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c) Nashke!
AT
‘Look!, See!, Listen!, What’s that?’
As a discourse marker, this basic attention-getting function of inashke is also seen above
the sentence level, where it is used as a discourse highlighter, highlighting salient
information. When used as such, it has a function similar to the English discourse marker
you see, but again, while the English counterpart is based upon an actual ‘seeing’ word,
the Ojibwe marker nashke is not. It is, therefore, not its lexical meaning, but its
grammatical function as an attention-getter that is borrowed for discourse work. 34 In its
general discourse function as a discourse highlighter, inashke brackets and marks
upcoming talk as being more salient, allowing speakers to mark special insights or
knowledge which might provide the listener with perspective, to draw out distinctions, to
mark the exposition of examples, or confirming speaker disposition. This highlighting
function shows that inashke is both forward- and backward-looking since it sets off (or
brackets) upcoming text in order to mark it as salient in relation to prior text. These
functions are discussed below.
An example of inashke marking insights occurred in a narrative about traditional
healers. Prior to the inashke utterance in the following example, the speaker first relates
the method by which traditional healers were given knowledge of medicines and how to
diagnose illnesses, i.e. via spiritual means. The speaker then reveals what they were able
34
It is unclear whether the inashke function in Ojibwe fully mirrors the English you see, since it is unclear
exactly what all the functions of you see are in English.
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