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Home , Menominee, Ojibwe, Potawatomi

Ojibwe, , and Words July 20, 2017 College of Menominee Nation Keshena, WI 7/20/17

Session 2 1. Summary so far

2. The comparative method , Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 1 7/20/17 Summary

• In session 1, we looked at words in Menominee, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi

• We focused on their similarities

• Not just similar sounding, but deep parallels – Stem = [INITIAL] – [MEDIAL] – [FINAL] Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 2 7/20/17 The Comparative Method

Step 1: Put together lists of words that might be related

• There is some guesswork here…

• Helps to start with “basic vocabulary”

Step 2: Establish sound correspondences

• Focus on one sound at a time

• Is the sound at the beginning of a word? Middle? End?

Step 3: Figure out what the original sound was Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 3 7/20/17 In Related Words…

• Step 1: Find Related Words

• ‘It is red-hot’

maehkuapaehketa͞e(w) miskwaabikide mskwabkedé

• For this word, what are the most important differences between the three languages? Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 4 7/20/17 …The Sounds Line Up

Menominee: maehkuapaehketa͞ew Ojibwe: miskwaabikide

Potawatomi: mskwabkedé m ae hk u a p ae hk e t a͞e m i sk w aa b i k i d e m (e) sk w a b k e d é m e Ck o aa p e Ck e t ee w i Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 5 7/20/17 Finding Related Words

• When languages are closely related like Menominee, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, it can be very easy to tell which words are related – However, languages will always throw you a curve…!

• When looking for related words, it helps to start with “basic vocabulary” – words everyone has to use. – Body parts (nena͞eh, ninik, nnek ‘my arm’) – Basic numbers (nekot, ningod-, ngot ‘one’) – terms (nōhnaeq, noos, nos ‘my father’) Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 6 7/20/17 Lining Up Sounds

• Sounds do not change willy-nilly! – Sounds appear to change regularly

• Check one sound, one position at a time

• For example, look at n and m in the three languages Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 7 7/20/17 Sound Correspondences

• Some cases are straightforward

• Menominee, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi all share n

1. nīw niiwin nyéw ‘four’

2. ena͞eniw inini nene ‘man’

3. ana͞em animosh nemosh ‘dog’

4. nena͞eh ninik nnek ‘my arm’

5. naehkān nikan nken ‘my bone’ Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 8 7/20/17 Sound Correspondences

• They also all share m

1. māhkesen makizin mkezen ‘shoe’ 2. maehkōn miskozi mskweze‘s/he is red’

3. pemōhnaew bimose bmosé ‘s/he walks along’ 4. ana͞em animosh nemosh ‘dog’ Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 9 7/20/17 The Tricky Cases

• Sounds do not just change willy-nilly… – But sometimes one sound in one language can correspond to two or more sounds in another language

• What’s happening here?

1. nōhnaeq noos nos ‘my father’

2. maehkōn miskozi mskweze‘s/he is red’ 3. aqnap asab sep ‘net’

4. māhkesen makizin mkezen ‘shoe’ Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 10 7/20/17 Fortis/Lenis

• In a lot of languages (including English), consonants come in pairs: – p, b – t, d – k, g

• Ojibwe and Potawatomi consonants also come in pairs – Linguists call these fortis (strong) and lenis (weak)

• Menominee consonants don’t! Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 11 7/20/17 Fortis/Lenis

• Ojibwe and Potawatomi have p and b…

• Menominee has p, but not b

What’s going on here?

1. pemōhnaew bimose bmosé ‘s/he walks along’ 2. ohpa͞en opin pen ‘potato’

3. ehpāhtaw apatoo peto ‘s/he runs to a certain place, that direction’ Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 4. pemēpahtaw bimibatoo bmepto ‘s/he runs along’ 12 7/20/17 What to do with these?

• After awhile, you’ll have a large set of sound correspondences

• Step 3: If all these languages came from a single language, what would that language look like?

• …This is a really hard question to answer. – Luckily, a lot of really smart people have (mostly) figured it out for us already! Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 13 7/20/17 Borrowing

• Sometimes, words won’t always match up between languages – or they match up in unexpected aways.

• When people live in close contact with each other, they borrow words from each other.

1. pana͞enas (akandamoo) bnéno ‘banana’ Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 14 7/20/17 Borrowing

• Speakers of also borrowed words from each other

1. anohkīw anokii noki – In M and O, this means ‘s/he works’ – In P, this means ‘s/he hires someone to have something done’

• Consider these three words for ‘far’

1. wāqnaw waasa bnoch – Compare with Fox penoochi Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 15 7/20/17 Borrowing

Words for ‘white person, American’ Potawatomi:

kche-mokman literally ‘big knife’ Ojibwe:

gichi-mookomaan literally ‘big knife’

Menominee: (kece-)mōhkomān no literal meaning! ‘knife’ is aqsekan

‘big’ is ka͞eqc- Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 16 7/20/17 An important note…

• All living languages change over time.

• Sounds change over time. – English today is not the same as English 1000 years ago

• Menominee, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi changed (and are changing) too! Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Menominee Words 17