Ojibwe: Voices and Stories across the Great Lakes

Who speaks Ojibwe, and what do they call it?

Anishinaabe communities across the Great Lakes and beyond speak Ojibwe in Canada and the United States. English names include Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Ojibway and Chippewa. The language is also called Anishinaabemowin; Nipissing First Nation uses the local spelling Anishinaabemwin.

How many people speak Ojibwe worldwide?

A precise worldwide total is uncertain. Canada’s 2021 census recorded 25,440 Indigenous people able to hold a conversation in its “Ojibway languages” category, including later learners.

Where did Ojibwe come from, and who spoke it in the past?

Ojibwe belongs to the Algonquian language family. Historical communities lived around Lakes Huron and Superior, where French explorers, missionaries and traders encountered them in the seventeenth century. Trade and westward movement helped shape the wider communities of today.

Early printed works include an 1831 Gospel of John translated by John Jones and revised by his brother Peter, both Mississauga Ojibwe. An Odawa prayer book first appeared in 1832. These publications came long after the languages were already spoken.

Which Ojibwe words might an English speaker already recognise?

English totem comes from an Ojibwe form referring to someone’s clan emblem. Chipmunk is probably another Ojibwe loan: it reached English through “chitmunk”, associated with an Ojibwe word for a red squirrel.

How does Ojibwe vary from region to region?

Ojibwe forms a chain of local varieties. Southwestern Ojibwe includes speech in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Rainy River area of northwestern Ontario.

Farther east, Odawa often shortens words by reducing or dropping unstressed short vowels. Vocabulary and grammar also vary, so distant communities can differ by more than an accent.

How is Ojibwe written, and where are its writing systems used?

There is no single written standard. The Double-Vowel system appears in dictionaries and teaching materials in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Northern varieties also use syllabics, whose signs represent syllables.

Which alphabet does Ojibwe use, and what might surprise an English speaker?

The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary’s Southwestern system lists 25 Double-Vowel writing units: seven vowel and eighteen consonant units, counting digraphs and the apostrophe.

Vowel length distinguishes anokii, someone works, from anookii, someone hires.

Does Ojibwe have grammatical gender?

Yes: animate and inanimate. All words for people are animate, but some words for objects are too.

How do you say hello, thank you and goodbye in Ojibwe?

In Southwestern Ojibwe:

• Boozhoo — hello or greetings.
• Miigwech — thank you.
• Giga-waabamin miinawaa — I’ll see you again.

What are some memorable Ojibwe sayings?

Alphonse Pitawanakwat translated these English sayings into the wording of his home community, Wiikwemkoong:

• Gegwa nagaasadooke maamiikimanjoyin. An urge to be generous is worth acting on.
• Naaniibowiitan gdi-naakinigewinan. A decision comes with responsibility for standing behind it.

What everyday customs might surprise a visitor?

At the Mille Lacs Band’s December 2024 employee gathering, Virgil Wind offered Elder Joe Nayquonabe Sr. tobacco, Asemaa, when asking him to give the invocation. Nayquonabe spoke in Ojibwe, then explained briefly in English. These monthly gatherings brought employees together for a shared meal, drumming and song.

Which Ojibwe-language song and film offer a cultural introduction?

Frank Bartley wrote and sang Memengwe (“Butterfly”), a women’s Fancy Dance song with translation credited to Francis Fox-ba. Its words connect a dancer’s movement with a butterfly.

Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby’s Mino Bimaadiziwin (2017) follows a trans Anishinaabe man reconnecting with community through an unexpected relationship. It uses English and Odawa; Cinema Politica’s edition lists English and Odawa subtitles.

What is available for someone curious about the language now?

• The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary offers free Southwestern entries, named-speaker recordings and examples.
• Ojibwe.net provides lessons, stories and song recordings.
• Nipissing First Nation’s language pages offer local place-name resources, songs and information about community classes and printed materials.

Fun Facts

• Aabitoose, it is Wednesday, is a verb: a weekday can be expressed as something happening.
• Minnesota Ojibwe makade-mashkikiwaaboo means coffee, with the image “black medicine water”.