Western Ojibwa language facts for kids

Western Ojibwa (also known as Nakawēmowin (ᓇᐦᑲᐌᒧᐎᓐ), Saulteaux, and Plains Ojibwa) is a special way of speaking the Ojibwe language. Think of it like different accents or versions of English, but for a whole language! It's part of the big Algonquian language family, which includes many other Indigenous languages in North America.

This language is spoken by the Saulteaux people, who are a group within the larger Ojibwe nation. You can find them mainly in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan, Canada, west of a big lake called Lake Winnipeg. The people who speak it often call it Saulteaux, while the name Nakawēmowin is the general term for it in their own language.

What is Western Ojibwa?

Western Ojibwa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language. A dialect is like a regional version of a language. The Ojibwe language is part of an even bigger group called the Algonquian language family. This family includes many other languages spoken by Indigenous peoples across Canada and the United States.

Some languages in the Algonquian family include:

• Mi'kmaq
• Cree
• Blackfoot
• Potawatomi
• Shawnee

Even languages like Yurok and Wiyot, once spoken far away in California, are related to the Algonquian family. This shows how ancient and widespread these language connections are!

Experts like Randolph Valentine (in 2000) divide the Ojibwe language into two main groups of dialects:

• Southern dialects: These include Saulteaux (Western Ojibwa) in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and other Ojibwe dialects in Ontario, Minnesota, and Michigan.
• Northern dialects: These include Oji-Cree in northern Ontario and Algonquin in Western Quebec.

A Look at History

The Ojibwe people, including the Saulteaux, were very strong and important during the early days of the fur trade in North America. Unlike some other groups, their population didn't drop as much when Europeans first arrived. Because they had many people and were among the first to get rifles, they had a lot of power.

Small groups of Ojibwe would often travel onto the Plains to hunt animals like bison. They also hunted forest animals like moose and elk. Over time, they slowly moved north and west, following the edge of the forests. Hunting bison became a big part of their yearly activities.

The smaller groups of Plains Ojibwa are known as the Saulteaux. This name comes from French and means "people of the falls." It refers to their original home near the Sault Ste. Marie area, which is now in Ontario and Michigan. In the 1700s, they defeated the Cheyenne people and settled in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan. When the fur trade slowed down, they became a strong Plains Indigenous group. They officially became part of the Plains Indigenous communities when they signed treaties with the Canadian government in the 1870s.

It's important to know that Western Ojibwa, or any other Ojibwe dialect, does not have official language status in North America today.

Where Western Ojibwa is Spoken

You'll find the areas where Ojibwa is spoken mostly south of where Cree is spoken in Canada.

We don't know the exact number of people who speak the Saulteaux dialect today. However, there are several Saulteaux communities located in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan where the language is still used.

How Western Ojibwa Sounds

The Saulteaux dialect has 24 different sounds that make up its words. These include 17 consonant sounds and 7 vowel sounds.

Consonant Sounds

The consonant sounds are divided into two main types:

• Resonants: These are sounds like 'm' and 'n', and 'w' and 'y'.
• Obstruents: These are sounds where the airflow is blocked or restricted, like 'p', 't', 'k', 's', and 'c'.

Western Ojibwa uses a sound called the glottal stop (like the pause in "uh-oh") instead of an 'h' sound in some places.

Fig. 1.1 Obstruents in Western Ojibwa

Vowel Sounds

The vowel sounds in Western Ojibwa are split into short and long sounds. Think of it like the difference between the 'i' in "sit" (short) and the 'ee' in "see" (long).

Fig. 1.2 Short vowels in Western Ojibwa

Fig. 1.3 Long vowels in Western Ojibwa Note: The little hat (circumflex) or line (macron) over a vowel means it's a long sound. So, /î/ sounds like /ii/.

One interesting thing about Western Ojibwa is that it's "non-syncopating." This means that certain weak vowel sounds are not dropped from words, which happens in some other Ojibwe dialects.

How Words are Built

Western Ojibwa is an agglutinating or polysynthetic language. This means it builds very long words by adding many small parts (called affixes) to a main word. Each small part adds a bit more meaning. Because of this, the order of words in a sentence is not as strict as it is in English.

Animate and Inanimate

Instead of "masculine" or "feminine" words like in some languages, Western Ojibwa divides things into "animate" (living) and "inanimate" (non-living) categories.

• Animate includes all people and animals. It also includes some other things like rocks, pipes, raspberries, and pants! The "gender" of a word is important because many word parts change depending on whether the word is animate or inanimate.

Animate examples:

• Inini 'man'
• Sakimê 'mosquito'
• Asikan 'sock'
• Miskomin 'raspberry'

Inanimate examples:

• Cîmân 'boat'
• Wâwan 'egg'
• Masinahikan 'book'
• Otêhimin 'strawberry'

Showing Importance (Obviation)

Western Ojibwa has a cool way to show which person is the main topic when you're talking about two or more third persons (like "he," "she," or "they").

• One third person will be the "proximate" (the main one).
• Any other third persons will be "obviative" (less important in that sentence).

The suffix –an is added to the word to show it's obviative:

• Animohš owâpamân pôsînsan 'The dog (main one) sees a cat (less important one)'
• Animohšan owâpamân pôsîns 'The cat (main one) sees a dog (less important one)'

Verbs also show if the action is "direct" (main one acts on less important one) or "inverse" (less important one acts on main one). The inverse is shown with the morpheme –ikô-:

• Animohš owâpamikôn pôsînsan 'The dog (main one) is seen by the cat (less important one)'

Other Word Building Features

• The ending –ing is used to show location, like "at" or "in."
• To make something sound small (diminutive), the ending -(n)s is often added. For example, jiimaanens means "small boat."
• The ending –an is used for inanimate plural words (more than one non-living thing).
• The word awe is commonly used to point to an animate singular thing that is close by.
• To say "we" (meaning "us, but not you"), they say niinawi(n)d.
• To say "someone," they use awi(i)ya.
• To say "something," they use Gegoo.
• To ask "who," speakers in Manitoba use Awenen.
• To ask "when," they use Aanapii.
• To ask "where," they use Aa(n)di.
• To ask "how," they use Aaniin.

How Sentences are Formed

Western Ojibwa is a non-configurational language. This means it has a very flexible word order. A single verb can be a whole sentence by itself! This is because the verb itself carries a lot of information about who is doing what, when, and how.

For example, the verb ominwênimân by itself already means "someone likes another person." You don't always need to say "Joe" or "Mary" because the verb tells you who is doing the liking and who is being liked.

So, while you might sometimes see the subject (who is doing the action) at the end of a sentence, it's often not needed because the verb already gives you that information.

Writing Western Ojibwa

Ojibwa has a long history of being written down. The language is usually written using the Standard Roman Orthography (SRO), which is similar to how English is written.

Some people show long vowel sounds by using double vowels (like 'aa' for a long 'a'). Others use special marks over the vowels, like a circumflex (^) or an acute accent (´) to show they are long sounds.

Common Phrases in Western Ojibwa

Here are some useful phrases you might hear or use:

People Who Study Western Ojibwa

Many researchers have helped us learn more about the Ojibwa dialects. Some important names include:

• Terry J. Klokeid
• Harold J. Logan
• James H. Howard
• Paul Voorhis
• J. Randolph Valentine