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Lesson 4 of 18 · Unit 1: Foundations

Review & Questions with Aaniin

A review day: two ways to ask the same question, and the word that opens most of them.

By the end of this lesson you'll be introduced to

  • Two documented ways to ask “How are you?”, and what's different about them
  • The word combinations this course actually writes out
  • How Aaniin opens questions — 23 documented ones in this course
  • A consolidation of everything from the first three lessons

This class day was a review day — it introduced no new vocabulary, so this lesson consolidates rather than piles on.

Two ways to ask the same thing

Start here

Two ways to ask the same thing

New

Here are two questions this course documents separately. Read them before anything else — the difference between them is what this lesson is about.

Written in full

Aaniin ezhi-ayaayan?

Using the contraction

Aaniish ezhi-ayaayan?

Both are documented as “How are you?”

What the materials say: aaniish is the contracted form of aaniin + dash.

Try it

What's different between these two documented questions?

Words that combine

Reviewfrom the last lesson, in use

You met these in the last lesson as equations. Now you've seen one of them doing real work in a question, so they're worth another look.

The materials write out two of these, and that's exactly what you can rely on — they're documented examples, not a recipe for combining any two words.

Compare them and you'll see why. In one, the result really is the two words written together. In the other, something is lost along the way. Two examples, two different behaviours — which is a good reason not to guess at a third.

  • Aaniinwhat (concept), howDashand/butaaniish

    aaniish — and how

    The result isn't simply the two words written one after the other — something changes. The materials record that these combine, not how, so that's as far as this goes.

    Needs review — the sources give more than one meaning for part of this equation.

  • GaanoWiinby contrastGaawiin

    Gaawiin — No

Applies to: these two documented examplesThe notes give these combinations and their results, not a rule for making new ones.

Try it

Which documented word do “Gaa” and “Wiin” combine into?

Revisit Tense & Mode Prefixes →

Asking with Aaniin

A word worth knowing

Asking with Aaniin

New

You've seen this word since the first lesson. What hasn't been said yet is how much work it does: across this course's materials, 23 different documented questions begin with it or with its contracted form.

Learn it as a question opener and a lot of documented questions become recognisable at a glance — even before you can take apart what follows it.

From this class day

A caution about the word on its own: the sources in this course don't agree on what Aaniin means by itself — one page glosses it “what (concept), how”, another as a greeting — and they disagree about what kind of word it is. This app records that disagreement instead of picking a winner, which is why you won't be asked to translate it on its own. Nothing in these materials glosses it as “what's up?” either. No source breaks it into parts, so neither does this lesson.

Try it

Which documented question means “what time, when”?

Expressions you'll see

These are whole documented expressions, not single words — they aren't counted as new vocabulary.

Everything so far

Review

This class day went back over the ground of the first three lessons. Here's the shape of it:

  • Verb classification — VII and the other three classesrevisit →
  • Yes/No questions — the particle that sits secondrevisit →
  • Tense and mode prefixes — four markers on the front of a verbrevisit →

Try it

Which of these sits second in a documented Yes/No question?

Vocabulary

No new words this time — this class day revisited words you've already met. Good moment to check which ones have stuck.

Review vocabulary

Review20 words from earlier class days

One word worth a note

Doodem — clan

These course materials record the word and nothing more — no clan names, no meanings, no responsibilities. That's knowledge that belongs with the people and communities who hold it, and it isn't this app's to supply. If it's yours to ask about, ask someone who carries it.

Check your understanding

A review day deserves a review quiz — this one draws on all four lessons. Retake it as often as you like.

Preparing your questions…

Finish this lesson

Work through the lesson's activities, then mark it complete. Your quiz score doesn't have to be perfect.

  • Try the two-ways-to-ask check — not yet done
  • Try the word-combination check — not yet done
  • Try the Aaniin question check — not yet done
  • Try the review check — not yet done
  • Finish Check Your Understanding — not yet done

Source

Course notes· 2024-09-05Directly extracted

Every Ojibwe word and expression on this page comes from the material cited above. The English explanations were written for this app.

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