Basil H. Johnston

Basil H. Johnston is a member of the Anishinaubae Nation. He was born on the Parry Island Reserve in central Northern Ontario and studied at Loyola College in Montréal, Quebec. Johnston has devoted ...

Anishinaubae Thesaurus

Basil H. Johnston

The Anishinaubae (Chippewa/Ojibwe) language has a beauty in the spoken word, a deliberate rhythm, simplicity, and mysterious second meanings. When Basil Johnston began teaching the Anishinaubae language, in the late 1960s, there were no related manuals or dictionaries that were suitable for beginners. To fill this void, Johnston wrote a language course and a lexicon to fill for the course materials. Now he has broadened this labor by compiling Anishinaubae Thesaurus, which goes even further to fill a deep cultural and linguistic void. This thesaurus contains a useful sampling of the 400,000 words that comprise the Anishinaubae language, and it is intended to be a practical reference tool for teachers, translators, interpreters, and orthographers.

"...words are but sounds, stories a series of sounds. Articulated, they pass into space and echo into eternity as messages to be heard only by the spirits. For a person to see or to perceive the inner meanings of sounds is a gift. For a word to reveal its souls and spirit and heart is nothing short of revelation." — Basil H. Johnston

Sample NOUNS-

-aki: land, earth, soil
-abikimigauh; abi-kummikauh: an isthmus
-adjiwae-kummik: in all the world, everywhere; world wide; in every quarter of the globe
-ae- ishkwau-kummikauk: the horizon; and the ends of the earth
- agaum: of the sea, ocean, a large body of water
-agid-udin: uphill; a hilltop
-agidau-aki: uphill
-ani-geeshk- aubikauh: a scarp; an escarpment

Sample GLOSSARY (a few common verb roots)-

-iziwin: refers to character, trait
- inaendiwin; indaendiwin: refers to absence, being elsewhere, abroad; to the duration of absence