mondageesokwe Anishinabemowin, Odawa language, Ojibway, Ojibwe Indians, Ottawa indians, Uncategorized Anishinabemowin, Anishinbemowin, Dibaganik, Odawa language, Ojibwe Language, Time in Odawa, Time in Ojibwe

Boozhoo Anishinabedog miinawa Zhaagnaashidog!

Long time no blog eh? Well this summer so far has turned out to be super busy, but here I am trying to catch up on my blog. Nongwa (Today) we will talk about Dibaganik – Time.

Dibagiiswan – Clock

Dibaginik – Time / Hour

Dibaganens – Minutes

Aaniish endaso dibagiiswan? – What does the clock read?

(Local: Mt. Pleasant) Aaniish e’ piichek? What hour is it?

1 o’clock – Bezhig dibaganik. – 1 hour

1:16 – Midaaswi shi ngodwaaswi dibaginens ishkwa beshig dibaganik. – 16 after 1 hour.

2:30 – Abta ishkwaa niizh dibaganik. – Half after 2 hour.

Jibwaa / Jibowaa – Before

Ishkwaa – After

Abta – Half

Besho – Close

Aanish e’ piichek?

Besho niizh dibaganik. Close to 2 hour.

For more number words, you can refer back to our number list in the “Birthday Party” post.

Today / Now – Nongwa/ Nongo

Yesterday – Bijinaago

Tomorrow – Waabang

Now for some Anishinabemowin sentence-ology:

To talk about past and future tense in a sentence you must use a prefix marker.

First off if you are talking about yourself you would use the (Ni / Nin) marker. If you are talking about someone in the 2nd person (You) you would use the( Gi / Giin) marker. Attached to these would be the tense marker – Wii – Future tense, Gii Past tense. There are lots more of these markers, but I am trying to keep this simple for beginners, as you continue your studies, you will find that there are many morphemes and many markers in Anishinabemowin. Please note, I am not a linguist so I am probably not using the correct linguistic terms here to explain this… check with a linguist for the correct labels. Now for a sentence to show you how you affix these markers.

Nigii ezhaa zhooniyaawigamig bijinaago. – I went to the bank yesterday.

Ni – I gii (past tense marker) ezhaa – to go zhooniyaawigamig (money dwelling) bijinaago – yesterday.

Niwii ezhaa zhooniyaawigamig nongwa. – I am going to the bank today.

Niwii ezhaa zhooniyaawigamig waabang. – I am going to the bank tomorrow.

In this case, when talking about today and tomorrow, you are talking about something that has not happened yet, therefore you use the marker “Ni wii”.

If you have any comments or questions about “time” or how these sentences work, feel free to leave a message! 😀

Mi sa iw.