Cultural Awareness Translation of ‘fire keeper’
Translation into Biigtigong’s dialect of Nishnaabemwin:
- shkode gaa-gnawendmaaged
Morphemes (building blocks of each word):
- shkode ~ “fire”
- shko ~ “left over”
- de ~ “it is heated”
- gaa-gnawendmaaged ~ “[animate being] who takes care of something for people”
- gaa-…d ~ “someone who…”
- gnaw ~ “care, attend”
- end ~ “act by thought on it”
- maa ~ “do it for someone”
- ge ~ “someone acts (on an unspecified object)”
A rough translation of the inner-meaning:
- someone who takes care of fire for people
A plainer, more free-form, inner-meaning translation:
- someone who tends fire for the people
Montano, J. P. “Facilitating Cultural Awareness with Biigtigong’s Dialect” biigtigong.com. Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, 21 Jun 2018. Web.