Native Languages by Ontario Ministry of Education

What are the parts of speech in Ojibwe?
The parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, and particles including quantifiers, adverbs, and conjunctions.

What are nouns?
Nouns name things, beings, and abstractions:

waakaa'igan - house.
animosh - dog.
zaagi'iwewin - love.

How are nouns inflected?
Nouns are inflected by taking on prefixes and/or suffixes which give grammatical information about them.

What are some things affixes attached to nouns can indicate?
Some things that affixes attached to nouns can indicate include:

  • Animate or inanimate (gender).
  • Number.
  • The relationship to other parts of a phrase or sentence (e.g. obviative or locative form).

What are nominal pronouns?
Nominal pronouns refer to nouns or stand in place of nouns:

awenen - who.

What are personal pronouns?
Personal pronouns stand in place for people or nouns and indicate the various roles taken in speech:

niin - I, the one speaking.

What are demonstrative pronouns?
Demonstrative pronouns can be used with nouns or stand in place of nouns to point out or specify people or things:

iwe - that (thing).

Do demonstrative pronouns change to agree with the nouns they refer to?
Yes, demonstrative pronouns change to agree with the nouns they refer to.

What are verbs?
Verbs refer to states of being, like condition or quantity, or actions:

michaa - it is big.
nindaabajitoon - I use it.

How are verbs inflected?
Verbs are inflected by taking on prefixes and / or suffixes which give grammatical information about them.

What are some things affixes attached to verbs can indicate?
Some things that affixes attached to verbs can indicate include:

  • Number.
  • Tense.
  • The relationship to other parts of a phrase or sentence.

What are particles?
Particles are uninflected words.

What are quantifiers?
Quantifiers describe number or quantity:

aaninda - some, a few.
niizhin - two.

What are adverbs?
Adverbs specify things like time, place, manner, or degree:

gizheb - in the morning.
agwajiing - outside.
aapiji - very, really.

What are conjunctions?
Conjunctions are connective words used to join together sentences, clauses, phrases, or words:

giishpin - if.

What is the question particle and how is it used in a sentence?
The question particle is "na," which is used for yes / no questions, and appears after the first word in a sentence.

What is the word stem?
The word stem is the core part of a word that carries the basic meaning of it.

What may be added to the word stem?
To the word stem may be added affixes, known as inflections:

anokii - he / she works.
nindanokii - I work.
anokiikan - do some work later.
ji-anokiiwaad - ... so they will work.

What is the overall pattern of an inflected noun or verb?
The overall pattern of an inflected noun or verb is: Inflectional prefixes + word stem + inflectional suffixes (word ending).

gi + jiimaan + iwaa + n - you + boat + more than one of you + more than one thing = your boats

Can the word stem be used as an independent word?
Sometimes the word stem can be used as an independent word.

What is an example of a word stem that can be used as an independent word?
An example of a word stem that can be used as an independent word is:

jiimaan from the inflected noun gijiimaaniwaan - boat

What is an example of a word stem that cannot be used as an independent word?
An example of a word stem that cannot be used as an independent word is:

waaband from the inflected noun niwaabandaan - I see it.

What is derivation?
Derivation is putting together parts to make word stems:

baashkiz-, as in the word obaashkizaan - he / she shoots it.