Language, the heart

of the people

Review by Thelma Nayquonabe

Odaawaazaaga’iganing, Wisconsin

A flute solo accompanies the statement, “Without the language, the heart of the people, a nation vanishes.” The reader views images of Ojibwe people, including colorfully garbed contemporary dancers and historical black and white images of the Ojibwe of the early 1900s. An animated boy, Waagoshenhs (Little Fox), appears and says “aani” and proceeds to describe what the reader can view in the CD-ROM Anishinaabemowin.

For the next several days, I pointed and clicked my way through the various lessons from this remarkable CD-ROM. I am not a fluent speaker, but can understand and can speak some of the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe dialect. I was able to easily use this disk to hear the sounds of the Michigan Ojibwe dialect.

There are four levels: beginning, intermediate, advanced and conversational, and games are also included. The instructions include using a Medicine Wheel to choose language items. The beginning level explains that there are two genders for nouns, animate and inanimate. The animate gender includes nouns which contain a spirit. In the beginning category, animate foods, I clicked on a picture and heard the word mishiimin.

There are some variations and differences in words or dialect that are noticeable. For instance, the word for bean is miskwadiismin. The Lac Courte Oreilles word is mashkodesimin. The word for cookie is pakwezhigaans; in the Lac Courte Oreilles dialect is bakwezhigaans. The only difference is the beginning sound. Some words appear to be shorter or vowels sounds are shortened or omitted in certain words. For example, the word for chicken is bakaakwenh. In the Lac Courte Oreilles dialect, the word for chicken is baaka’aakwenh. The word for potato, pin, is opin at Lac Courte Oreilles.

The intermediate level includes discussion of time. The following is a question asked:

“Wegnesh ensaadabaganeg” (how many hours?). The word for noon is naakwek. “It is two o’clock” is translated to “niizhi dabaganet.” In the Lac Courte Oreilles dialect this would translate to “niizho diba’iganek.”

The advanced level included colors, which are also used to describe animate and inanimate beings or objects. “What color is this crow” is translated to “Wegnesh maaba aandeg enaazat?” Sentences including prepositions were: “Aanii piish mokamaan teg?” (where is the knife?). The answer: “Gidgi dopwining te we mokamaan” (on the table is the knife).

Kenny Pheasant states, “Our language is very precise and direct, there is no such thing as a figure of speech in anishinaabemowin.” Mr. Pheasant is a language instructor and producer of the CD-ROM Anishinaabemowin.

The CD-ROM is relatively easy to use. The sounds are clear and precise, which would make it easy for a learner to hear the dialect of the speaker. There is a level for all ages. I enjoyed going through the various lessons and hearing the speakers of this wonderful Ojibwe Language. Ho wa, Mr. Pheasant!