A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

) Nashke azhigwa eni-apiitiziyaan, gaye niin gii-maajii-noodendamaan
see now as I come of age also I I started feeling flirtatious
o-dibishkoo gaye niin gii-kikenimagwaa ongow ikwezensag
same as also me when I knew them these girls
ayaawaad ikwezensiwiwaad gii-gikenimagwaa.
there are are girls when I knew them
c) Mii imaa gii-wiikwajitooyaan gaye niin wii-shaaganaashiimoyaan.
that there I tried also me to speak English
a) ‘I too should blame myself the same as the others that are of my age who went
to school.
b) You see, after I came of age, I too started feeling flirtatious when I
noticed that the girls were girls.
c) That’s when I too tried to speak English.’
In (27a), after stating that he and his generation are to blame for the loss of Ojibwe
language use, he immediately gives the reason in (27b), accenting it with nashke. In
short, he explains that his contribution to the current predicament originated from his
personal desire to talk to girls at school. Since they did not speak Ojibwe, he had to
speak English. Used in this way, inashke marks this clarification.
In arguments between two people, inashke may be used to point out something that
was perhaps obvious to the speaker, but not to interlocutors, having roughly the force of
the English see! (with rising intonation). In these argumentative situations, inashke may
appear as ina, e.g. [ɪnʌ], [ɪna], with rhetorical lengthening on both vowels accompanied
by stress on the initial vowel [iːnaː]. The following example provided by one of my
consultants illustrates this usage.
71