Vocabulary
Few vocabulary items are considered unique to Ottawa. The influx of speakers of other Ojibwe dialects into the Ottawa area has resulted in mixing of dialects that were historically distinct. Given that vocabulary spreads readily from one dialect to another the presence of a particular vocabulary item in a given dialect is not a guarantee of the original source of the item. Two groups of function words are characteristically Ottawa: the sets of demonstrative pronouns and interrogative adverbs are both distinctive relative to other dialects of Ojibwe. Although some of the vocabulary items in each set are found in other dialects, taken as a group each is uniquely Ottawa.
Read more about this topic: Ottawa Dialect
Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“A new talker will often call her caregiver “mommy,” which makes parents worry that the child is confused about who is who. She isn’t. This is a case of limited vocabulary rather than mixed-up identities. When a child has only one word for the female person who takes care of her, calling both of them “mommy” is understandable.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)