See main article: Ottawa language. Traditional Ottawa stories fall into two general categories, aasookaan 'legend, sacred story' (plural aasookaanag)[1] and dbaajmowin 'narrative, story' (plural dbaajmownan).[2] Stories in the aasookaan category involve mythical characters such as Nenbozh.[3] [4] [5] [6] Stories in the dbaajmowin category include traditional stories that do not necessarily involve mythical characters,[7] with the same term also used more generally to refer to any type of story not in the aasookaan category. Published Ottawa text material includes a range of genres, including historical narratives,[8] stories of conflict with other indigenous groups,[9] humorous stories,[10] and others.[6] [11]
Ottawa speaker Andrew Medler dictated the following text while he was working with Leonard Bloomfield in a linguistic field methods class at the Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic Society of America, held during the summer of 1938 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[12] Medler grew up near Saginaw, Michigan but spent most of his life at Walpole Island.[13] The texts that Medler dictated were originally published in a linguistically oriented transcription using phonetic symbols, and have been republished in the modern orthography, with analysis.[14]
Love Medicine
Andrew Medler
Below is an interlinear glossing and analysis of the words in each sentence, with lines of analysis being vertically aligned on a word-by-word basis. For each sentence the first line presents the text, the second presents a morphological analysis, the third line presents a translation of the elements identified in line 2, and the fourth line presents a word-by-word translation. A more detailed morphological analysis is also available.[15] A table of codes for grammatical elements used in interlinear glossing occurs after the glossed sentences.[16]
In the first line the hyphen '-' is used to mark the division between a preverb and an immediately following verb, as in Sentence 1: ngii-noondwaaba 'I heard it,' with past tense preverb gii-; or a preverb followed by another preverb, as in Sentence 5, gaa-zhi-gchi-zaaghaad, where the first two hyphens indicate the boundaries between preverbs, and the third hyphen indicates the boundary between a preverb and a verb. In the second line, where morphological analysis is presented, the hyphen marks the start of a suffix, as in wshkiniigkwe-n 'young.man' followed by Obviative suffix -n. Also in the second line, the marker '=' indicates the boundary between a verb and a following verb or preverb.
Sentence 1
| (1) | Ngoding | kiwenziinh | ngii-noondwaaba | a-dbaajmod | wshkiniigkwen | gii-ndodmaagod | iw | wiikwebjigan | ||||||||||||||||
| (2) | ngoding | kiwenziinh | n- | gii= | noondaw | align="center" | -aa | align="center" | -ba | a= | dbaajmo- | align="center" | -d | wshkiniigkwe- | align="center" | -n | gii= | ndodmaw- | align="center" | -igw | align="center" | -d | iw | wiikwebjigan |
| (3) | once | old.man | 1 | PAST | hear NA | DIR | PRET | PV.CNJ | tell.story | CNJ.3 | young.woman | OBV | PAST | ask NA for NI | INV | CNJ.3 | that | love.medicine | ||||||
| (4) | Once | old man | I heard him | he says | young woman | he asked the other for | that | love medicine |
| (1) | Wgii-msawenmaan | niw | wshkinwen | ||||||||
| (2) | w- | gii= | msawenm- | align="center" | -aa- | align="center" | -n | niw | wshkinwe | align="center" | -n |
| (3) | 3 | PAST | desire NA | DIR | OBV | that.NA.OBV | young.man | OBV | |||
| (4) | She desired him | that one | young man |
Sentence 3
| (1) | Mii | dash | niw | kiwenziinyan | gii-dodamaagod | iw | wiikwebjigan, | gye | go | wgii-dbahmawaan | |||||||||||||
| (2) | mii | dash | niw | kiwenziinh | align="center" | -an | gii= | dodamaw- | align="center" | -igw | align="center" | -d | iw | wiikwebjigan | gye | go | w- | gii= | dbahmaw- | align="center" | -aa | align="center" | -an |
| (3) | so | then | that.NA | old.man | OBV | PV.PAST | do so to NA | INV | CNJ.3 | that.NI | love.medicine | and | emphatic | 3 | PV.PAST | pay NI to NA | DIR | OBV | |||||
| (4) | So | then | that one | old man | she asked him for it | that | love medicine, | and | emphatic | she paid him for it |
Sentence 4
| (1) | Mii | dash | gii-aabjitood | maaba | wshkiniigkwe | iw | mshkiki | gaa-giishpnadood | ||||||
| (2) | mii | dash | gii= | aabjitoo- | align="center" | -d | maaba | wshkiniigkwe | iw | mshkiki | gaa= | giishpnadoo- | align="center" | -d |
| (3) | so | then | PV.PAST | use NI | CNJ.3 | this NA | young.woman | that NI | medicine | IC.PAST | buy NI | CNJ.3 | ||
| (4) | So | then | she used it | this | young woman | that | medicine | that she bought |
Sentence 5
| (1) | Mii | dash | maaba | wshkinwe | gaa-zhi-gchi-zaaghaad | niw | wshkiniigkwen | ||||||||
| (2) | mii | dash | maaba | wshkinwe | gaa= | zhi= | gchi= | zaagh- | -aa | align="center" | -d | niw | wshkiniigkwe- | align="center" | -n |
| (3) | so | then | this NA | young.man | IC.PAST | thus | very | love NA | DIR | CNJ.3 | that NA | young.woman | OBV | ||
| (4) | So | then | this one | young man | he very much loved her | that one | young woman | ||||||||
Sentence 6
| (1) | Gye | go | mii | gii-wiidgemaad, | gye | go | mii | wiiba | gii-yaawaawaad | binoojiinyan | ||||||||||||||
| (2) | gye | go | mii | gii= | wiidgem- | align="center" | -aa | align="center" | -d | gye | go | mii | wiiba | gii= | yaaw- | align="center" | -aa | align="center" | -waa | align="center" | -d | binoojiinh | align="center" | -an |
| (3) | and | emphatic | so | PAST | marry NA | DIR | CNJ.3 | and | emphatic | so | soon | PV.PAST | have NA | DIR | CNJ.PL.3 | CNJ.3 | child | OBV | ||||||
| (4) | And | indeed | so | he married her | and | indeed | so | soon | they had | children |
Sentence 7
| (1) | Aapji | go | gii-zaaghidwag | gye | go | gii-maajiishkaawag | ||||||
| (2) | aapji | go | gii= | zaaghidi- | align="center" | -wag | gye | go | gii= | maajiishkaa- | align="center" | -wag |
| (3) | very | emphatic | PV.PAST | love.each.other | PL.NA | and | emphatic | PV.PAST | fare.well | PL.NA | ||
| (4) | Very much | indeed | they loved each other | and | indeed | they fared very well |
The following table lists codes used in the interlinear analysis of the text.
| Code | Gloss | Code | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First person | NI | Inanimate gender | |
| 3 | Third person | OBV | Obviative form of noun | |
| CNJ | Conjunct form of verb | PAST | Past tense preverb | |
| DIR | Direct inflection of verb | PL | Plural | |
| IC | Initial Change | PRET | Preterit mode | |
| INV | Inverse form of verb | PV | Preverb element occurring before verb | |
| NA | Animate gender | |||