Ojibwe for English speakers

1. Ojibwe: an Anishinaabe language of the Great Lakes

Ojibwe — Anishinaabemowin to its speakers — is an Algonquian language of the Great Lakes region of North America, spoken across a broad arc from Quebec through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.¹ It is a macrolanguage (ISO 639-3 code oj) covering a dialect continuum — Southwestern Ojibwe, Eastern Ojibwe, Ottawa (Odaawaa), Algonquin, Severn Ojibwe, Northwestern Ojibwe, Central Ojibwe and Saulteaux — that shares a common grammar but differs in vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling from community to community.¹² This guide follows Southwestern Ojibwe (the Minnesota/western Great Lakes variety), the variety documented by the Ojibwe People's Dictionary, the source for every word on this guide's deck.³

Ojibwe at a glance

Spelling: the double-vowel system

This guide uses the double-vowel orthography developed by Charles Fiero, the system used by the Ojibwe People's Dictionary and most current Ojibwe-language teaching materials.³ Short vowels are a, i, o; long vowels are doubled: aa, ii, oo, plus e (always long). An apostrophe marks a glottal stop, and gemination of h before a consonant softens it. Ojibwe has grammatical animacy rather than grammatical gender: every noun is either animate (na) — generally living things, plus some culturally significant objects — or inanimate (ni), and this distinction controls how verbs agree with their subjects and objects.³⁵

First words

Reader A1 — Anokiiwin (A day of work)

Constructed for this guide entirely from words on the deck below, in short, simple juxtaposed clauses that respect Ojibwe's animate/inanimate verb classes without attempting complex conjugation. It is a practice text, not authentic Ojibwe literature; section 8 lists real Ojibwe-language media to move on to. Every root is a deck word; a handful carry the ordinary locative suffix -ing/-ong (‘at, in’) or a plural suffix (-ag, -oog, -yag), and gakina (‘all, every’) and anishinaabemowin (‘the Ojibwe language,’ this guide's own subject) are used throughout as high-frequency function words.

Boozhoo. Anishinaabe inini. Ninga. Noos. Niijii. Wiigiwaam. Zaaga'igan. Ziibi. Noopiming. Nibaa. Goshkozi. Wiisini. Miijim, nibi. Mino-ayaa. Minwendam. Aaniin? Boozhoo, niijii. Anokii. Gikinoo'amaw. Gikendaaso. Ozhibii'ige. Agindaaso. Babaamose. Waabi ziibi. Noond noodin. Minwendam. Enh, mino-ayaa. Gaawiin gashkendam. Miigwech, niijii. Nibaa dibikad, goshkozi waabang.

— Hello. [He is] an Anishinaabe man. [His] mother. [His] father. [His] friend. A dwelling. A lake. A river. The forest. He sleeps. He wakes up. He eats. Food, water. He is well. He is happy. “How are you?” “Hello, friend.” He works. He teaches. He knows things. He writes. He reads. He walks about. He watches the river. He hears the wind. He is happy. Yes, he is well. He is not sad. Thank you, friend. He sleeps at night, he wakes up tomorrow.

Animikoons zaaga'igan bezhig ziibi. Amik, migizi, waawaashkeshi, mooz. Animosh, gaazhagens. Waabooz, waagosh, makwa. Giigoonh nibiing. Bineshiinh giizhigong. Anang dibikad. Giizis biboon. Noodin niibin. Gimiwan ziigwan. Goon biboon. Michaa mooz. Agaasaa amik. Mino-ayaa gakina. Mitig noopiming. Asin ziibiing. Aki gakina.

— By the lake, one river. A beaver, an eagle, a deer, a moose. A dog, a cat. A rabbit, a fox, a bear. A fish in the water. A bird in the sky. A star at night. The sun in winter. Wind in summer. It rains in spring. Snow in winter. A moose is big. A beaver is small. Everyone is well. A tree is in the forest. A stone is at the river. The whole land.

Bezhig, niizh, niswi, niiwin, naanan: naanan abinoojiinyag gikinoo'amaading. Ingodwaaswi, niizhwaaswi, nishwaaswi, zhaangaswi, midaaswi: midaaswi giigoonyag nibiing. Mino-ayaa gakina abinoojiinyag. Minwendam nookomis, minwendam nimishoomis. Nagamo ikwe, niimi inini. Anokii gakina, wiisini gakina, nibaa gakina dibikad.

— One, two, three, four, five: five children at the learning-place. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten: ten fish in the water. All the children are well. The grandmother is happy, the grandfather is happy. The woman sings, the man dances. Everyone works, everyone eats, everyone sleeps at night.

Niin inini. Giin ikwe. Wiin abinoojiinh. Niinawind anishinaabe. Giinawind niijiiwag. Enh, boozhoo. Gaawiin, gaawiin gashkendam. Mino-ayaa niin, mino-ayaa giin, mino-ayaa wiin. Minwendam niinawind gakina. Miigwech, miigwech gakina.

— I am a man. You are a woman. S/he is a child. We are Anishinaabe. We are friends. Yes, hello. No, s/he is not sad. I am well, you are well, s/he is well. We are all happy. Thank you, thank you all.

2. Animate and inanimate: Ojibwe's grammatical gender

Ojibwe has no masculine/feminine gender. Instead, every noun is either animate (na) or inanimate (ni) — a distinction that tracks a mix of biological life and cultural significance rather than a purely biological one: people, animals, spirits, trees and some plants are animate; most other objects are inanimate, but a handful of culturally important items (certain stones, pipes, snowshoes) are animate too, and this must be learned per word.⁵⁶ Animacy is not decoration: it controls verb agreement, plural marking, and which of Ojibwe's four verb classes a sentence uses.

3. Four verb classes

Ojibwe verbs belong to one of four classes depending on whether the subject is animate or inanimate, and whether the verb takes an object: vai (animate intransitive — an animate subject, no object: nibaa ‘s/he sleeps’), vii (inanimate intransitive — an inanimate subject: gimiwan ‘it rains’), vta (transitive animate — an animate object: waabam ‘s/he sees h/’), and vti (transitive inanimate — an inanimate object: waabandaan ‘s/he sees it’).⁵⁶ The Ojibwe People's Dictionary tags every verb with its class, which this guide's deck preserves so a learner can see the pattern directly in the vocabulary.

Pronouns and simple sentences

Ojibwe marks person mostly on the verb itself rather than with a separate subject word, but the independent pronouns niin (I), giin (you), wiin (s/he), niinawind/giinawind (we, exclusive/inclusive), giinawaa (you plural) and wiinawaa (they) are used for emphasis or contrast, much as English uses stressed ‘I MYSELF did it.’⁵ A beginner's guide can lean on the dictionary's citation form — the third person singular, exactly as the deck below lists it — before tackling the prefix/suffix system that marks other persons.

4. Numbers, family, and time

Kinship terms above carry the first-person possessive prefix ni-/n- built in, because Ojibwe kinship nouns are rarely cited bare — you almost always say ‘my mother’ or ‘his mother,’ not ‘mother’ in the abstract. This is a dependent-noun pattern the Ojibwe People's Dictionary marks with the code nad (dependent animate noun).³⁵

Reader B1 — Anishinaabe-inini gaye odaanikoobijigan (The man and his family)

A longer constructed practice text, still built only from deck vocabulary, now combining nature, family and daily-life words from sections 1–4.

Inini anokii. Ninga wiisini. Noos anokii. Niijii biindige. “Aaniin,” ikidoo niijii. “Boozhoo,” ikidoo inini. Abinoojiinh odaminwaadan. Nibaa abinoojiinh dibikad. Nookomis gikinoo'amaw abinoojiinh. Gikendaaso abinoojiinh. Nimishoomis anokii noopiming. Waabooz, waagosh, makwa noopiming. Mooz zaaga'iganing. Amik ziibiing. Bineshiinh giizhigong. Anang dibikad. Giizis waabang.

— The man works. [His] mother eats. [His] father works. [His] friend comes in. “How are you?” says the friend. “Hello,” says the man. The child plays. The child sleeps at night. The grandmother teaches the child. The child knows things. The grandfather works in the forest. A rabbit, a fox, a bear are in the forest. A moose is at the lake. A beaver is at the river. A bird is in the sky. A star is out at night. The sun will be out tomorrow.

Ningodwaaswi abinoojiinyag anokiiwigamigong. Midaaswi asiniig zaaga'iganing. Niizh animoshag wiigiwaaming. Niswi gaazhagensag anokiiwigamigong. Niiwin waaboozoog noopiming. Naanan makwag noopiming. Minwendam gakina. Nisayenh gikendaaso. Nimisenh nagamo. Niijii niimi. Mino-ayaa niijii, mino-ayaa gakina odaanikoobijigan.

— Six children are at the school building. Ten stones are at the lake. Two dogs are at the dwelling. Three cats are at the school building. Four rabbits are in the forest. Five bears are in the forest. Everyone is happy. The older brother knows things. The older sister sings. The friend dances. The friend is well, the whole family is well.

Ninga gikinoo'amaw niijii. Noos gikinoo'amaw abinoojiinh. Nookomis gaye nimishoomis anokii wiigiwaaming. Anang gaye giizis giizhigong. Mooz gaye amik zaaga'iganing. Waabooz gaye waagosh noopiming. Nibi gizhaate. Ishkode gizhaate. Gimiwan ziigwan. Goon biboon. Mino-ayaa anishinaabe-inini gaye odaanikoobijigan.

— [His] mother teaches [his] friend. [His] father teaches the child. The grandmother and the grandfather work at the dwelling. The star and the sun are in the sky. The moose and the beaver are at the lake. The rabbit and the fox are in the forest. The water is hot. The fire is hot. It rains in spring. Snow falls in winter. The Anishinaabe man and his family are well.

Niinawind gikendaaso anishinaabemowin. Giinawind gikinoo'amaw abinoojiinh. Wiinawaa niimi gaye nagamo. Bezhig inini, niizh ikwewag, niswi abinoojiinyag: naanan anishinaabeg wiigiwaaming. Mino-ayaa gakina, minwendam gakina odaanikoobijigan.

— We know Anishinaabemowin. We (you and I) teach the child. They dance and sing. One man, two women, three children: five Anishinaabe people at the dwelling. Everyone is well, the whole family is happy.

5. Preverbs: Ojibwe's productive verb-modifying particles

A distinctive feature of Ojibwe (and Algonquian languages generally) is the preverb: a particle that attaches before a verb stem to add meaning — direction, aspect, manner — the way English uses separate adverbs or phrasal-verb particles. bimi- ‘along,’ ani- ‘away, going,’ bagami- ‘arriving,’ and babaa- ‘about, around’ are among the most common, and the Ojibwe People's Dictionary tags each with pv (preverb) plus a subtype (dir for direction, lex for a lexical/idiomatic preverb, tmp for time).³⁵⁶

6. The Ojibwe dialect continuum

Ojibwe is better described as a dialect continuum than a single uniform language: Southwestern Ojibwe (Minnesota/Wisconsin, the variety of this guide), Eastern Ojibwe (southern Ontario), Ottawa/Odaawaa (Michigan, Ontario), Algonquin (Quebec), Severn Ojibwe (Ontario/Manitoba, spoken further north and grammatically distinct enough that some classifications treat it separately), Northwestern and Central Ojibwe (Ontario), and Saulteaux/Plains Ojibwe (Manitoba, Saskatchewan) each have their own vocabulary, sound changes and, in several communities, their own writing conventions — double-vowel Latin script in most of the United States and much of Ontario, syllabics in some Canadian communities.¹² A word learned in one community's Ojibwe may sound unfamiliar, or be pronounced quite differently, in another.

Reader B2 — Anishinaabemowin gaye gikinoo'amaadiwin (The language and learning)

The longest reader in this guide, still built entirely from deck vocabulary, now touching on the theme of language revitalization that section 7 discusses directly.

Anishinaabemowin ojibwemowin. Gikinoo'amaw abinoojiinh anishinaabemowin. Gikinoo'amaadiwin mino-ayaa. Anishinaabe inini gikendaaso anishinaabemowin. Ikwe gikendaaso ingodwaaswi ikidowinan. Abinoojiinh gikendaaso midaaswi ikidowinan. Gikinoo'amaagewinini anokii anokiiwigamigong.

— Anishinaabemowin is the Ojibwe language. [She] teaches the child Anishinaabemowin. Learning together is good. The Anishinaabe man knows Anishinaabemowin. The woman knows six words. The child knows ten words. The teacher works at the school building.

Gikinoo'amaading anishinaabemowin mino-ayaa gakina abinoojiinyag. Bimi-ayaa anishinaabemowin. Ani-anokii gikinoo'amaagewinini. Bagami-ayaa niijii gikinoo'amaading. Babaamose abinoojiinh gikinoo'amaading. Niimi abinoojiinyag. Nagamo ikwe. Minwendam gikinoo'amaagewinini. Mino-ayaa anishinaabemowin noongom.

— Learning Anishinaabemowin together is good for all the children. Anishinaabemowin continues along. The teacher's work goes on. A friend arrives at the learning-place. A child walks about at the learning-place. The children dance. The woman sings. The teacher is happy. Anishinaabemowin is well today.

Gichi-aya'aa gikendaaso anishinaabemowin. Abinoojiinh gikinoo'amaw anishinaabemowin gikinoo'amaading. Nookomis gaye nimishoomis gikinoo'amaw gakina abinoojiinyag. Mino-ayaa gakina, minwendam gakina. Anishinaabemowin bimaadizi noongom, gaye bimaadizi waabang.

— An adult knows Anishinaabemowin. [Someone] teaches the child Anishinaabemowin at the learning-place. The grandmother and grandfather teach all the children. Everyone is well, everyone is happy. Anishinaabemowin is alive today, and it will be alive tomorrow.

Wiinawaa gikinoo'amaading anishinaabemowin. Niinawind, giinawind, giinawaa: gakina gikendaaso anishinaabemowin. Bimi-ayaa gakina noongom, ani-anokii gakina waabang. Miigwech gakina gikinoo'amaagewininiwag, miigwech gakina nookomisag gaye nimishoomisag.

— They are at the learning-place for Anishinaabemowin. We (exclusive), we (inclusive), you (plural): everyone knows Anishinaabemowin. Everyone continues along today, everyone's work goes on tomorrow. Thank you to all the teachers, thank you to all the grandmothers and grandfathers.

Mino-ayaa anishinaabemowin. Bimaadizi anishinaabemowin. Gakina gikendaaso, gakina minwendam, gakina mino-ayaa. Miigwech.

— Anishinaabemowin is well. Anishinaabemowin is alive. Everyone knows, everyone is happy, everyone is well. Thank you.

7. Revitalization and living use

Ojibwe is spoken across dozens of distinct communities with immersion schools, language nests, and university programs actively working to raise new first-language speakers, most visibly through Ojibwe-medium immersion schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin and language programs at institutions including the University of Minnesota, Bemidji State University and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College.¹⁴ The Ojibwe People's Dictionary itself is a revitalization tool as much as a reference work: every entry links to community-member audio recordings, so a learner hears the word rather than only reading a phonetic transcription.³

UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger lists most Ojibwe varieties as vulnerable to definitely or severely endangered depending on the community and variety — a status shared unevenly across a dialect continuum with active revitalization efforts rather than a single, uniform figure. This guide declines to quote one aggregate speaker count for the reason section 2 already gives: the dialects differ enough that a single number would flatten a real range of community situations.¹⁴

8. Media, books, and further study

• Ojibwe vocabulary — the full 342-term deck, with SRS trainerA1–B2 — Double-vowel spelling, browsable as a table, with CSV / TSV / Anki / .apkg downloads. Identical to the table on this page.
• The Ojibwe People's DictionaryReference — University of Minnesota. The primary source for this guide's vocabulary; every entry links to a community-member audio recording.
• Ojibwemodaa — Anton Treuer's Living Our LanguageA1–B1 — University of Minnesota Press. Widely used oral-history-based Ojibwe course materials by a leading Ojibwe linguist and speaker.
• Ojibwe.net — Freelang and community word listsA1–A2 — Community-maintained vocabulary and phrase resources across several Ojibwe dialects.
• Birchbark Books & Native ArtsReference — Minneapolis bookstore owned by Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich, with a dedicated Native American and Ojibwe-language section — a starting point for Ojibwe-authored books in English and Ojibwe.

• All language guides — Browse every LinguaCommons language guide.