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How to use the Ojibwe People's Dictionary

aaniish pc disc

well, well now, after all, you see, what did you expect?



"The major function of of aaniish is to mark justifications or qualifications of actions, behaviors, or conditions, having the force of English well, after all, or the phrase what do you expect? A typical situation in which aaniish might be used is where there is some misalignment of expectations or assumptions, on the part of either the speaker or some other person in relation to someone or something, and the speaker feels a need to provide some statement that would explain, qualify, justify, or reconcile that misalignment." - p. 99 in: Brendan Fairbanks (2016) Ojibwe Discourse Markers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 

Aaniish inaa akawe ninga-gaagiizomaag aadizookaanag.

Well, first I honor the spirits.
 nj
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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.