Ottawa Morphology

Ottawa has complex systems of both inflectional and derivational morphology. Like other dialects of Ojibwe, Ottawa employs complex combinations of inflectional prefixes and suffixes to indicate grammatical information. Ojibwe word stems are formed with combinations of word roots (sometimes also called initials), and affixes referred to as medials and finals to create basic words to which inflectional prefixes and suffixes are added. Word stems are also combined with other word stems to create compound words.

Innovations in Ottawa morphology contribute to differentiating Ottawa from other dialects of Ojibwe. These differences include: the reanalysis of person prefixes and word stems; the loss of final /-n/ in a number of inflectional suffixes; a distinctive form for the verbal suffix indicating doubt; and a distinctive form for the verbal suffix indicating plurality on intransitive verbs with grammatically inanimate subjects.

The most significant of the morphological innovations that characterize Ottawa is the restructuring of the person prefixes that occur on both nouns and verbs. These prefixes carry significant grammatical information about grammatical person (first, second, or third). The rule of Syncope modifies the pronunciation of the prefixes, by deleting the short vowel in each prefix.