Teachings from the Language Tree, part 2: Vocal Sounds, Gift of the Thunderbirds

Waagaabagaa-giizis/Waatebagaa-giizis (Leaves Turning Moon)/Mandaamin-giizis (Corn Moon)/Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon); September 9, 2025

---

---

Boozhoo, aaniin, biindigen,

We're glad to have you back at our language teaching lodge!

Our goal is not to let grammar rules dominate our approach to teaching phonetics—quite the opposite. We prioritize sounds over grammar. After all, sounds are a gift of the Thunderbirds!

An Omushkego Inino (Swampy Cree) friend mentioned to me today, "The thunder echoes across the sky and penetrates deep within you. Over time, it transforms into your thought language. Nisidotam!"

Nisidotam means "Understand by hearing."

Prioritizing a phonological approach to our Nisidotam language learning project is well warranted. Nonetheless, we must not entirely overlook essential grammar rules. Our emphasis isn't solely on syntax. For traditional speakers, there are no strict rules regarding word order. They concentrate on verbs, nouns, and understanding the relationship between verbs and nouns with different forms of animacy. Our goal is to create a practical guide for teaching learners verb classification techniques that will help them grasp how those animacy categories influence grammar, while remaining true to the traditional Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) worldview and spirituality. We believe that categorizing verbs and their related nouns and pronouns into at least two types of animacy is vital. While we don't want to overly focus on grammar, it is important for learners to understand how to make verbs grammatically correspond with the animacy category of the subject and/or object in a sentence. This is fundamentally about animacy and how to consistently apply the different types of animacy in sentence construction. It also involves understanding how significantly English grammar and Western concepts have eroded the old language, along with our spiritual ways and traditions. We view our teaching method as an initial step in a sincere effort to revitalize the language spoken many generations ago, prior to Western colonization.

For more details on animacy and verb classification, see: Understanding Ojibwe Verb Classification Techniques for Language Learners

---

Illustration ©2021-2025 Zhaawano Giizhik