Greetings & Farewells

In this lesson, I am showing two basic ways of greeting someone. One is the Aanii, which is very common, and the other is Bozhoo, which is more of a ceremonial greeting. Aanii can be used most of the time, for example, when answering the telephone. When you use Bozhoo, you have to see the person you are greeting and maybe even greet them with a handshake.

We don’t have a word for good-bye in our language. In our culture, we are taught that once you meet someone, they are always in your circle, so you don’t need to say good-bye.

When speaking about yourself, you always begin your word with an “N”, as in the pronoun niin. For example, the word for “I am fine” - “Nminoyaa”. If you want to say the word for “you are fine”, you say “Gminoyaa”, as in the pronoun giin. Also, the suffix “yin” is another form of “you” singular.

When you use the negative form “not”, you use the suffix “sii” in the word, even when you use the words kaa or kaawiin.

In English, when answering the question “what is your name?”, you would say your name first and then say, “is my name”. Also in English, I often hear people say, “I am so and so (name)”. If we in Anishinaabemowin want to say, “I am so and so” we would say, “I am Anishinaabe or Anishinaabe kwe”, then we would say our name.

	Greetings		Responses
	Aanii (casual)		Aanii (casual)
	Bozhoo (ceremonial)		Bozhoo (ceremonial)
	Hi or /hello		Hi or hello
	Aaniish naa ezhiyaayin?		Nminoyaa gwa
	How are you?		I am fine
			Kaawiin gwa nminoyaasii
			I am not fine
			Ndaakwaz gwa
			I am sick
			Giin dash, aaniish naa ezhiyaayin?
			And you, how are you?
	Wegnesh ezhinikaazyin?		(name) ndizhinikaaz
	What is your name?		(name) is my name
			Giin dash, wegnesh ezhinikaazyin?
			And you, what is your name?
	Wegnesh maaba ezhinikaazat?		(name) wiin zhinkaaza
	What is his/her name?		(name) is his/her name
	Aanii piish enjebayin?		(place) ndojeba
	Where are you from?		(place) is where I am from
			Giin dash, aanii piish enjebayin?
			And you, where are you from?
	Aanii piish maaba enjebat?		(place) wiin jeba
	Where is he/she from?		(place) is from
	Aanii piish endaayin?		(place) ndindaa
	Where do you live?		(place) is where I live
			Giin dash, aanii piish endaayin?
			And you, where do you live?
	Aanii piish maaba endat?		(place) wiin daa
	Where does he/she live?		(place) is where he/she lives
	Farewells		Responses
	Miigwech giibinbwaachiweyin		Ahaaw
	Thank you for visiting with me		Okay
	Wiingezin		Ahaaw, wiingezin gegii
	Take it easy		Okay, you take it easy also