Ojibwe

I am learning, Ojibwe/Odawa (Nishnaabewin). Odawa is the ancestral language of my wife and daughter. Ojibwe is a different dialect that is much more prevalent and easier to learn through. I will learn through Ojibwe, and then work on the dialectal differences once I have achieved some level of fluency. The differences seem to be relatively well known, but resources for beginners to learn the through odawa dialect are extremely lacking, so I am using resources I can find, and there doesn’t seem to be many big differences other than syncopation and pronounciation.

Phrases

Food

Gbkade na? Are you hungry?

Nbkade I’m hungry

Wenesh waa-maajyin? What do you want to eat? (Assumes inanimate)

Regalia

zenbaanh-babgwayaan(an) Ribbon shirt

zenbaanh-godaas(an) Ribon skirt

mooshwen(ag) Shawl

Nouns

Verbs

Verbs

All verbs can be marked for four modes: indicative (normal/regular), dubitative (the speaker is unsure about the validity of what they are saying, for exmaple: bakade, “he is hungry”, bakadedog, “he must be hungry/he could be hungry”), preterit: emphasizes that the action occured in the past, or to refer to attempted or intended but uncompleted actions, for example: imaa ninamadab, “I’m sitting there”, imaa ninamadabiban, “I was sitting there; I meant to sit there”, preterit-dubitative expresses doubt about a past action: imaa namadabigoban, “she must have sat; she could have sat there”.

Subjects

VAI

Long-Vowel-Final

Independent Positive

Independent Negative

Conjunct

Imperative

VII

VTA

VTI

Sources

food

food-2

Quizlets