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How to use the Ojibwe People's Dictionary

ni= pf

I, me [the one or ones speaking, the first person]; my [the one or ones speaking, the first person]

Note:
A personal prefix marks I, me as a first person participant on independent mode verbs and the possessive my on possessed nouns. The form of the first person prefix depends on the initial sound of the element it is attached to, the rate of the speech, and local dialect preference. The first person prefix generally has the form nind, ind, or nd in front of a vowel (a, aa, e, i, ii, o, oo), ni, nim, im, or m in front of b, and ni, in, or n in front of other sounds. However on dependent nouns (labeled nad or nid) with stems beginning with ii or oo, it has the form n and at Red Lake, Minnesota some speakers use the form niy in front of aa.



The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is developed and maintained by:
Nora Livesay, Editor
John D. Nichols, Founder and Linguistic Editor

with support and collaboration from the University of Minnesota's Department of American Indian Studies and University Libraries.

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Many of the words in the Ojibwe People's Dictionary have related resources. Click through to the full dictionary entry to hear audio recordings, see images, read documents and watch videos. Here's a key to resource icons.

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Speakers & Regions Key

Individual speakers and speakers from different regions use different words when speaking. Each audio recording is marked with the initials of the Ojibwe speaker. Click on a speaker's initials to go to the speaker's bio page. If an Ojibwe word is particular to a certain region, it will be marked with a region code. Click on the region code to go to the Regions page.