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How to use the Ojibwe People's Dictionary

gwiinobii vai s/he is unable to find a drink

gwiinom vta miss h/; be lonesome for h/

gwiinoobii vai s/he is unable to find water (or another liquid)

gwiinoobiiga'an vti

gwiishkoshi vai s/he whistles

gwiishkoshim vta whistle to h/

gwiishkoshwewegamide vii it whistles from boiling

gwiishkoshwewegamizo vai s/he whistles from boiling

gwiiwizens na a boy

(verb of being) gwiiwizensiwi vai s/he is a boy (verb of pretending) gwiiwizensikaazo vai s/he pretends to be a boy
gwiiwizensikaazo vai s/he pretends to be a boy

gwiiwizensiwi vai s/he is a boy

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.

Additional Resources

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.

  • Audio recordings
  • Images
  • Video
  • Documents

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.