximate is a traditional third person, while the obviative (also frequently called "fourth person") marks a less important third person if more than one third person is taking part in an action. In other words, Ojibwe uses the obviative to avoid the confusion that could be created by English sentences such as "John and Bill were good friends, ever since the day he first saw him" (who saw whom?). In Ojibwe, one of the two participants would be marked as proximate (whichever one was deemed more important), and the other marked as obviative.
Gender The gender distinction in Ojibwe is not a masculine/feminine contrast, but is rather between animate and inanimate. Animate nouns are generally living things, and inanimate ones generally nonliving things, although that is not a simple rule because of the cultural understanding as to whether a noun possesses a "spirit" or not (generally, if it can move, it possesses a "spirit"). Objects with great spiritual importance for the Ojibwe, such as rocks, are very often animate rather than inanimate, for example. Some words are distinguished purely by their noun class; for example, mitig, if it is animate (plural mitigoog), means "tree;" if it is inanimate (plural mitigoon), it means "stick."
Number Number in Ojibwe is a simple singular/plural contrast. Nouns and pronouns can be either singular or plural, and verbs inflect for the number of their subject and object, although some nouns and verbs lack singular forms. Plural forms differ from word to word depending on the word's gender, root, and historical stress. By examining the plural form of the word, one can generally determine the word's gender and root. Animate plurals end in -g, while inanimate plural nouns (and obviative nouns) end in -n. The underlying form of a root determines the "linking vowel" — the vowel that appears before the plural suffix (-g or -n) but after the root itself.
Person There are seven Ojibwe inflectional categories expressing person/gender combinations for each of the two numbers (singular and plural). However, the singular and plural categories do not always exactly correspond. The total number of 14 "persons" arises from taking into consideration all the contrasts of animate/inanimate, proximate/obviative, and singular/plural.
Animate gender (singular) X — unspecified actor 1 — first person singular 2 — second person singular 3 — third person, animate 3’ — animate obviative, or fourth person, animate 3’’ — third person animate, possessed by obviative
Animate gender (plural) 1p — first person plural, exclusive 21 — first person plural, inclusive 2p — second person plural 3p — third person plural, animate 3’p — third person plural, animate obviative,Valentine, Theft of Fire, as 3pObv or animate fourth person proximate plural
Inanimate gender 0 — third person singular, inanimateKegg, 1990, pp. 143–144Nichols, 1998, pp. 291–292Ontario Ministry of Education, Native Languages: A Support Document for the Teaching of Language Patters—Ojibwe and Cree, p. 97 0’ — third person singular, inanimate obviative 0p — third person plural, inanimate 0’p — third person plural, inanimate obviative
Characteristics of the resulting 14 persons are built into Ojibwe nouns and pronouns, thus dictating which verb forms would be used in speech. In nouns and verbs, all 14 forms of persons may or may not present themselves, as words are divided as either animate or inanimate genders and very few words exist as both, but all 14 forms of persons generally do appear with pronouns.
Pronouns Ojibwe pronouns, along with distinguishing singular and plural number and first, second, third, and fourth (obviative) persons, also carry a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Pronouns may present themselves either as independent words or as series of prefixes and suffixes.
An inclusive first person plural indicates that the pronoun includes the addressee, i.e., "we including you" (giinawind). An exclusive first person plural indicates that the addressee is not included, i.e., "we excluding you" (niinawind).
The other personal pronouns are the first singular niin, second singular giin, third singular wiin, second plural giinawaa, and third plural wiinawaa.
Like the independent words, Ojibwe pronominal prefixes indicate first person with n-, second person with g- and third person with w-. However, the associated suffixes for these persons will be different depending on if the word is a verb or a noun.Kegg, 1990, p. 136
Word begins with... 1 or"n-" 2 or"g-" 3 or"w-" o ((n)i)ndo- gido- odo- a aa e i ((n)i)nd- gid- od- aa (by some Red Lake speakers) niy- giy- ow-\oy- oo n- g- od- ii n- g- w- b (n)im- gi- (o)- d g ' j z zh (n)in- gi- (o)- p t k h ch m n s sh w y ni- gi- (o)- In many Ojibwe-speaking communities, the first person prefix is used without the initial n. Due to vowel syncope in some communities, those prefixes are further reduced without the initial i. However, among Saulteaux communities, the first person prefix nim- and nin- are instead reduced to ni-, nind- to nid- and nindo- to nido-.
Ojibwe also has a set of demonstrative pronouns, distinguishing animate/inanimate, here/there/yonder/over here, singular/plural, and proximate/obviative. The demonstratives differ in their phonetic forms very significantly across Ojibwe dialects and communities, so this table, based on the Minnesota dialect of Southwestern Ojibwe, will not be entirely correct for many speakers:
AnimateInanimateSingularPluralObviativeSingularPlural Demonstrative Proximal (Nearest) Here(wa')awo(n)gowonow(o')owonow Mesioproximal Over here(wa')awedio(n)gowedi(g)onowedi(n)o'owedionowedi(n) Mesiodistal There(a')awi(n)giwiniw(i')iwiniw Distal (Farthest) Over there/Yonder(a')awedii(n)giwedi(g)iniwedi(n)(i')iwediiniwedi(n) Dubitativeawegwenawegwenagawegwenanwegodogwenwegodogwenan Interrogativeawenenawenenagawenenanawegonenawegonenan
Ojibwe also has a set of "indefinite" pronouns (awiiya, "someone", gegoo, "something," both of which can be preceded by gaawiin or akina to mean "no one, nothing" and "everyone, everything," respectively).
In contrast to the Southwestern Ojibwe's demonstrative pronouns, Central Ojibwe, Northwestern Ojibwe and Western Ojibwe—which includes a larger set of obviatives—have a larger set of demonstratives:
AnimateInanimateSingularPluralSingular ObviativePlural ObviativeSingularPluralSingular ObviativePlural Obviative Demonstrative Nearest ..... Farthest Herewa'a(we)ogo(we)/ogoweniwagono(we)/onoweniwanono(we)/onoweniwa' o'o(we)/oweono(we)/onoweniwano'oweniono(we)/onoweniwan Over herewa'a(we)diogo(we)di(g)/ogowediniwagono(we)di(n)/onowediniwanono(we)di(')/onowediniwa' o'o(we)di/owediono(we)di(n)/onowediniwano'owediniono(we)din/onowediniwan Therea'a(we)/aweigi(we)/igiweniwagini(we)/iniweniwanini(we)/iniweniwa' i'i(we)/iweini(we)/iniweniwani'iweniini(we)/iniweniwan Over there/Yondera'a(we)di/awediigi(we)di(g)/igiwediniwagini(we)di(n)/iniwediniwanini(we)di(')/iniwediniwa' i'i(we)di/iwediini(we)di(n)/iniwediniwani'iwediniini(we)din/iniwediniwan
Verbs Ojibwe verbs mark information not only on the subject (their animacy, person, and plurality) but also on the object. There are several different classes of verbs in the language, which differ based on whether they are transitive or intransitive and whether they take animate or inanimate subjects. These are the main classes: Function Subject Type Object Theme Abbreviated verb inanimate intransitive none VIIKegg, 1990, pp. 141–143Nichols & Nyholm, 1995, pp. xii–xiiiRhodes, 1985, pp.xiv–xv verb inanimate intransitive none inherently plural VIIp verb animate intransitive none VAI verb animate intransitive none pseudo-VAI VAI2 verb animate intransitive none optional object VAIo verb animate intransitive none inherently plural VAIp verb animate transitive inanimate -am stem VTI verb animate transitive inanimate -oo stem VTI2 verb animate transitive inanimate -i stem VTI3 verb animate transitive inanimate -aam stem VTI4 verb animate transitive animate VTA verb animate transitive animate inverse only VTAi
Verbs mark tenses with prefixes (a'-, aorist past, gii'-, simple past, ga(d)- and da-, future, and wii'-, desiderative future), but also can take a myriad of affixes known as "preverbs", which convey a great amount of additional information about an action. For example, the preverb izhi- means "in such a way," and so its addition to the verb root -ayaa-, "to be," makes the verb izhi-ayaa, "to be a certain way." The preverb bimi-, "along," combines with the verb root -batoo-, "to run," to form bimibatoo, "to run along, run by." The preferred order of these prefixes are personal prefix, tense prefix, directional prefix, relative prefix, any number of preverbs, and finally the verb.Kegg, 1990, p. 135 In addition, the initial syllable may be modified by an initial vowel change or by an initial syllable reduplication.Kegg, 1990, p. 137Nichols and Nyholm, 1995, p. xv
Furthermore, there are three so-called "orders" of Ojibwe verbs. The basic one is called Independent Order, and is simply the indicative mood. There is also a Conjunct Order, which is most often used with verbs in subordinate clauses, in questions (other than simple yes–no questions), and with participles (participles in Ojibwe are verbal nouns, whose meaning is roughly equivalent to "someone who is (VERB), does (VERB)," for example, the word for "traveler," bebaamaadizid, is the third singular conjunct of babaamaadizi, "to travel about," and literally means "someone who travels about"). The final order is the Imperative Order, used with commands and corresponding to the imperative mood.
Negatives are generally introduced by the leading word gaawiin, which is usually translated as "no," before introducing the actual words in their negative form. Negatives are generally formed by adding sii (or zii) for independent order and si (or zi) for conjunct order, both adding the negative element immediately after the root but before other suffixes. The sii/si are found after vowels while the zii/zi are found after n. In some words, the final consonant is dropped and the sii/si are added to the remaining vowel, in other words the final m is converted to n before adding zii/zi, yet in other words a linking vowel i (or aa) is added after the final consonant and then the sii/si added. Imperatives do not follow the sii (zii)/si (zi) pattern.