A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

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hrhenry
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A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

Postby hrhenry » 2013-06-24, 16:13

I'm hoping there's an Ojibwe speaker here that can answer my question. I've been searching and been unable to find an answer on my own.

A while back I bought a dual language book titled "Living Our Language" by Anton Treuer. It's a great book, lot's a parallel text to go through.

So I've been running into this construction "tazhi-"+conjunct verb fairly often. It seems to be used mostly in reference to the past, but I have also found a couple examples of future use.

Here's an example: "gaa-tazhi-ondaadiziyaan" (I was born). The "tazhi-" affix must add some meaning, but I can't figure out what, exactly. Why not just use "gaa-ondaadiziyaan"?

Thanks for any help.

R.
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johnklepac
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Re: A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

Postby johnklepac » 2013-06-24, 22:42

I've never studied Ojibwe for a second, but it could just be a superfluous particle that adds no real meaning but cues the listener in to the structure of the sentence, like how "もし" (moshi) is sometimes used in Japanese conditional sentences.

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razlem
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Re: A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

Postby razlem » 2013-06-24, 23:43

It sounds like a perfective marker (i.e. a completed action)
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hrhenry
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Re: A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

Postby hrhenry » 2013-06-25, 0:35

I stupidly didn't think to ask, but day before yesterday I got the chance to sit down with a few old Ojibwe women and do some practice (only after losing a fair amount of money at the casino). I should have asked them then.

In any case, I look at the money loss as "tutoring fees". I guess I need to go back for some more tutoring. :lol:

R.
==
See my language-learning progress at http://languagehopper.blogspot.com (focusing on Turkçe).
Other language blogs:
Ojibwemowin: http://indoojibwem.blogspot.com
Piemontèis: http://elmepiemonteis.blogspot.com

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hrhenry
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Re: A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

Postby hrhenry » 2013-06-26, 0:11

Following up on my question, I got a good answer and explanation from the good folks over at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OjibweLanguageSocietyMiinawaa/.

If anybody's interested, the explanation is that it's a sound change that happens after a "gaa-" preverb. After "gaa-", a "d" becomes a "t", so the preverb I should have been looking for was "dazhi-", meaning "in a certain place".

Here is the relevant Ojibwe People's dictionary link:
http://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/main-entry/dazhi-pv-rel.

R.
==
See my language-learning progress at http://languagehopper.blogspot.com (focusing on Turkçe).
Other language blogs:
Ojibwemowin: http://indoojibwem.blogspot.com
Piemontèis: http://elmepiemonteis.blogspot.com

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hrhenry
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Re: A question about the Ojibwe affix "tazhi-"

Postby hrhenry » 2013-07-02, 23:55

Just a quick update on the Living Our Language book. In short, it's fantastic!

LOTS of good, every day colloquial language that an Ojibwe learner can immediately put to use.

I highly recommend this book.

R.
==
See my language-learning progress at http://languagehopper.blogspot.com (focusing on Turkçe).
Other language blogs:
Ojibwemowin: http://indoojibwem.blogspot.com
Piemontèis: http://elmepiemonteis.blogspot.com


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