Reimagining the Role of ‘Training / Meeting Room’
Reimagined role-name in Biigtigong’s dialect of Nishnaabemwin:
- Gaa-gkinoohmaadnaanwang / Gaa-maawnjihdinaanwang Bkesaagan
Gaa-gkinoohmaadnaanwang / Gaa-maawnjihdinaanwang Bkesaagan ~ Training / Meeting Room
Morphemes (building blocks of each word):
- Gaa-gkinoohmaadnaanwang ~ “training”
- Gaa-…naanwang ~ “that which (abstract-)they…”, “that which ‘ones’…”
- gkinoo ~ “know, recognize”
- h ~ “cause someone to be or to act”
- maa ~ “do it for someone”
- d(i) ~ [reciprocal], “to/with/for each other”
- Gaa-maawnjihdinaanwang ~ “meeting”
- Gaa-…naanwang ~ “that which (abstract-)they…”, “that which ‘ones’…”
- maawnj(i) ~ “collected together”
- h ~ “cause someone to be or to act”
- di ~ [reciprocal], “to/with/for each other”
- Bkesaagan ~ “room”
- Bke ~ “off to the side, diverge”
- saa ~ “structure unit”
- gan ~ “instrument, made thing”
A translation of the morphemes:
- a-state-of-teaching-each-other / a-state-of-meeting-with-each-other room
A plainer, more free-form English translation:
- teaching-each-other / meeting-with-each-other room
A formal-English translation:
- Training / Meeting Room
Montano, J. P., & Michano, A. R. “Reimagining Health Centre Roles in Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin” biigtigong.com. Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, 14 Jul 2017. Web.