Stepping through a course - Lesson 14

We've got a couple new verbs this lesson, and I've also introduced another conjunction (adv) to be able to create more dependent clauses.

Dialog - 

F: Aaniindi niimi'idiwaad? Aaniinidi niimi'iding?
M: Aaniish apii wii-biindigewaad?
F: Wii-miigiwewag na?
M: Henh. Wii-miigiwewag. 


Breaking it down line by line:

F: Aaniindi niimi'idiwaad? Aaniinidi niimi'iding? 

• A new verb - "niimi", meaning dance, and with the third persona plural (they). Also notice the word "niimi'iding". It's actually a verbal form of "being at a pow-wow". So she asks "Where are they dancing? Where is the pow-wow?"

M: Aaniish apii wii-biindigewaad? 

• Another new verb - biindige, means "come in" or enter". Again, the third persona plural (they) is used. He asks "When are they coming in?" This is in reference to the Grand Entry, which is part of the pow-wow ceremony.

F: Wii-miigiwewag na? 

• And another new verb - miigiwe, means "give", "present" or "gift". The "wag" ending tells us it's third person plural again. She's asking "Will they be having a giveaway? (Will they be giving away?, literally) This is another ceremonial piece of the pow-wow.

M: Henh. Wii-miigiwewag. 

• He responds "Yes, they're going to have a giveaway."

New words for this lesson:

• dibikak - dark; tonight - In the oral drills but I've provided an example below
• niizh - two - Numbers are beginning to be slowly introduced. a complete list can be found on the right sidebar.
• niimi'idim - be a pow-wow
• biindige - enter; go in
• miigiwe - present; give; gift; grant; contribute

Other vocabulary to add into the mix:

• ishkwaa-dibikak - after dark
• Ishkwaa-dibikak, aaniish niimi'idiwaad? (After dark, will they dance?)
• jibwaa-dibikak - before dark
• maajaa - leave, depart
• Niwii-maajaa jibaa-dibikak. (I'll leave before dark.)
• anwaataa - finish
• Jibwaa-waabang, giwii-anwaataa na? (Will you finish before tomorrow?)
• giishpin - if
• Giishpin giwii-anwataa noongom, aaniish waa-izhichigeyan waabang? (If you finish today, what will you do tomorrow?)

With the introduction if "giishpin" we have another way to create a dependent, or subordinate clause.

Stepping through a course - Lesson 13

In this lesson we have some new words relating to days and parts of the day, such as tomorrow and morning. I've also included a note at the end regarding the use of "after" (introduced in this lesson) and "before", introduced in my "Other vocabulary" section.

Dialog - 

M: Aaniish apii asemaa wii-adaaweyan?
F: Ishkwaa-wiisiniyaan.
M: Ishkwaa-wiisiniyaang.
F: Aaniish apii wii-niimi'idiwaad?
M: Ishkwaa-naawakweg.


Breaking it down line by line:

M: Aaniish apii asemaa wii-adaaweyan?

• When will you buy tobacco?

F: Ishkwaa-wiisiniyaan.

• Here is the new word/preverb for "after". he answers "After I eat."

F: Aaniish apii wii-niimi'idiwaad?

• "When are they dancing?"

M: Ishkwaa-naawakweg.

• "After noon". The "eg" ending on "naawakweg" means "in" or "on", so this sentence could be translated as "in the afternoon."

New words this lesson (many of these were only introduced in the oral exercises, so they're extra vocabulary to play with):

• zhebaa - this [past] morning
• waabang - tomorrow; dawn; morning
• waabang gigizheb - tomorrow morning
• gigizheb - morning; early morning
• ishkwaa- - after; completed; end of...
• baabaanaan - grandfather (also means father)

Other vocabulary

• jibwaa- - before

*** A note about the preverbs ishkwaa- and jibwaa-

These two preverbs are important for our progress. With them, we can now begin to form more complex sentences with dependent clauses.
As such, when using "after" and "before" as a preverb, the verb must always be in conjunct form (yaan, 1st person singular and yan, 2nd person singular). As long as the person matches in both the main and dependent clause ("before/after I... [do something], I... [will/want to do something]" or "before/after you... [do something], you... [will/want to do something]"), the conjunct form can be thought of as "before/after [verb]ing"

Example sentences:
Oodenaang jibwaa-izhaayaan, niwii-jiibaakwe. (Before going/I go to town, I want to cook.)
Jibwaa-wiisiniyan, giwii-minikwen gegoo? (Before eating/you eat, do you want to drink something?)
Ishkwaa-wiisiniyaan, niwii-nibaa. (After eating/after I eat, I want to sleep.)

In these examples, the dependent, or subordinate clause comes before the main clause.

Stepping through a course - Lesson 12

Another short lesson. Only a couple new nouns and two more verbs, but important ones, and one of them was already introduced in my Summary of Lessons 1 through 10.

Dialog - 

M: Niwii-izhichige gegoo.
F: Aniish waa-izhichigeyan?
M: Niwii-adaawen gegoo.
F: Wegonen waa-adaaweyan?
M: Asemaa niwii-adaawen.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
M: Maamaanaan, giwii-wiisin na?
F: Gaawiin noongom; baanimaa.
M: Maamaanaan, aaniish apii wii-minikweyan aniibiishaaboo?


A line-by-line breakdown:

M: Niwii-izhichige gegoo.

• Here's one of the two new verbs, "izhichige" (do [something]). It needs an object [something] and can't be used on its own. He's saying "I'm going to do something," **

F: Aniish waa-izhichigeyan?

• Here "Aniish" means "What", so she is asking "What are you going to do?" **

M: Niwii-adaawen gegoo.

• I introduced this verb "adaawe" (buy) in my summary of Lessons 1-10. He's responding "I'm going to buy something." **

F: Wegonen waa-adaaweyan?

• She asks "What are you going to buy?" **

M: Asemaa niwii-adaawen.

• Here's a new noun, "asemaa", meaning tobacco. He's answering "I'm going to buy tobacco." **

** In all these cases, -wii- and waa- can be used as "going to"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

M: Maamaanaan, giwii-wiisin na?

• Here's our second new noun, "maamaanaan".  In the audio, we're told it means "grandmother", but it is also a way to say "Mother Earth", and is also used to speak affectionately to an elder woman. So he is asking "Would you like to eat?", with the affectionate title of "maamaanan".

F: Gaawiin noongom; baanimaa.

• As we've already learned, "noongom means either "today" or "now". She responds "Not now; later."

M: Maamaanaan, aaniish apii wii-minikweyan aniibiishaaboo?

• "When would you like to drink tea?", again affectionately referring to her as "maamaanan".

New words this lesson:

• asemaa - tobacco
• maamaanaan - grandmother
• izhichige (vai) - do [SOMETHING]; act so
• adaawe (vai) - buy; sell; traffic; trade; deal

Let's add some more vocabulary that fits in with buying things:

• bakwezhigan (bread) Bakwezhigan niwii-adaawen. (I'll buy some bread.)
• doodooshaaboo-bimide (butter)
• waawan/waawanoon (egg/eggs)
• gitigaanens/gitigaanensan (vegetable/vegetables)

• Adaawewigamigong ni-wii-izhaa. (I'm going to the store.) (Already introduced in Summary of Lessons 1-10).

• Aaniin ezhichigeyan? (What are you doing?) Here, "aaniin" functions as "what".

Ojibwe verbs are... complicated, and I don't want to introduce types of verbs that we've not yet learned in the lessons, so for now I'm sticking with VAI verbs.

Stepping through a course - Lesson 11

This is a very short lesson. I think beginning with this lesson, in addition to just giving the translation of each sentence and introducing any new vocabulary, I'll also include a couple more example sentences of my own. It's time to start getting used to creating my own output.

Dialog - 

M: Giwii-naawakwe-wiisin na?
F: Henyanh. Niwii-naawakwe-wiisin.
M: Wegonen waa-minikweyan aniibiishaaboo maagizhaa nibi?
F: Nibi niwii-minikwen.

And the line-by-line breakdown:

M: Giwii-naawakwe-wiisin na?

• We have a new word - naawakwe, which is a verb meaning "be noon"/"be midday. When combined with "wiisin" we create a new verb meaning "eat lunch". So the sentence reads "Do you want to eat lunch?"

F: Henyanh. Niwii-naawakwe-wiisin.

• "Yes. I want to eat lunch"

M: Wegonen waa-minikweyan, aniibiishaaboo maagizhaa nibi?

• Another new word here: "maagizhaa", means "maybe" or perhaps". When stuck between two nouns or objects, it means "or". So he asks: "What would you like to drink, tea or water? Remember that because we're using the question word  for "what" (wegonen), we need to use the conjunct conjugation of minikwe.

F: Nibi niwii-minikwen.

• I want to drink water.

New words this lesson:

• maagizhaa - maybe; perhaps; or
• naawakwe-wiisini - eat lunch; eat at midday; eat at noon
• naawakwe (vii) -be noon; be midday

A couple new phrases mixed in with what we've already learned:

• Maagizhaa niwii-babaamose. (Maybe I'll go for a walk.)
• Wegonen waa-minikweyan, makade-mashkikiwaaboo maagizhaa doodooshaaboo? (What would you like to drink, coffee or milk?)  
• Giwii-naawakwe-wiisin noongom? (Will you eat lunch today?)

Progressing further through the course, we'll keep producing our own sentences at the end of each lesson. 

Pimsleur Ojibwe Summary, lessons 1-10

Pimsleur sort of gets a bad rap in some language-learning circles, due to the limited amount of vocabulary it teaches. With this review of the first ten lessons, I want to demonstrate that it doesn't have to be that way. We can extend what we're learning with a little bit of thought and legwork. I've only used an online dictionary to supplement what we've already learned. No new grammar is introduced. I've recommended the Ojibwe People's Dictionary before, and it's what I used.

I'm at an advantage because I found some good grammar explanations and not-so-exact dialog transcripts for the course online, but I should also note that this Ojibwe course is better than some of the other Pimsleur courses I've seen. It's not a copy of the same dialog in every other language course that Pimsleur sells, so it's more tailored to the language's special characteristics.

The following is a short list of all grammatical parts we've learned so far in lessons one through ten. The brown text is what we've actually learned, noted with the lesson number. The text in green is new vocabulary I've added, with example sentences using only the grammatical rules we've learned up to this point. Some of the vocabulary will be introduced in later Pimsleur lessons, but I chose to add them into the mix now, because they require no further grammar knowledge and can easily extend what we've already learned.

At the end of this review I've also included a list of basic phrases learned, broken down by lesson number.

I plan on doing a review like this of lessons 11 through 20 and 21 through 30, too, once we've completed them.

So here's the breakdown of what we've learned so far:

preverbs
ga- future tense marker (will), Lesson 1
izhi- thus; so; such, Lesson 2
mino- good; nice; well, Lesson 2
maazhi- bad; unwell; ill-formed, Lesson 3
wii - future tense (want to, would like to), Lesson 6
gichi-/chi- large; big; much; very, Lesson 10

bi- toward, here, this way
Come here (Bi-izhaan omaa.)

adverbs
eta go - just, only, Lesson 1
gaawiin - no, Lesson 1
henh/henhyanh - yes, Lesson 1
miinawaa - again, also, too, Lesson 1
gaye - also; too; and; as well, Lesson 7
niibowa - much; a lot, Lesson 7
apii - then; while; at that time, Lesson 8
baanimaa - later; afterwards, Lesson 8
baanimaa apii - after a while; later on, Lesson 8
noongom - now; present; today, Lesson 8

still, yet (geyaabi)
I'm still hungry. (Geyaabi imbakade,)

soon (wayiiba)
I'm going to cook soon (Wayiiba niwii-jiibaakwe.)

always (moozhag)
I always drink water. (Moozhag nibi niminikwe,)

interrogative
aaniish (questions word) - what?; how?; why?, Lesson 2
aaniindi (question word) where?, Lesson 5
Where are you going?
aaniish apii - when?, Lesson 8
wegonen - what?, Lesson 9

who (Awenen)
Whos is this?, Who is that? (Awenen wa'aw?, Awenen a'aw?)

noun
Anishinaabe - Human; Indian; People; Person, Lesson 1
Ojibwe - Ojibwa , Lesson 1
inini - man; person, Lesson 3
ikwe - woman, Lesson 3
Zhaaganaashi - English; Irish; Scottish; British; Anglo-Canadian. Colloquially: non-Native; White, Lesson 4
zaaga'igan - lake, Lesson 5
giniw - eagle, Lesson 8
waabigwan - flower, Lesson 8
waakaa'igan - building; house; cabin; fort, Lesson 10
nibi - water, Lesson 10
aniibiishaaboo - tea, Lesson 10

coffee (makade-mashkikiwaaboo)
milk (doodooshaaboo)
beer (bilewaagoo)
food (miijim)


I want to buy coffee, milk, beer (Object + ni-wii-adaawen.)
Makade-mashkikiwaaboo ni-wii-adaawen.
Doodooshaaboo ni-wii-adaawen.
Bilewaagoo ni-wii-adaawen. 

Will you buy milk? (Gi-wii-adaawen doodooshaaboo?)

river (ziibi) (Gichi-ziibing is Mississippi River)
city/town (gichi-oodena/oodena)
store/shop (adaawewigamig)


I want to go to the store, city, river (Place +(ang/ing/ong) + ni-wii-izhaa)
Adaawewigamigong ni-wii-izhaa.
Oodenaang ni-wii-izhaa.
Ziibing ni-wii-izhaa.

pronoun and demonstrative
ni/in/ind/indo and gi/gid/gido 1st and 2nd person singluar, Lesson 1
niin - I, me, my, Lesson 2
giin - you, your, yours, Lesson 2
aawi - he, she, it, Lesson 3
a'aw (demonstrative) - that (one), Lesson 4
-wag (conjunct) - third person plural: they; their; them; theirs verbal conjugation, Lesson 5
iwidi (demonstrative) - over there; yonder; that way, Lesson 5
omaa (demonstrative)- over here; hither; this way, Lesson 5
gegoo - something, Lesson 7

this (one) (wa'aw/wa'awe)
Whos is this? (Awenen wa'awe?)

verb
aawi (vai) - is; am; be; are, Lesson 1
ojibwemo (vai) - speak the Ojibwa language, Lesson 1
waabam (vta) -find SB; see SB, Lesson 1
giizhigad (vii) - be day; be light, Lesson 2
ayaa (vai) - am; be, Lesson 2
nisidotam (vai2) - understand, Lesson 3
bakade (vai) - hunger; be hungry; be starving, Lesson 4
onjibaa (vai) - come from SOMEWHERE; originate from SOMEWHERE, Lesson 5
niimi'idi+wag (vai) - dance (with each other), Lesson 5 (always plural)
gikendan (vti) - know SOMETHING, Lesson 6
minikwe (vai) - drink, Lesson 7
daa (vai) - reside; live at; home; stay, Lesson 9
miijin (vti3) - eat ST, Lesson 9

go (izhaa)
I'm going to the city. (Gichi-oodenaang nindizhaa.)

come (izhaa)
Come to the restaurant (Bi-izhaan wiisiniwigamigong,) ** Notice the "bi-" preverb

buy (adaawe)
I'll buy food. (Ni-wii-miijimadaawe) ** Notice that "food" and "buy" are combined to form a new verb "buy food"

cook (jiibaakwe)
She is still cooking. (Geyaabi jiibaakwe.)

thirst/be thirsty (giishkaabaagwe)
I'm thirsty. (Ningiishkaabaagwe.)
Are you thirsty? (Giishkaabaagwe na?)

sit (namadabi)
He's sitting over there. (Namadabi iwidi.)

stand (niibawi)
I want to stand (Ni-wii-niibawi,)

go for a walk/stroll (babaamose)
I will go for a walk. (Ni-wii-babaamose.)

sleep (nibaa)
I want to sleep. (Ni-wii-nibaa.)

interjection/salutation
Aaniin - Hello, Lesson 1
boozhoo (interjection particle) - hello, Lesson 2
miigwech - thank you (discourse particle), Lesson 2
ahaaw - OK; alright [male usage], Lesson 7
daga - please; by all means, Lesson 9

other particles
na - question marker, Lesson 1
dash (contrastive particle) - used after words ending in a vowel or n, Lesson 2
igo - express assertiveness, express affirmation after words ending in a consonant, Lesson 6


Basic phrases learned in Lessons 1 through 10:

Lesson 1
Aaniin.
Anishinaabe na gidaaw?
Henh/Henhyanh
Anishinaabe indaaw.
Gidoojibwem na?
Gaawiin.
Bangii eta go.
Indoojibwem.
Giga-waabamin, miinawaa.

Lesson 2
Giin dash?
Boozhoo.
Aaniish ezhi-ayaayan?
Miigwech.
Nimino-ayaa.
Mino-giizhigad

Lesson 3
Nimaanzhi-ayaa.
Ninisidotanziin.

Lesson 4
Imbakade.
Ninisidotam.
Ginisidotam/Ginisidotam na?
Ninisidotanziin.
Zhaaganaashi aawi.
Anishinaabe-inini na a'aw?
Anishinaabe-inini aawisii.
Zhaaganaashi-inini a'aw.
Zhaaganaashiikwe na a'aw?
Zhaaganaashiikwe aawisii.
Anishinaabe aawi.
Zhaaganaashi na gidaaw?

Lesson 5
Aaniindi.
Wenjibaayan?
Mii omaa.
Zaaga'igan?
Iwidi/Iwidi na?
Omaa na?
Niimi'idiwag iwidi./Niimi'idiwag (mii) omaa.

Lesson 6
Ingikendaan.
Gigikendaan./Gigikendaan na?
Ingikendanziin.
Giwii-wiisin na giin?
Niwii-wiisin igo.

Lesson 7
Aaniish ezhi-ayaayan giin?
Nimino-ayaa/Nimino-ayaa niin.
Gaye niin.
Gegoo na giwii-minikwen?
Gegoo niwii-minikwen.
Niwii-minikwe eta go.
Miigwech niibowa.
Ahaaw.

Lesson 8
Aaniish apii wii-wiisiniyan?
Baanimaa.
Baanimaa apii.
Noongom.

Lesson 9
Giwii-wiisin na endaayaan?
Daga wiisinidaa iwidi/onaa endaayan.
Wegonen waa-miijiyan?
Aaniindi wii-wiisiniyan?

Lesson 10
Niwii-wiisin iwidi Chi-waakaa'igan.
Wegonen waa-minikweyan?
Nibi niwii-minikwen.
Nibi na giwii-minikwen?
Aniibiishaaboo na giwii-minikwen?