Ottawa phonology facts for kids
The Ottawa language, also known as Odawa, is a special way of speaking the Ojibwe language. It's used by people in parts of southern Ontario, Canada, and northern Michigan, USA.
Ottawa has its own unique sounds and rules that make it different from other Ojibwe dialects. One big difference is called vowel syncope. This means that some short vowel sounds are often dropped completely when people speak. This makes Ottawa sound quite different from other Ojibwe dialects.
For example, a word like "makizin" (shoe) in other Ojibwe dialects might become "mkizin" in Ottawa because the 'a' sound is dropped! This dropping of sounds can also create new groups of consonant sounds that aren't found in other Ojibwe dialects.
Contents
Sounds in Ottawa
Just like English has its own alphabet, the Ottawa language has its own set of sounds. These sounds are made up of consonants and vowels.
Consonant Sounds
Ottawa has 17 main consonant sounds. These are like the letters in English that aren't vowels (like 'b', 'c', 'd', 'f', etc.).
| Bilabial (lips) |
Dental / Alveolar (tongue near teeth/gums) |
(Alveolo-) palatal (tongue near roof of mouth) |
Velar (back of tongue near soft palate) |
Glottal (throat) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Stop | Weak | b | d | j [dʒ] | g [ɡ] | h [ʔ] |
| Strong | p [pːʰ] | t [tːʰ] | ch [tʃː] | k [kːʰ] | ||
| Fricative | Weak | z | zh [ʒ] | |||
| Strong | s [sː] | sh [ʃː] | ||||
| Approximant | y [j] | w | ||||
Some consonants are called 'Strong' (or Fortis) and others are 'Weak' (or Lenis). Strong consonants like p, t, k are usually spoken with more force and are longer. Weak consonants like b, d, g are softer and shorter.
Sometimes, you might hear sounds like f, r, l in Ottawa words. These usually come from words borrowed from English.
Vowel Sounds
Ottawa has seven main vowel sounds, like the 'a, e, i, o, u' in English, but with more variety. Some vowels are long, and some are short. The length of a vowel is important in Ottawa because it affects how words are pronounced and if a vowel will be dropped.
| Front (tongue forward) |
Back (tongue back) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Close (tongue high) |
⟨ii⟩ [iː] | |
| ⟨i⟩ [ɪ] | ||
| Mid (tongue in middle) |
⟨e⟩ [eː] | ⟨oo⟩ [oː]~[uː] |
| ⟨o⟩ [ʊ]~[ə] | ||
| Open (tongue low) |
⟨aa⟩ [ɑː] | |
| ⟨a⟩ [ə]~[ɑ] |
There are also some special nasal vowels, which are sounds made with air coming out of your nose, like the 'n' sound in English. These often appear at the end of words that describe something small or cute.
How Ottawa Sounds Change
The Ottawa language has some interesting rules about how its sounds change, especially because of vowel syncope.
Vowel Syncope: Dropping Vowels
Vowel syncope is a big part of what makes Ottawa unique. It means that short vowel sounds are often dropped or made very quiet. This happens when the vowel is in a "weak" part of a word.
This isn't a new thing in Ottawa. Linguists (people who study languages) noticed it in recordings from the 1930s. However, it's not the same for all speakers. Older speakers might drop vowels more casually, while younger speakers might drop them more consistently.
Let's look at some examples of how words change because of syncope:
| English | Other Ojibwe Dialects | Ottawa Dialect |
|---|---|---|
| the native language | Anishinaabemowin | Nishnaabemwin |
| Ottawa | Odaawaa | Daawaa |
| mosquito | zagime | zgime |
| shoe | makizin | mkizin |
| pipe (for smoking) | opwaagan | pwaagan |
| man | inini | nini |
As you can see, the short vowels in the middle of words like "Anishinaabemowin" or "makizin" are often dropped in Ottawa, making the words shorter and sometimes harder to recognize if you only know other Ojibwe dialects.
How Syllables Affect Syncope
In Ottawa, words are organized into "feet" and "syllables." A syllable is a part of a word that has one vowel sound (like 'a-sin' has two syllables). Syllables can be "Weak" or "Strong." Only short vowels in Weak syllables can be dropped. Long vowels are always Strong and are never dropped.
Here's how it generally works:
- Long vowels always make a syllable Strong.
- When you count from the beginning of a word, if there are two or more syllables with short vowels, the first one is Weak, the second is Strong, the third is Weak, and so on.
- The very last syllable of a word is always Strong.
This means that adding prefixes (like "my-") or suffixes (like "-s" for plural) to a word can change which syllables are Weak or Strong. So, a vowel that might be dropped in one form of a word might not be dropped in another form!
For example, the word for "shoe" in other dialects is makizin. In Ottawa, it becomes mkizin (the first 'a' is dropped). But if you add "my" to it, it becomes nimakizin in other dialects. In Ottawa, it becomes nmakzin. Notice how the first 'a' is dropped, but the second 'a' is kept in this case because the "ni-" prefix changed the syllable's "strength."
| English | Other Ojibwe Dialects | Ottawa Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| shoe | makizin | mkizin |
| my shoe | nimakizin | nmakzin |
| shoes | makizinan | mkiznan |
| my shoes | nimakizinan | nmakzinan |
New Consonant Groups
When vowels are dropped because of syncope, new groups of consonants can form. Sometimes, these new groups cause other changes in how the consonants are pronounced.
For example, if a weak consonant like 'b' or 'd' comes before a nasal consonant like 'm' or 'n', it might change into an 'm' or 'n' sound itself. So, niibina ('much') might become niibna and then niimna.
Also, if a weak consonant comes before a strong consonant that's similar, the weak consonant might disappear completely! For example, wiishkobizisii ('it's not sweet') might become wiishkpisii.
See also
