Odawa & Eastern Ojibwe

About

The Nishnaabemwin Web Dictionary contains over 12,000 words. It represents the Odawa dialects spoken along the shores of Lake Huron, with a particular emphasis on the varieties spoken on Manitoulin Island, where fluency is by far the greatest. It also documents Eastern Ojibwe.

It contains copious examples, drawn from both published and unpublished text materials, as well as thousands of examples created by co-editor Dr. Mary Ann Naokwegijig-Corbiere, a prominent Nishnaabemwin educator and fluent speaker of Manitoulin Odawa. It represents the result of 20 years of careful and intensive documentary research conducted by the editors with elders and speakers of the language, including on-site elicitation and checking sessions in almost all communities where the language is still spoken, carefully carried out by Dr. Naokwegijig-Corbiere, and conducted in both Nishnaabemwin and English. It also provides nuanced, sense-based, glossing of Nishnaabemwin vocabulary, due to Dr. Naokwegijig-Corbiere’s full fluency in both English and Odawa, and her careful attention to semantic detail. This 2015 online edition allows searches in English and Nishnaabemwin, and will produce results based on searches of both Nishnaabemwin words and example sentences, as well as English keywords and glosses.

Forthcoming additional functionalities will include morphological analysis of vocabulary, thematic tagging, indexing of key morphosyntactic lexical properties, such as the presence of relative roots, and language-learning helps.

Acknowledgements

Ngichi-miigwechwi’aak gonda zhanda ezhbiiygaazjik. Mii gonda gaa-bi-zhazhaajik gii-bgosendmaanh wii-naadmawwaat maanda nakiitmaanh. Waabndamaanh epiitendmawaat maanda ndinwewninaa, mii washme gii-getnaamendmaanh maanda wii-giizhtoowaanh:

A heartfelt gchi-miigwech to the following individuals who came out to the many, many dictionary workshops over the years and shared their knowledge of the language. Your love and dedication for our beautiful language has been inspiring:

Curve Lake	M’Chigeeng	Sagamok	Walpole Island	Wikwemikong
Sharon G. Johnson Rhonda Taylor Doug Williams	Judy Armstrong Jean Bebamash Ann Corbiere Caroline Corbiere George L. Corbiere Gina Corbiere Melvina Corbiere Ted Corbiere Elizabeth Debassige Levi Debassige Lewis Debassige Maisie Debassige Nancy Debassige Gregory Ense Grace Fox Joseph Fox David Migwans Molly Migwans Victor Migwans Elizabeth Panamick Elizabeth M. Paul Evelyn Roy	Isabel Abitong Mary Assinewe Dan Fox Irene Makadebin Grace Manitowabi Alice Moses Georgina Toulouse Ida R. Toulouse Madonna Toulouse Martha Toulouse Pauline Toulouse Mary Ann Trudeau Mary E. Wemigwans	Jennie Blackbird Joanne Day Linda George Elizabeth Isaac Reta Sands Ira White, Sr.	Eric Corbiere Rita G. Corbiere Rosemary Enosse Jeanette Eshkawkogan Stephen George Lima Jacko Peter Mishibinijima Jim Naokwegijig Leonard Naokwegijig Teresa Naokwegijig Martina Osawamick Josephine Pelletier Rose Linda Peltier Thecla Pheasant Isaac Pitawanakwat Lucy Ida Pitawanakwat Mary Stacey Stella Trudeau Rosemary Wakegijig Lillian Webkamigad Phyllis Williams Shirley Williams

Gchi-miigwech also to my articulate friends whom I ask periodically for help in translating in pithy wording Nishnaabemwin terms that I struggle to render clearly in English. These are Susan Glover, Rachel Haliburton, and Catherine Murton Stoehr. They have apprised me of terms I had never heard before such as scooch and ghostly forerunner that very aptly capture the meaning of some Nishnaabemwin terms.

Many thanks to Dustin Bowers for his help doing pre-publication consistency checks in the spring of 2016.

Supporting institutions:

University of Sudbury, Canada
Lakehead University, Canada and University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA
Carleton University, Canada

Central Southwestern Ojibwe (Border Lakes)

About

The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary was established by faculty and students in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. For many years, Professor John Nichols digitally recorded Ojibwe elders as part of a research grant for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Endangered Languages Program. His goal was to expand A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe, which he co-authored with Professor Earl Nyholm (Nichols, Nyholm, 1995). Breaking new ground in Ojibwe language study, Nyholm taught Ojibwe at Bemidji State University for many years until his retirement. In time, Nichols anticipated the need for a talking dictionary where digital audio would be embedded within the dictionary entry. Nichols and his departmental colleague, historian Brenda Child, along with curator Marcia Anderson from the Minnesota History Society, began to envision a new dictionary with a broader Ojibwe cultural context. This dictionary would draw on the superb collections of the Minnesota Historical Society to create a virtual museum. As a result, instead of the simple line drawings typical of a print dictionary, the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary features beautiful illustrations of Ojibwe material culture and activities, to narrate the rich cultural heritage and present-day lives of Ojibwe people from the Great Lakes.

Recent technology made it possible to design this innovative, illustrated, talking dictionary, with photographs both old and new, and allowing insight into an Ojibwe way of life that is difficult to comprehend without a visual aid. The dictionary is searchable and no longer relies on accessing words through the alphabetic paths of a print dictionary. It also searches for related words, and includes expanded language information that is often left out due to page limitations. Unlike a book, the talking dictionary will be continuously updated and expanded. Best of all, it allows users to search using the Ojibwe language.

The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary is a timely project. Today, scholars and universities aspire to communicate their research through the digital humanities, and engage the public by means of new technology. Funding the work of scholars, museum professionals, Ojibwe speakers, students, and computer programmers for a special project is major undertaking, and without grants established as a result of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment this unique dictionary and collaboration between the American Indian Studies Department and Libraries at the University of Minnesota with the Minnesota Historical Society would have still been a dream. Phase one of this project allowed us to begin uniting the Ojibwe language with audio, images, and other resources for a free public website—the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary. We look forward to further collaborations with institutions, educators, the public, and Ojibwe people and communities as we continue to develop the dictionary.

Acknowledgements

Learn more about the contributors to the Ojibwe Peoples’ Online Dictionary at Ojibwe Voices

Supporting institutions:

University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA