why I study the ojibwe language

Aaniin kina wiya! Today I'm going to talk a bit about Anishinaabemowin, or the Ojibwe language. I am a non-Indigenous student of Anishinaabemowin. Sometimes, people are interested in knowing why I like learning this language so much. It is very challenging to learn, so part of it is for the thrill of the intellectual challenge. But there are also some things about Anishinaabemowin that I consider to be very beautiful and that reminds me of Ojibwe culture and their worldview. 

Anishinaabemowin has a very interesting grammatical structure. You see, most Indigenous languages of North America are considered polysynthetic. This means that they have a high number of morphemes per word. A morpheme is the smallest unit in a language that holds meaning. The English word "cats" has two morphemes, the noun "cat" and the "s" which is a plural ending. 

In Anishinaabemowin, there are a lot of very long words that are dense with morphemes. It feels like every syllable holds so much meaning. 

There's an example I can give of this that comes from "The Seven Generations and Seven Grandfather Teachings" by James Vukelich. Vukelich talks about the Anishinaabemowin word "indaanikoobijigan." This usually means "my ancestor" but it can also mean my grandparent, my great grandparent, my grandchild, my great grandchild or my descendant. To understand "indaanikoobjigan" better, Vukelich mentions the "aanik" morpheme, which also appears in words like:

aanikoobidoon (string it together, tie it)

aanikegamaa (chain of lakes)

aanikanootamaw (translate it for her)

aanik-ogimaa (someone who fulfills the role of a chief if the current one can no longer do so. "ogimaa" is chief)

Vukelich concludes that aanik indicates something linked in a process or working in a chain, and so "indaanikoobijigan" is like "one to whom I am inextricably linked"

His book has other examples of Anishinaabemowin morphemes as well. Being aware of the structure of Anishinaabemowin words just makes it seem like a poetic language, extremely rich in meaning with tons of potential for metaphors. 

I'll do some more Ojibweposting later. Giga-waabamin miinawaa!!

Wolverines are the most relatable animal!

I'm going through a Wolverine Phase right now. Basically, I just think wolverines are super relatable. They are insatiable and they are always looking for food because of their fast metabolism they’re always hungry. And their genus and species are both “gulo” because it means glutton in Latin. People with BPD have chronic feelings of emptiness and are prone to binge eating and substance abuse so that’s why it’s a relatable creature. I have long suspected that I have BPD.

Also, I read a story about the wolverine in the book "Ojibway Heritage" by Basil Johnston. Basically, the wolverine was not happy with the attributes that Gichi-Manitou (the Creator) had given him. He wanted the gifts of other animals. He envied their speed, strength, size, etc. Gichi-Manitou punished him for his ingratitude. This is why the wolverine is a solitary animal now. No other animal wants to be around it. The Creator cursed the wolverine with loneliness. I really like Basil Johnston's retellings of Ojibwe stories. I have read his other books "The Manitous" and "Moose Meat and Wild Rice" as well. I am going to read the book "Ojibway Ceremonies" soon, which my Discord e-boy bought for me. Basil Johnston also writes in Anishinaabemowin (the Ojibwe language), which I am trying to learn. Once I "get good," I should be able to read his Ojibwe language books too. 

By the way, the word for wolverine is gwiingwa'aage in Ojibwe. I really want to know what this word means (in most Ojibwe words you can break them down into morphemes to find out what a word really means). For example, one of my teachers mentioned that the morphemes that make up "ajidamoo," the word for "squirrel," can be found in the words "ajidagoojin" (animate intransitive verb) which means "he or she hangs upside down" and in "amo" (transitive animate verb) which is "he or she eats an animate being" so ajidamoo may refer to one who eats while hanging upside down. Can gwiingwa'aage be broken down into something? I will probably ask one of my teachers. Stay tuned to find out what they say. 

I hope that poets of all languages will make use of the wolverine more as a symbol of being bonkers and unhinged, as it has great potential as a symbol. 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

The Canadian Language Museum is having a Cree Language Exhibit

Check out the exhibit here. It's on until December 19th. http://www.languagemuseum.ca/exhibit/cree-peoples-language 

Also, I wrote a review about it for my first year linguistics class at the University of Toronto. I got a 100% on this assignment so I'm really happy. You can read it here.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iUKeEKoxyzZkJYn1KhSM2Q2JcPjkBNOruzeq2sT5W7M/edit?usp=sharing 

The Power of Language

Not everyone gets to meet their idol, which is why I consider myself lucky. The star I’m talking about is not a Hollywood celebrity but a local hero from our very own city of Toronto, John Steckley. This world-renowned linguist is the leading expert on the Wendat language and has lead many conservation efforts for Canada’s indigenous languages. Working closely with the city of Toronto, he has helped to add bilingual street signs to some of Toronto’s best known streets such as Spadina Road, which is called Ishpadinaa in Anishinaabe. I’ve attended one of his presentations, in which he mentioned the origin of the word Toronto itself, which means “place where there are trees in the water” in Mohawk.

Skeptics of the importance of the field of linguistics may doubt how preserving endangered languages does any good, not realizing what it means for cultures everywhere. In September, the fire that ravaged Brazil’s national museum took the entire linguistics section. This means that some languages of the Amazon tribes will never be heard again. José Urutau Guajajara, a spokesperson for indigenous rights in Brazil who had been researching at the museum, said that the monumental loss was like seeing the European conquest happening all over again. “This is like a new genocide, as though they had slaughtered all these indigenous communities again,” he said.

Language is inextricably linked with our cultural identity. For many, every word spoken in their native language is a powerful act of resistance against colonialism. This is an important factor to consider if we want to change education worldwide to be more culturally inclusive. In the 1919 essay the Centre of Indian Culture by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, it is argued that using a foreign education system could never address the needs of the local inhabitants of a country. He went on to say that it was wrong that all higher education in India was in English and that textbooks were always printed in English and never in India’s vernacular tongues. It’s something that’s still relevant to us when we look at the British patterned education system in Canada. To some, it may still seem too rigid and strict, even with all the changes that have been made to it. It raises the question of whether our education is the best for helping us learn or if it’s only meant to teach us to follow orders and obey colonial-like authority.

Language is not just important for education and decolonization, it is a tool for change. Our voice is the best weapon we have against injustice. Many fail to see why protecting linguistic diversity is important. It is true that the world seems to be moving in a direction of linguistic homogeneity, but instead of uniting us this trend is actually tearing us apart. If people in a foreign country learned English they would be able to understand you and follow your instructions, but you could never expect to reach their heart without talking to them in their mother tongue. You would never be able to inspire them to fight for a cause. Anyone who truly cares about making a difference should put mastering the art of language as one of their priorities.

Updates and stuff....

Arctic hares live all over Northern Canada, Alaska, And Northern Canadian Islands like Baffin Island too.
They have white fur and black tipped ears.

How they behave: To protect themselves from predators they fluff up like a snowball to blend in and camoflauge with the snow.


                 okaay.... u might have found that random....


NOW, let me tell you something. 

I always spell okaay with 2 As cause I'm awesome.
I love learning new things! LOVE IT SO MUCH. Who doesn't??!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So now I will tell you more about that cute Arctic hare animal. 

Scientific name:	Lepus arcticus
Average weight:	3 to 7 kg
Average height:	50 to 70 cm
Avergare life span: 5 years Conservation status: Least concerned Order: Lagomorpha Now I'll teach you an easy way to remember the levels of classification.  Just read the sentence below: King Phillip could only find green socks. Now, Take each first letter of each word.  K, P, C, O, F, G, S okaay?!?! each letter stands for a different level. K = Kingdom P= Phylum C= Class O= Order F= Family G= Genes S= Species isn't that cool?!?! Now I'll share with you, (like I always do!) The website of the week. It's called 'Native languages' GO ON IT, ITS REALLY COOL!! http://www.native-languages.org/ Here is an update of what they are doing this year on their site. It's the most recent update: June 15, 2012: We have chosen five projects to fund for our 2012 Spring Language Preservation Grants. They include a Chinook Jargon language project from the Cowlitz tribe, a Yup'ik language spelling bee, a project to create Lakota language classroom materials, and two small grants to assist in a Seneca web application and purchase Nooksack language materials. We hope to be able to provide additional funding for some of the other excellent proposals we have received later this year. Congratulations to all the people involved in these five projects!  Sounds good, right? So go on the Frypania website of the week: http://www.native-languages.org/ Today!!

Next, on this post, I will select a random article from this blog for you to reread (if u want.)
http://freyathefrypan.blogspot.ca/2012/02/hamster-game_25.html
This is the blog^

this is weird.... because some of my teachers from my school are using the Frypania chatbox O_O