Example 1 – Ademin

The heart berry is the first berry to come into season of all berries that grow upon mother earth, Shkakaamik kwe. It is shaped like a human heart and turns red in color when it reaches maturity. It does not grow on a tree, but upon the earth and is attached to many other heart berries by a vine. It has the shortest life span of the berries that grow on mother earth. Nanabozho saw this berry, and he was naming nature and all the life he saw. He saw its characteristics and compared it to human life and named this berry Ademin. The first part Ade means heart and the second part min means berry or seed.

Example 2 – Mandaamin

There are a few legends in Anishinaabe culture about how this food came to our people. I tell one of them on the new CD-ROM (available January 2006). The first part of this word Mandaa means wonder or amazing and min is the seed or berry. The reasons it is named this is because it has many uses and can be cooked in many different ways. It can be used as cereal, soup, bread, syrup, snacks and can be eaten just as is. This wonderful food is known as corn.

Example 3 – Odeno

Here is another word that deals with the heart. The translation is a “place of many hearts”, simply meaning a village or town.

Example 4 – Shkinwe

The first part of this word Shki means new and the second part nwe means sound. So, what we are saying when we say Shkinwe is "new sound". You are probably wondering," when would I say or use this word, meaning new sound?" It is a term used to say “young man” because when a boy becomes a young man, what happens? His voice changes.

Example 5 – Mshkiki

This word is also made up by two words. The first part Mshki comes from another word, which means strength, or something that is strong. The second part ki means the earth. So, when we say and use this word we are saying "strength from the earth". What are we talking about when we say this word? We are talking about medicine.

Example 6 - Dabagiiswaan

This word is a new word that had to be created, because we did not have this in our culture. I don’t know where it was created, but I imagine when the Anishinaabe people saw this object they probably examined it carefully and found out what its use was. The first part of this word Daba comes from another word meaning "to measure something" and the second part giis comes from the word giizis. Giizis means the sun and the last part waan makes it an object. So, we are saying “an object that measures the sun”. So what is this object? It is hanging on your wall, you wear it on your wrist, it is in your car, it is on your cell phone, it is on your microwave, it is everywhere. It is a clock. Some Anishinaabe people still have a difficult time with this object. Some think that it has the power to control people and when you look at it, it does. It tells us what to do and when to do it. We have always been a people that "start when we are ready" and "finish when we are done". I believe this is what we mean when we say, “we operate on Indian time”

Example 7- Giigaadoobii’aapikonhs

This is also a new word which had to be created. The first part giigaadoo comes from the phrase "to speak" and the second part bii’aapik means metal, steel or wire. The last part onhs means that it is "something small". So, what we are saying is “small speaking wire” and we are talking about a telephone. Now there might be other versions of this object in different areas, but this is the word that is used in this part of the Great Lakes area now. I heard an elder say one time that he had heard of another version, which meant something like hitting, or cranking something. This probably refers to the old style of telephones.