obviation

David Costa pankihtamwa at earthlink.net
Sun Jun 3 18:54:12 UTC 2007


I'm no expert, but my impression was that the most commonly preferred name
for the language of the Odawa by the people themselves was Nishnaabemwin. Of
course, Nishnaabemwin is the same word as Ojibwe Anishinaabemowin, but run
through Odawa's syncope rules.

It's also worth pointing out that while no tribal communities in Canada use
the name 'Ottawa' anymore (AFAIK), there is in fact a recognized Ottawa
tribe in Oklahoma who always call themselves 'Ottawa'.
 
Among the linguistic community, on the other hand, it's accepted that
Odawa/Ottawa, Algonquin, Chippewa/Ojibwe, Salteaux, and Severn
Ojibwe/Ojicree are all forms of one language complex, which linguists often
call 'Ojibwean'. 

David

> 
> Actually, that can be a pretty serious issue (speaker preference).
> There are some Odaawaa speakers who dislike having their language
> called Ojibwe, others who consider Ojibwe a "family" to which Odaawaa
> belongs. Most Ojibwe/Chippewa people around these parts (Minnesota,
> Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula) consider Odaawaa a different language from
> their varieties, but there is great mutual intelligibility. Maybe a
> safe, neutral terminology that would satisfy both linguists and
> speakers would be something like "Odaawaa Ojibwe". I suppose you'd
> have to ask an Odaawaa speaker to find out whether that would solve
> the problem. I don't know any in this area.
> 
> - Bryan
> 
> 2007/6/2, Marino <marino at skyway.usask.ca>:

>> I think of Odawa as a variety of Ojibwe and I tend to refer every named
>> variety in the respective regions to either *Ojibwe* or *Cree* - I am sure
>> that this is very inexact from an Algonquianist perspective.  Is there an
>> issue here with the speech community?  Do speakers of the varieties of
>> Odawa object to having their languages referred to as Ojibwe?
>> 
>> Mary
>> 
>> At 11:05 AM 6/1/2007, you wrote:
>>> Odawa, to be exact.
>>> 
>>> David
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> I need to correct my earlier e-mail:   Nishnaabemwin (Piriyawiboon's paper)
>>>> is Ojibwe, not Cree.
>>>> 
>>>> Mary
>>>> 
>> 
>> 



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