Pronouns
Ojibwe pronouns, along with distinguishing singular and plural number and first, second, third, and fourth (obviative) persons, also carry a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Pronouns may present themselves either as independent words or as series of prefixes and suffixes.
An inclusive first person plural indicates that the pronoun includes the addressee, i.e., "we including you" (giinawind). An exclusive first person plural indicates that the addressee is not included, i.e., "we excluding you" (niinawind).
The other personal pronouns are the first singular niin, second singular giin, third singular wiin, second plural giinawaa, and third plural wiinawaa.
Like the independent words, Ojibwe pronominal prefixes indicate first person with n-, second person with g- and third person with w-. However, the associated suffixes for these persons will be different depending on if the word is a verb or a noun.
| Word begins with... | 1 or "n-" |
2 or "g-" |
3 or "w-" |
|---|---|---|---|
| a aa e i | (n)ind- | gid- | od- |
| oo | n- | g- | od- |
| ii | n- | g- | w- |
| o | (n)indo- | gido- | odo- |
| b | (n)im- | gi- | (o)- |
| d g ' j z zh | (n)in- | gi- | (o)- |
| p t k h ch m n s w y | ni- | gi- | (o)- |
In many Ojibwe-speaking communities, the first person prefix is used without the initial n. Due to vowel syncope in some communities, those prefixes are further reduced without the initial i. However, among Saulteaux communities, the first person prefix nim- and nin- are instead reduced to ni-, nind- to nid- and nindo- to nido-.
Ojibwe also has a set of demonstrative pronouns, distinguishing animate/inanimate, here/there/yonder/over here, singular/plural, and proximate/obviative. The demonstratives differ in their phonetic forms very significantly across Ojibwe dialects and communities, so this table, based on the Minnesota dialect of Southwestern Ojibwe, will not be entirely correct for many speakers:
| Animate | Inanimate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Obviative | Singular | Plural | |
| Here | wa'aw | ongow | onow | o'ow | onow |
| There | a'aw | ingiw | iniw | i'iw | iniw |
| Over there/ Yonder |
a'awedi | ingiwedig | iniwedin | i'iwedi | iniwedin |
| Over here | wa'awedi | ongowedig | onowedin | o'owedi | onowedin |
Ojibwe also has a set of interrogative pronouns (awenen, "who?", awegonen, "what?"), dubitative pronouns (awegwen, "I don't know who", wegodogwen, "I don't know what"), and "indefinite" pronouns (awiiya, "someone", gegoo, "something," both of which can be preceded by gaawiin or akina to mean "no one, nothing" and "everyone, everything," respectively).
Read more about this topic: Ojibwe Grammar
Famous quotes containing the word pronouns:
“In the meantime no sense in bickering about pronouns and other parts of blather.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)