Chippewa language

Like other varieties of Anishinaabemowin, in Chippewa a great deal of information is already contained in the words, so the sentence order can be quite free, but the primary word order is subject–verb–object. There are three general parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and others. Nouns types are broken down by number and by whether they are animate or inanimate gender. There are four verb types used to show if the verb is transitive, if the subject of the verb is animate or inanimate, if the object of the verb is animate or inanimate, and the plurality of the subject. There is also a verb type that may only be used in the inverse. There are case markings that come at the beginning of words to show what verb type or noun type the word is. Other classes of words include adverbs, numbers, particles, pre-nouns, and pre-verbs.[12] Pre-verbs and pre-nouns are not whole words; however, they are modifying forms that freely combine with nouns, verbs, or adverbs to add meaning. These words come before that which they are describing, and may not be at the beginning of the word if other meanings are added to the word. Hyphens in Chippewa signify the break between a stem and a pre-noun or pre-verb.[13] The language uses postpositions, which are attached to the ends of words and are not separated from the words they govern. For example, the word ashangewigamig means 'welfare office' in Chippewa, but the word ashangewigamigong means 'to the welfare office'. The -ong ending and other similar endings in Chippewa are locatives that corresponds with the English words in, at, on, by.[14] Chippewa also generally uses an adjective-noun order; however, sometimes the two words are modified and combine to form a single word. Many times one word is used to show phrases. Prepositional phrases and some noun phrases are expressed in a single word. Noun-verb combinations are also sometimes expressed in a single word. The Chippewa language has pronouns to show person (first, second, or third), and number (singular or plural). The language also has an inclusive and an exclusive first-person plural pronoun. These pronouns are included in the verb and usually serve at the beginning of the verb along with a relational suffix.

The Chippewa language uses inflection to make new forms of words and also derivation to make new words from parts of others. It uses noun incorporation, which is the inclusion of nouns within verbs and has many affixes attached onto nouns and verbs. For these reasons, Chippewa's basic morphological type is polysynthetic. The language uses compound nouns. There are few simple nouns. The majority of nouns are formed by a composition of stems and affixes.[15] The Chippewa uses prefixes, suffixes and even infixes. To show plurality, suffixes are added onto the ends of words. Prefixes are used to show possession, and are also used to show verb or noun type and also tense.[16] Because of all of the incorporation of meanings into one word, it can be very difficult to pull apart the meanings of some of the phrases used. Since prefixes are used so frequently, the stem of some words may be hidden somewhere in the middle. It might be difficult to find a word in the dictionary for one who has never been exposed to the language.

The Chippewa language has three short vowels (a i o) and four long vowels (aa e ii oo). There are also nasal vowels which consist of a basic vowel followed by nh. The h may be omitted before a y or a glottal stop. Nasalized vowels are vowels before ns, nz, or nzh.[17] Consonants are comparable to their English counterparts and are written: ⟨b ch d g h ' j k l n nh p r s sh t w y z zh⟩. Letters not used in Chippewa are ⟨f l r u v⟩ and ⟨x⟩, letter ⟨c⟩ is used only as a digraph, and letter ⟨h⟩ usually exists as a digraph, but on very rare occasions, usually in exclamations, do exist independently. Letters ⟨l⟩, ⟨f⟩, and ⟨r⟩ only occur in words loaned from other languages. There are certain consonant clusters that occur in Chippewa: sk, shp, sht, shk, mb, nd, nj, ng. A consonant cluster also may occur with a single consonant followed by a w before a vowel. Most letters are pronounced similarly to how they are pronounced in English. Letters b, d, and g are often devoiced when placed near voiceless consonants or at the beginning of words. Sometimes s, t, and ch are pronounced with more force than how pronounced in English and also with a rounding of the lips.[18] The Chippewa language uses voiced and voiceless stops, fricatives, affricates, nasal stops, and approximates. It also uses labial, alveolar, palatal, velar, and glottal consonant places.[19]