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Ojibwa — the Ojibwe Language

Ojibwa is the name a reader meets in the old books — printed Otchipwe, Ojebway, and Chippeway — for the language of the Anishinaabe peoples, whose own doorway stands at Anishinaabemowin — the Anishinaabe Language. This doorway stands under the name the old books use, so the works that carry that name can be found by it.

Recovered texts are here to read. The people's own curriculum doorway is in preparation — in partnership with the Anishinaabe nations' own speakers. The language's own room — its writing chart, its own teachers, its voices — stands at the Anishinaabe doorway; this page gathers the recovered shelf under the Ojibwa name.

Recovered reading

The recovered books stand here: the Gospel of Matthew in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) — OMINUAJIMOUIN AU ST. MATTHIU — translated by Sherman Hall and Henry Blatchford and printed in the Ojibwe New Testament by the American Bible Society in 1856, complete in 28 chapters and 1,071 verses. It is the people’s own book, recovered and set here exactly as it was printed — not a Sacred Name edition; the collection’s own edition in this language waits for the partnership. Its page carries its cautions in full, including the verse number printed “52” at Matthew 26:62. Read Matthew in Anishinaabemowin (1856)

From the same people, the earliest book on this shelf: the Tracts in the Chippeway and English (New York, 1828) — seven hymns, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed and Matthew 5, each in Chippeway and in English — from the circle of Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby), recovered whole. Its one wound is named on its page: the Chippeway of Matthew 5:23–26 is washed out in the only copy found, and stands as a marked gap, never filled. Read the Tracts in the Chippeway and English (1828)

The language's own grammar stands here too: Frederick Baraga's Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language (Detroit, 1850) — his Preface and Introduction entire, and the opening of Part First with the vowel key his Dictionary also uses. Two words in the one open copy are inked out by a former reader; they stand marked, not guessed. Read Baraga's Grammar (1850) — front matter and the opening of Part First

A second New Testament witness stands beside the 1856 Matthew, never merged with it: the Epistle of Jude whole, all twenty-five verses, from the Ojibway New Testament translated by F. A. O'Meara and printed at Toronto in 1854, in the spelling Wilson's Manual afterward adopted. Read the Epistle of Jude in Ojibway (1854)

Edward F. Wilson's Ojebway Language: A Manual (Toronto, 1874) — his Introduction entire, the Grammar's opening page and its pronunciation key — is here as a language witness; its page carries its context plainly: Wilson learned the language from the speakers of Garden River, and in the same years founded the Shingwauk school. Read Wilson's Ojebway Language Manual (1874)

And the dictionary itself: Baraga's Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, Part II, Otchipwe–English (Montreal, 1880) — his Preface entire with the pronunciation extract and the eleven Necessary Remarks that unlock the book, and the first two pages of the letter A. Part I and the rest of the alphabet stand for a continuation. Read Baraga's Dictionary, Part II (1880) — front matter and the opening of A

Last, the people's own stories in their own words: William Jones's Ojibwa Texts, Part I (Leyden, 1917) — the Contents and Preface entire, Jones's own account of his spelling and his thanks, and Text 1, “The Birth of Nanabushu,” told by Wāsāgunackaŋ of Bois Fort, in Ojibwa and in Jones's translation, complete. The narrators are named on the page; the remaining sixty-two texts stand for continuation. Read Ojibwa Texts, Part I (1917) — Preface and Text 1

The dictionary's other half stands here now: Baraga's Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, Part I, English–Otchipwe (Montreal, 1878) — its Notice and the editor's Remarks entire, with the Cree words this edition sets beside the Otchipwe, the tables that form the imperative, and the first two pages of entries, from A, an through Acorn. This copy binds the 1878 Grammar at its head; the Dictionary's own title leaf and front matter are what its page recovers. The rest of Part I's alphabet stands for a continuation. Read Baraga's Dictionary, Part I (1878) — front matter and the opening of A

The story goes on: on a second page, Text 2 of the same volume, “The Theft of Fire” — Nanabushu crosses the frozen sea as a little hare and steals fire for his grandmother's lodge — told by Wāsāgunackaŋ of Bois Fort, complete in Ojibwa and in Jones's translation. The front matter and Text 1 stand on the first Jones page; the remaining sixty-one texts of Part I, and Part II, stand for continuation. Read Ojibwa Texts, Part I (1917) — Text 2, “The Theft of Fire”

Addition — O'Meara, 1854: 2 John and 3 John whole. Two more short books from the same Toronto volume as Jude: the Second Epistle of John (thirteen verses) and the Third Epistle of John (fourteen verses), complete in Ojibway at printed pp. 711–714. The volume's errata leaf was read entire and names no reading in either epistle, so both stand exactly as the 1854 pages print them — including, in 2 John 2, the printed form "ayahmahgnk" beside its parallel "kaähyahmahguk" in the same verse; one heading initial is clipped in the copy's scan and is disclosed on the page. No reading is marked uncertain. This is a second, distinct witness, standing beside Hall and Blatchford's 1856 Matthew and never merged with it. Read the Second and Third Epistles of John in Ojibway (1854).

Wilson's Ojebway Language: A Manual (1874) stands here again, at the opening of its dialogue part: the Part II title page with its Contents entire — Rules for Composition, Exercises, and twelve dialogues from Salutations to Conversations on Religion — and the first dialogue entire, “Salutations, Weather, &c.” (printed pp. 130–131), each entry as Wilson printed it, his English first and then the Ojebway. One word on p. 131 is crossed by a dark mark in the microfiche copy and stands marked, not filled; the Rules and Exercises that stand between the Contents and the Dialogues are not taken, and that boundary is stated on the page. Its context stands there too, in brief: Wilson learned the language from the speakers of Garden River, and in the same years founded the Shingwauk school. Read Wilson's Manual, Part II (1874) — title, Contents, and Dialogue I

The whole Gospel of John in the language stands here too, in the translation of two brothers of the Credit: John Jones — Thayendanegea — who translated it, and Peter Jones — Kahkewaquonaby — who revised and corrected it, printed at London in 1831. It is set as a recovery draft and says so on its face: the first chapter is proofed against the pages themselves, and the remaining chapters are set from the old copy's machine reading, their full checking against the pages still to come — the debt carried in the open, as this shelf carries all its debts. Read the Gospel of John in Ojibwa (1831) — recovery draft

Peter Jones sang with his people in their own language, and his hymn book stands here: Ojebway Nuhguhmonun, printed at Toronto in 1840 — the book his converted brethren at the mission stations asked him, earnestly and again, to reprint, because, as he writes in his Preface, the Great Spirit had made their hearts to rejoice whilst singing his praises in the language of those hymns. Both title pages, his Preface, and his Key to the sounds are here entire, and the first ten hymns with them, the Ojebway divided into syllables as he divided it, and the English on the facing page as he printed it. Read Ojebway Nuhguhmonun — front matter and Hymns 1–10 (1840)

The story goes on again: on a third page, Text 3 of the same volume, “Nänabushu slays his Younger Brother” — Nänabushu learns he was not an only child, fights his brother in the south, and, counselled by the Weasel, sets him over the dead — told by Wāsāgunackaŋ of Bois Fort, complete in Ojibwa and in Jones's translation. The front matter and Text 1 stand on the first Jones page and Text 2 on its own page; Texts 4–63 of Part I, and Part II, stand for continuation. Read Ojibwa Texts, Part I (1917) — Text 3, “Nänabushu slays his Younger Brother”

The second part of the same work stands open now too: Ojibwa Texts, Part II (1919) — the Miscellaneous Tales — with its front matter, the Contents of all seventy-eight tales, Michelson's Introduction, and its first tale complete, “The Youth who died and came back to Life,” told by Mrs. Marie Syrette of Fort William: a youth dies, walks to the town of the ghosts, and returns. Part II numbers its tales from 1 again; Texts 2–78 stand for continuation. Read Ojibwa Texts, Part II (1919) — front matter, Contents, and Text 1

The whole Book of Genesis in the language stands here too, in Peter Jones's own translation — Kahkewaquonaby of the Credit, who carried the Scriptures into his people's tongue — printed at Toronto in 1835. It is set as a recovery draft and says so on its face: the first chapter is proofed against the pages themselves, and the remaining chapters are set from the old copy's machine reading, their full checking against the pages still to come — the debt carried in the open, as this shelf carries all its debts. Read Genesis in Ojibwa (1835) — recovery draft

The Gospel of Matthew in the language stands here in its first twelve chapters, in the translation of the two brothers of the Credit — Kahkewagwonnaby, Peter Jones, and Tyentennagen, John Jones — printed at York in 1831 for the York Auxiliary Bible Society. The chapters are proofed against the pages themselves; the rest of the Gospel, which the old copy holds entire, stands as the continuation, and the page says so plainly. Read the Gospel of Matthew in Ojibwa (1831) — chapters 1–12

A small hymn book in the language stands here too, printed in 1877 at the Shingwauk Home at Sault Ste. Marie — printed, its imprint says, by Indian boys at the Home — and attributed to Edward F. Wilson, the Home's founder. Its forty-eight hymns are recovered entire — the whole book — and the page prints the Shingwauk context on its face, as this shelf prints it wherever Wilson's name stands: the Home became the Shingwauk Indian Residential School, and the book is kept as a witness to the language, not as an honour to the institution. Read the Shingwank Hymn Book (1877) — Hymns 1–48

An open invitation

This door stands open by invitation. If you are a speaker, teacher, or language keeper of Anishinaabemowin, or you carry its authority, this programme asks to work with you — to be guided, corrected, and reviewed by the people whose language this is. In this collection the holy names are never invented: what the Creator is called in a language is for its own speakers to give, and the spelling of every text is theirs to settle. Write to the publisher at [email protected].

There is no one door for the whole people: the approach runs nation by nation, beginning with the nations nearest this collection's own home.

To hear it

When Anishinaabemowin opens here, it will be heard as well as read — in its own voice, spoken and recorded by Anishinaabe speakers. Until then this door is silent in Anishinaabemowin on purpose: the first voice heard in it should be the people's own.

The other doors

One small advertisement stands at the bottom of this page — never inside the reading text. The words of the book stand more prominent than the advertisement.