<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><META name="Author" content="Novell GroupWise WebAccess"></head><body style='font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; '>From a few examples off the top of my head, in the case Nishnaabemwin as spoken in my home community, gender stays fixed -- not even a remote pun intended :) whatever the state of a particular object denoted by the noun. (I'm refraining from saying "meaning" as I've just finished a report on a
translation of a text, and in my report, I cite the types of
"meaning" that "lexical items" can have as conceptualized in translation
studies, "denotative meaning" being one type, per such scholars as Jeremy
Munday and Mona Baker.)<br><br>To illustrate, one can say of zaagkiichgan (inanimate) denoting "houseplant", while it's alive, "Bmaadziimgat go aanwi geyaabi" (Fortunately, it's still alive [despite my having forgotten to water it for five days].)<br><br>When we speak of a delicious apple that we've bought at the farmers market, "Enwek sa naa mnopgozi", using the same gender though it's long been plucked from the tree.<br><br>The only inconsistency that I've noticed is the kind arising from differences between how different communities -- and sometimes different families within a community -- customarily speak of certain things. Roger Spielmann was shocked when I told him "sin" is inanimate in our community -- e.g. Sin ngii-dkokaadaan (I stepped on a stone.) Siniins te nmakzining. (There's a pebble in my shoe.) I don't do the sweat lodge, so I can't say whether eNshinbaabemjik from my home community switch the gender of sin in that context.<br><br>bsagaak (board bigger than a small board) -- animate;<br>bsagaakoons -- animate<br><br>mtik -- animate even once the tree has died, say from Dutch elm disease -- e.g. of a dead tree, "Gdaa-gii-giishkboonaa wa" (Could you please cut that down.)<br><br>mskomin hanging on the (inanimate but living) raspberry plant -- animate;<br>mskomin sitting on top of my cheesecake -- animate (e.g. Bezhgomnak eta mskomin bi ndoo-cheesecake-ong. -- There's only one raspberry on my...)<br><br>Must be suppertime. Food examples are starting to pop up left and right.<br><br>MAC<br><br><br>>>> MONICA MACAULAY <mmacaula@wisc.edu> 12/10/15 4:32 PM >>><br> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> That one holds in Menominee too - it seems to have something to do with size (large boards are animate but smaller ones are inanimate, according to Bloomfield). <div class=""><br class=""> </div> <div class="">- Monica<br class=""> <div class=""><br class=""> <div> <blockquote type="cite" class=""> <div class="">On Dec 10, 2015, at 3:07 PM, Guillaume Jacques <<a href="mailto:rgyalrongskad@gmail.com" class="">rgyalrongskad@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div> <br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> <div class=""> <div dir="ltr" class="">In Ojibwe, mitig means "tree" when animate (pl mitigoog), and "stick" when inanimate (pl mitigoon), which looks in some way similar to the "apple" case you mention (becoming inanimate when removed from the place where it grew). This pair exists in other Algonquian languages, I think.</div> <div class="gmail_extra"><br class=""> <div class="gmail_quote">2015-12-10 21:48 GMT+01:00 MONICA MACAULAY <span dir="ltr" class=""> <<a href="mailto:mmacaula@wisc.edu" target="_blank" class="">mmacaula@wisc.edu</a>></span>:<br class=""> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> Recently I’ve heard Menominee learners saying that “apple” is animate while it’s attached to the tree, but inanimate when it falls on the ground. Bloomfield does talk about how inanimate nouns can be treated as animate in, for example, stories where some object takes on magical qualities, but I don’t think he talks about this kind of switch (although I could just be missing it!). Do you find this in other Algonquian languages? Or do you think this is an innovation by the learners? I’ve heard it from a lot of people and have been wondering about it for a while.<br class=""> <br class=""> thanks!<br class=""> <br class=""> - Monica<br class=""> _______________________________________________<br class=""> Algonquiana mailing list<br class=""> <a href="mailto:Algonquiana@listserv.linguistlist.org" class="">Algonquiana@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br class=""> <a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana</a><br class=""> </blockquote> </div> <br class=""> <br class="" clear="all"> <div class=""><br class=""> </div> -- <br class=""> <div class="gmail_signature">Guillaume Jacques<br class=""> CNRS (CRLAO) - INALCO<br class=""> <a href="http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques" target="_blank" class="">http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques</a><br class=""> <div class=""><a href="http://himalco.hypotheses.org/" target="_blank" class="">http://himalco.hypotheses.org/</a></div> <div class=""><a href="http://panchr.hypotheses.org/" target="_blank" class="">http://panchr.hypotheses.org/</a></div> </div> </div> _______________________________________________<br class=""> Algonquiana mailing list<br class=""> <a href="mailto:Algonquiana@listserv.linguistlist.org" class="">Algonquiana@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br class=""> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana<br class=""> </div> </blockquote> </div> <br class=""> </div> </div> </body></html>