Stepping through a course - Lesson 2

Here is the dialog and break-down of Lesson Two.

Dialog -

F: Aaniin!
M: Aaniin! Anishinaabe na gidaaw?
F: Henyanh. Giin dash?
M: Henh, Anishinaabe indaaw. Gidoojibwem na?
F: Indoojibwem. Giin dash?
M: Gaawiin. Bangii eta go.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
F: Boozhoo. Aaniish ezhi-ayaayan?
M: Miigwech. Nimino-ayaa.
F: Giga-waabamin, miinawaa.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Mino-giizhigad.

- Now let's break it down line by line.

F: Aaniin!

• We learned in Lesson One that this is "Hello".

M: Aaniin! Anishinaabe na gidaaw?

• We also learned that this means "Hello! Are you Anishinaabe?" from Lesson One.

F: Henyanh. Giin dash?

• "Henyanh" is the way a female says "Yes".
• "Giin" is a pronoun for "you", "your" or "yours" and finctions as the subject.
  
• "dash" can mean many things, really, but here it means "and" in an interrogatory form.

• So the sentence is "And you?"

M: Henh, Anishinaabe indaaw. Gidoojibwem na?

• We learned all of this in Lesson One: It means "Yes (spoken by a man), I'm Anishinaabe. Do you speak Ojibwe?"

F: Indoojibwem. Giin dash?

• Again, "I speak Ojibwe. And you?"

M: Gaawiin. Bangii eta go.

• We also learned from Lesson One that this means "No. Just a little."

* * * * * * * * * * * *
F: Boozhoo. Aaniish ezhi-ayaayan?

• We have a new word - "Boozhoo". It is another form of greeting. It's slightly more formal and would translate to "Greetings".
• "Aaniish ezhi-ayaayan?" is "How are you?", with "Aanish" being "How" and "Ezhi-ayayaan" being a form of the animate intransitive verb "to be".

M: Miigwech. Nimino-ayaa.

• "Miigwech" is "Thank you" (literally "Mii"=affirmative particle and "gwech" meaning "enough" or "sufficient".
• "Nimino-ayaa." - "Ni" we know means "I"or "me". Combine it with the preverb "mino", which means "good" or "fine" and include the animate transitive verb form of "ayaa" (to be) and we get "I'm good."

• So the complete phrase is "Thank you. I'm good."

F: Giga-waabamin, miinawaa.

• We learned in Lesson One that this means "I'll see you again."

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Mino-giizhigad.

• Remember that the preverb "mino" means "good". "Giizhigad" means "day". But why, you might ask, would you put a preverb in front of "day"? Well, "Giizhigad" is really a verb, meaning "to be day", so you are telling the person to "Have a good day."

That last sentence sounds complicated, but as we'll see further in the lessons, it's really not. It's the thought process involved, and it replaces some of our concepts of "have".