LANGUAGE TABLE is on break the time being.There is an email list, so let me know if you would like to be on it!I created this page so that I could post reviews from our language table (community language class held in St. Paul). I will try to get all past reviews up also, once I can review them and make corrections. I will also might post other things as well that pertain to the language. We'll see what presents itself.Much of what we cover at Language Table (and subsequently here on this site) is not in language books or grammars. They are also not usually taught in Ojibwe classrooms (as far as I know although I try to cover them in my class at the University of Minnesota). These patterns and drills are based upon "native speaker" patterns, not patterns that I made up. :) In other words, these are patterns that 1st language speakers actually use. That is the focus here - to learn and use real native speaker (1st language speaker) patterns. So, if you see something here that you've never seen or heard of before, it is because much of this is new research. There is a lot we (2nd language speakers) still do not know about the language! Not everything is figured out yet (if such a thing is possible)! I think classrooms and grammar books give learners the impression (sometimes) that everything is indeed figured out. "All I have to do is take this class or read this book and I'll be fluent." Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even really fluent 2nd language speakers still have gaps in their language, i.e. the proper use of mii-phrases, discourse markers such as nashke, awenh, naa, sha naa, da naa, gosha, etc., the proper use of demonstratives such as a'aw and wa'aw (sometimes their use is directly opposite from English), proper use of initial change, etc. "Time" is another big thing in Ojibwe that is largely a mystery. In other words, how does Ojibwe cut up time (I'm not talking about "telling time")? Still trying to figure that one out. :) So, once you become fluent, don't stop there! Keep searching for what we don't know! And there is still a lot of that!If you see typos or erros, please let me know! Typos and errors have no place in language materials. :)Current Reviews and Articles in Blog (for easy navigation)Telling Stories
"Transitive suffix -ang"
"We saw so-and-so and so-and-so verbing" Drill
"There is no one that I could verb."
"She asked me to verb." Drill
"I want you to verb me" Drill
"I saw him/her over at the pow-wow verbing" Drill
"He's more verb than me." Drill
"He thinks he's verb, but he's verb" Drill
"Ojibwe Buns" - The functions of the -ban tense
"IDASH doesn't mean AND!!!"
"Word Order" in Ojibwe - Not totally FREE!!!
"She told me, I told her" Direct quoting with IZHI
"Personal prefix for I" - The situation on the ground in MN
"Because" phrases without ONJI-
"And then" Phrases
"Initial Change" - What we thought we knew!
Some VTA Subordinate Endings (B-form endings)
"If/Whether or not" Phrases
"When I got home, I verbed."
"We saw him/her verbing..." Drill
"Until-phrases"
"Ojibwe Expressions, Figures of Speech"
Orthography Help
"Talking about People - You know you want to!"
If you don't see all the blogs, click on the button on the left side which says "older". After so many blogs, old ones get labeled as "older".I hope this is helpful.
-Awanigaabaw (Brendan Fairbanks)
