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How to use the Ojibwe People's Dictionary

niijii nad es
Listen

my friend

Note:
This is a form of direct address (vocative) traditionally used by men talking to each other. Eugene Stillday considers it to be a short form of niijikiwenh "my brother, my cousin (male parallel cousin), my fellow man" and reports that the form niij is also in common use.



niijii ; niij ;

niijii es
Listen

nj
Listen

niij es
Listen

Boozhoo niijii.

Hello, my friend.
 es
Listen

Boozhoo niij.

Hello, my friend.
 es
Listen

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.

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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.