Ottawa Language

Boozhoo! or Aanii!

[boːʒoː, ɑːniː]          (bo-zho!, aah-nee!)

Note: There is no word for "Oklahoma" in Ottawa.

 

---

©2005 Benjamin Bruce. Some Rights Reserved.

 

• EightTribes.org/ottawa – Website of the Ottawa Tribe
• English > Ottawa sentence translator

Ottawa is very similar to Chippewa (Ojibwa), and is often considered a dialect of that language. Here are some links to websites about the Chippewa language in general.

• Ojibwemowin.com – Ojibwemowin Zagaswe'idiwin (Ojibwe Language Society)
• Anishinabe audio samples
• Online Anishinaabemowin grammar and lessons
• Anishinaabemowin
• Ojibwe language at Wikipedia

 

Gii-pagdosed iidig gaa-dbikak. Mkoon iidig gaa-zhi-nkweshkwaad. "Aanpii-sh ezhaayin?" wdigoon-sh ge. "Ann Arbor," wdinaan ge. "Ka-ni-waawiidsemi," kido giiwenh wa mko.

So after it got dark he had to set out on foot. That's how he came to meet the bear. "Where are you going?" the bear asked. "Ann Arbor." "Why don't we walk together?" the bear suggested.

---

Source: Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Accessed at the Rosetta Project.

Ottawa alphabet (Nichols-Fiero orthography)

Vowels

a	aa	e	i	ii	o	oo
[ʌ]	[ɑː]	[ɛː]	[ɪ]	[iː]	[ʊ]	[oː]

Consonants

b	ch	d	g	h	j
[b]	[ʧ]	[d]	[g]	[ʔ]	[ʤ]
k	m	n	(ng)	p	s
[kʰ]	[m]	[n, ˜]	[ŋ]	[pʰ]	[s]
sh	t	w	y	z	zh
[ʃ]	[tʰ]	[w]	[j]	[z]	[ʒ]

Notes

• enh is pronounced [ɛ̃ː].
• n before some consonants indicates nasality; for example eny [ɛ̃ːj], ens [ɛ̃ːs]. The same is true with sh, z, and zh.

 

---

Contributed by Christopher Harvey.