Gekinawaabid
4 |
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| Ojibwe
Nouns |
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| A.
INTRODUCTORY NOTES: |
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| Just
like in English, there are Nouns
in Ojibwemowin. Typically, we identify
Nouns as "persons,
places, things, or ideas."
Nouns are
usually classified as either "living"
or "non'living,"
but the Ojibwe culture brings this idea to the forefront. |
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| In
Ojibwemowin, the gender of the Noun
is of the utmost importance because, unlike English, the
Noun must agree with the Verb that
is used with it. We will discuss this more in Lesson 4, Ojibwe
Verbs. |
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| Nouns
are classified as either ANIMATE
or INANIMATE.
For the most part, ANIMATE
NOUNS are those things that possess the
quality of "being alive,"
and INANIMATE NOUNS
those the qualities of "not
being alive." However, there
are culturally significant variables which apply to this part of speech,
and it is not always a clear cut decision as to which category the word
will fall within. Consider the charts below which contain examples of
both ANIMATE
and INANIMATE NOUNS.
Say the words aloud. |
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| As you can see from the examples above, most Nouns fit comfortably into the logical category that one would think. However, in the cases of "kettle" and "basket" there seems to be no "logical" reason for their placement as with "corn" and "wild rice." Cultural reasons obviously apply in these cases. These kind of Nouns are the exception rather than the rule. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| TAKE NOTE: One sure way of determining the "ANIMACY" of a Noun is by noting its plural ending. ALL ANIMATE NOUNS END IN "G" AND ALL INANIMATE NOUNS END IN "N." Make sure that as you learn new Nouns in the Lessons that follow that you learn the plural as well. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Be aware that there are no ARTICLES in Ojibwemowin (a, an, the)much like many Asian languages and some Eastern European ones as well. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| B. CONTINUED STUDY: | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Take some time and look through either of the suggested dictionaries. Identify both ANIMATE AND INANIMATE NOUNS. When you look in either the Nichols or Rhodes dictionaries, Noun entries are listed as "na" for ANIMATE NOUN or "ni" for INANIMATE NOUN. (See an example from the Nichols and Nyholm dictionary.) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NOTICE: Nouns will always be identified in a brown color as they are above. Animate Nouns are darker than Inanimate Nouns. | |||||||||||||||||||||