Ojibwe phonology
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This article deals with the phonology of the Anishinaabe language (also known as the Ojibwe group of languages, or Ojibwe), an Algonquian American Indian language spoken throughout the Great Lakes region and westward onto the northern plains. It is one of the largest American Indian languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers, and exhibits a large number of divergent dialects. For the most part, this article describes the Minnesota variety of the Southwestern dialect of Anishinaabemowin, also known as Ojibwemowin. The educational orthography used in Minnesota Ojibwemowin is the Fiero Double-Vowel System.
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[edit] Phonemes
Ojibwe dialects tend to have 29 phonemes: 11 vowels (seven oral and four nasal) and 18 consonants.
[edit] Vowels
| vowel | stressed | unstressed |
|---|---|---|
| /a/ | ɑ a ɐ ɔ ʌ ɨ | ə~ʌ a ɨ ɔ |
| /aa/ | ɑː aː | |
| /e/ | eː~ɛː | |
| /i/ | i ɪ ɨ | ɨ ə ɪ ɛ |
| /ii/ | iː ɪː | |
| /o/ | o~ʊ ɔ | o ɨ ə ʊ |
| /oo/ | oː~uː ʊː |
but more generally as
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | oː~uː | ||
| Near-Close | ɪ | o~ʊ | ||
| Mid | eː | ə | ||
| Open | aː | |||
Ojibwe has a series of three short oral vowels and four long ones. The two series are characterized by both length and quality differences. The short vowels are [ɪ o ə] (roughly the vowels in American English 'bit,' 'boat,' and 'about,' respectively), and the corresponding long vowels are [iː oː aː] (roughly as in 'beet,' 'boat' (but longer), and 'father,' respectively); there is also an additional long vowel which lacks a corresponding short vowel, [eː] (roughly as in 'bait'). In the Minnesota variety of Southwestern Ojibwe language, /o/ varies between [o] and [ʊ] (roughly as in 'book'), and /oo/ varies between [oː] and [uː] (roughly as in 'boot'). [eː] also varies with [ɛː] (roughly as in 'bet'), and [ə] with [ʌ] (roughly as in 'putt').
In some Algonquin language communities, in some Wisconsin communities of Southwestern Ojibwe language and in some Saulteaux (Western Ojibwe language) communities surrounding Lake of the Woods, additional vowels exists. One of the most noted is the short e that have not transitioned to i like in most Ojibwe dialects. Often, the Wisconsin and some Saulteaux communities show a vowel reduction to a schwa, which in the Fiero orthography often is written as e, i or a when compared to the more common a or i. In eastern Wisconsin and western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Ojibwe also exhibits the diphthong ai as a variation of e; this is notable only because diphthongs generally do not exist in Ojibwe other than in those communities that have lost glottal stops. Through coalescence, the Odaawaa language, Central Ojibwe language and some Saulteaux, /wa/ and /waa/ have become /o/ and /oo/, while in some other Saulteaux communities became /u/ ([u]) and /uu/ ([uː]).
| Front | Central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ĩː | õː~ũː | |
| Mid | ẽː | ||
| Open | ãː |
Ojibwe also has four nasal vowels, all of them long: [ãː ẽː ĩː õː]. Nasalized allophones of the short vowels also exist. The nasal allophones of oral vowels are derived from a short vowel followed by a nasal+fricative cluster (for example, imbanz, "I’m singed," is [ɪmbə̃z]). For many speakers, the nasal allophones appear not only before nasal+fricative clusters, but also before all fricatives, particularly if the vowel is preceded by another nasal. E.g., for some speakers, waabooz, "rabbit," is pronounced [waːbõːz], and for many, mooz, "moose," is pronounced [mõːz].[1][2]
The true nasal vowel phonemes mostly occur with kinship terms (e.g., -iijikiwenh-, "brother," -noshenh-, "cross-aunt," -oozhishenh-, "grandchild") and animal names (e.g., bineshiinh, "bird," asabikeshiinh, "spider," awesiinh, "wild animal"), and also frequently when a connotation of smallness is involved.
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar and palatal |
Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive and affricate | p [pʰ] | b [p~b] | t [tʰ ] | d [t~d] | ch [ʧʰ ] | j [ʧ~ʤ] | k [kʰ ] | g [k~ɡ] | ’ [ʔ] |
| Fricative | s [sʰ] | z [s~z] | sh [ʃʰ] | zh [ʃ~ʒ] | (h [h]) | ||||
| Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | |||||||
| Approximant | y [j] | w [w] | |||||||
The "voiced/voiceless" obstruent pairs of Ojibwe vary in their realization depending on the dialect. In many dialects, they are described as having a "lenis/fortis" contrast.[3] In the this analysis, all obstruents are considered voiceless. The fortis consonants are characterised by being pronounced more strongly and are longer in duration. They often are aspirated or preaspirated. The lenis consonants are often voiced, especially between vowels, although they often tend to be voiceless at the end of words. They are pronounced less strongly and are shorter in duration, compared to the fortis ones.[4] In some communities, the lenis/fortis distinction has been replaced with a pure voiced/voiceless one.
The consonants written sh, zh, ch, and j are pronounced roughly as English "sh," "s" in 'vision,' "ch," and "j" (as in 'joke'), respectively. In some dialects of Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwe), sh and zh have merged with s and z (so, for example, Southwestern Ojibwe wazhashk, "muskrat," is wazask in some dialects of Saulteaux). This merging creates additional consonant clusters of sp and st in addition to sk common in all Anishinaabe dialects.
/n/ before velars becomes [ŋ] (as in English 'sing').[5]
The glottal fricative /h/ occurs infrequently in most dialects, only appearing in a handful of expressive words and interjections, but in a few dialects it has taken the place of /ʔ/ (like the catch in the throat in the middle of 'uh-oh').
[edit] Phonotactics
Ojibwe in general permits relatively few consonant clusters, and most are only found word-medially. The permissible ones are -sk-, -shp-, -sht-, -shk- (which can also appear word-finally), -mb-, -nd- (which can also appear word-finally),-ng- (also word-finally), -nj- (also word-finally), -nz-, -nzh- (also word-finally) and -ns- (also word-finally). Furthermore, any consonant (except w, h, or y) and some clusters can be followed by w (although not word-finally).[6] Many dialects, however, permit far more clusters as a result of vowel syncope.
[edit] Prosody
Ojibwe divides words into metrical "feet." Counting from the beginning of the word, each group of two syllables constitutes a foot; the first syllable in a foot is weak, the second strong. However, long vowels and vowels in the last syllable of a word are always strong, so if they occur in the weak slot of a foot, then they form a separate one-syllable foot, and counting resumes starting with the following vowel. The final syllable of a word is always strong as well.[2][7] For example, the word bebezhigooganzhii, "horse," is divided into feet as (be)(be)(zhi-goo)(gan-zhii). The strong syllables all receive at least secondary stress. The rules that determine which syllable receives the primary stress are quite complex and many words are irregular. In general, though, the strong syllable in the third foot from the end of a word receives the primary stress.[8][9]
[edit] Phonological processes
A defining characteristic of several of the more eastern dialects is that they exhibit a great deal of vowel syncope, the deletion of vowels in certain positions within a word. In some dialects (primarily Odawa and Eastern Ojibwe), all unstressed vowels are lost (see above for a discussion of Ojibwe stress). In other dialects (such as some dialects of Central Ojibwe), short vowels in initial syllables are lost, but not in other unstressed syllables.[10] For example, the word oshkinawe ("young man") of Algonquin and Southwestern Ojibwe (stress: oshkínawé) is shkinawe in some dialects of Central Ojibwe and shkinwe in Eastern Ojibwe and Odawa. Regular, pervasive syncope is a comparatively recent development, arising in the past eighty years or so.[11]
A common morphophonemic variation occurs in some verbs whose roots end in -n. When the root is followed by certain suffixes beginning with i or when it is word-final, the root-final -n changes to -zh (e.g., -miin-, "to give something to someone," but gimiizhim, "you guys give it to me"). In Ojibwe linguistics, this is indicated when writing the root with the symbol <N> (so the root "to give something to someone" would be written <miiN>). There are also some morphophonemic alternations where root-final -s changes to -sh (indicated with <S>) and where root-final -n changes to -nzh (indicated with <nN>).[12]
In some dialects, obstruents become voiceless/fortis after the tense preverbs gii- (past) and wii- (future/desiderative). In such dialects, for example, gii-baapi ([ɡiː baːpːɪ]), "s/he laughed", becomes [ɡiː pːaːpːɪ] (often spelled gii-paapi).
[edit] Historical phonology
In the evolution from Proto-Algonquian to Ojibwe, the most sweeping change was the voicing of all Proto-Algonquian voiceless obstruents except when they were in clusters with *h, *ʔ, *θ, or *s (which were subsequently lost). Proto-Algonquian *r and *θ became Ojibwe n.
The relatively symmetrical Proto-Algonquian vowel system, *i, *i·, *e, *e·, *a, *a·, *o, *o· remained fairly intact in Ojibwe, although *e and *i merged as i, and the short vowels, as described above, underwent a quality change as well.
Some examples of the changes at work are presented in the table below:
| Proto-Algonquian | Ojibwe reflex (Saulteaux) |
Ojibwe reflex (Fiero) |
Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| *penkwi | pinkwi | bingwi | "ashes" |
| *mekiθe·wa | mikiš | migizh | "to bark at" |
| *ši·ʔši·pa | šîhšîp | zhiishiib | "duck" |
| *askyi | ahki | aki | "earth" |
| *-te·h- | -têh- | -de'- | "heart" (root) |
| *erenyiwa | inini | inini | "man" |
| *wespwa·kana | ohpwâkan | opwaagan | "pipe" |
For illustrative purposes, chart of phonological variation between different Cree dialects of Proto-Algonquian *r have been reproduced here but for the Anishinaabe languages, with the inclusion of Swampy Cree for illustrative purposes only, with corresponding Cree orthography in parentheses:
| Dialect | Location | Reflex of *l |
Word for "Native person(s)" ← *erenyiwa(ki) |
Word for "You" ← *kīrawa |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swampy Cree | ON, MB, SK | n | ininiw/ininiwak ᐃᓂᓂᐤ/ᐃᓂᓂᐗᒃ | kīna ᑮᓇ |
| Algonquin | QC, ON | n | irini/irinìk inini/ininìk ᐃᓂᓂ/ᐃᓂᓃᒃ (inini/ininīk) |
kìn ᑮᓐ (kīn) |
| Oji-cree | ON, MB | n | inini/ininiwak ᐃᓂᓂ/ᐃᓂᓂᐗᒃ | kīn ᑮᓐ |
| Ojibwe | ON, MB, SK, AB, BC, MI, WI, MN, ND, SD, MT | n | inini/ininiwag ᐃᓂᓂ/ᐃᓂᓂᐗᒃ (inini/ininiwak) |
giin ᑮᓐ (kīn) |
| Ottawa | ON, MI, OK | n | nini/ninwag (nini/ninwak) |
gii (kī) |
| Potawatomi | ON, WI, MI, IN, KS, OK | n | neni/nenwek (nĕni/nĕnwĕk) |
ki |
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nichols and Nyholm (1995: xxv)
- ^ a b Redish, Laura and Orrin Lewis. Ojibwe Pronunciation and Spelling Guide. Native-Languages.org. Retrieved on 2007-08-07.
- ^ Valentine, J. Randolph. Consonants: Strong and Weak. Anishinaabemowin. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
- ^ Valentine (2001: 48-49)
- ^ Nichols and Nyholm (1995: xxvii)
- ^ Nichols and Nyholm (1995: xxvii-xxviii)
- ^ Valentine (2002: 51-55)
- ^ Weshki-ayaad. My own notes about stress in Ojibwe. Anishinaabemowin: Ojibwe Language. Retrieved on 2007-08-07.
- ^ Valentine (2002: 55-57)
- ^ Rhodes and Todd (1981: 58)
- ^ Valentine (2002: 3)
- ^ Nichols and Nyholm (1995: xix)
[edit] References
- Artuso, Christian. 1998. noogom gaa-izhi-anishinaabemonaaniwag: Generational Difference in Algonquin. Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba Press.
- Nichols, John D. and Earl Nyholm. 1995 A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Rhodes, Richard A. 1985. Eastern Ojibwa-Chippewa-Ottawa Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Rhodes, Richard A. and Evelyn M. Todd. 1981. "Subarctic Algonquian Languages". In Subarctic, ed. June Helm. Vol. 6 of The Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
- Valentine, J. Randolph "Randy". 2001. Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[edit] External links
- Rand Valentine's introduction to Ojibwe
- Grammar, lessons, and dictionaries
- Correspondences of Ojibwe and Cree Sounds
- Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary — Freeware off-line dictionary, updated with additional entries every 6-10 weeks.
- Language Geek Page on Ojibwe — Syllabary fonts and keyboard emulators are also available from this site.
- Our Languages: Nakawē (Saulteaux/Plains Ojibwe at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
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