Miscellaneous Translations

Art-related Terms in Biigtigong’s Dialect

The concept of art is quite multifaceted. A quick web search for “define art” will provide more details. So, this very brief writeup is not intended to be comprehensive. It’s merely a primer for a much more in-depth analysis of this topic.

So, of the many aspects of art, if one wishes to focus on the, for example, aesthetic aspect of art, one could utilize the following Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin expression to refer to art in general (i.e., art as a discipline or as a field of study, for example):

gchi-wnizhshiwin nagkeyaa

Alternatively, if one wishes to focus on art as the expression or application of human imagination in the production of aesthetic objects, one could utilize the Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin abstract noun to refer to art in general:

mzinendmookaajgewin

In similar fashion, one could utilize the Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin noun (either animate or inanimate, depending on usage)

mzinenjgan

to refer to the imagined thing/being which is still in the mind of the artist before that thing/being has been expressed or applied into a more tangible existence outside the mind of the artist.

Once the work of art is outside the mind of the artist, perhaps as a ‘tangible’ dance, song, painting, woodcarving, etc., the work of art can then be referred to using either of the following two Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin nouns (either animate or inanimate, depending on usage), the first being the preferred term in Biigtigong’s dialect:

mzinendmookaan

mzinendmookaajgan

These last two terms focus on the work of art’s having been imagined into (tangible) existence.