Odawa People - Language

Language

The Ottawa language is considered one of several divergent dialects of the Ojibwe language group, noted for its frequent syncope. In the Odaawaa language, the general language group is known as Nishnabemwin, while the specific language is called Daawaamwin. Of the estimated 5,000 ethnic Odaawaa and additional 10,000 people with Odaawaa ancestry, an estimated 500 people in Ontario and Michigan speak this language. The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma has three fluent speakers.

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Famous quotes containing the word language:

    “The problems of society will also be the problems of the predominant language of that society. It is the carrier of its perceptions, its attitudes, and its goals, for through it, the speakers absorb entrenched attitudes. The guilt of English then must be recognized and appreciated before its continued use can be advocated.”
    —Njabulo Ndebele (b. 1948)

    “...I ... believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something—a great deal—to do with how we live our lives and whom we end up speaking with and hearing; and that we can deflect words, by trivialization, of course, but also by ritualized respect, or we can let them enter our souls and mix with the juices of our minds.”
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    “Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
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