Фонетика языка Оджибве: Диалектные особенности и структура слога

The phonology of the Ojibwe language (also Ojibwa, Ojibway, or Chippewa, and most commonly referred to in the language as Anishinaabemowin) varies from dialect to dialect, but all varieties share common features. Ojibwe is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family spoken in Canada and the United States in the areas surrounding the Great Lakes, and westward onto the northern plains in both countries, as well as in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec. The article on Ojibwe dialects discusses linguistic variation in more detail, and contains links to separate articles on each dialect. There is no standard language and no dialect that is accepted as representing a standard. Ojibwe words in this article are written in the practical orthography commonly known as the Double vowel system. Ojibwe dialects have the same phonological inventory of vowels and consonants with minor variations, but some dialects differ considerably along a number of phonological parameters. For example, the Ottawa and Eastern Ojibwe dialects have changed relative to other dialects by adding a process of vowel syncope that deletes short vowels in specified positions within a word. This article primarily uses examples from the Southwestern Ojibwe dialect spoken in Minnesota and Wisconsin, sometimes also known as Ojibwemowin.

Ojibwe dialects tend to have 29 phonemes: 11 vowels (seven oral and four nasal) and 18 consonants.

Ojibwe in general permits relatively few consonant clusters, and most are only found word medially. The permissible ones are sk , shp , sht , shk (which can also appear word finally), mb , nd (which can also appear word finally), ng (also word finally), nj (also word finally), nz , nzh (also word finally) and ns (also word finally). Furthermore, any consonant (except w, h, or y) and some clusters can be followed by w (although not word finally). Many dialects, however, permit far more clusters as a result of vowel syncope.

Ojibwe divides words into metrical "feet." Counting from the beginning of the word, each group of two syllables constitutes a foot; the first syllable in a foot is weak, the second strong. However, long vowels and vowels in the last syllable of a word are always strong, so if they occur in the weak slot of a foot, then they form a separate one syllable foot, and counting resumes starting with the following vowel. The final syllable of a word is always strong as well. For example, the word bebezhigooganzhii ('horse') is divided into feet as (be)(be)(zhi goo)(gan zhii). The strong syllables all receive at least secondary stress. The rules that determine which syllable receives the primary stress are quite complex and many words are irregular. In general, though, the strong syllable in the third foot from the end of a word receives the primary stress.

A defining characteristic of several of the more eastern dialects is that they exhibit a great deal of vowel syncope, the deletion of vowels in certain positions within a word. In some dialects (primarily Odawa and Eastern Ojibwe), all unstressed vowels are lost (see above for a discussion of Ojibwe stress). In other dialects (such as some dialects of Central Ojibwe), short vowels in initial syllables are lost, but not in other unstressed syllables. For example, the word oshkinawe ('young man') of Algonquin and Southwestern Ojibwe (stress: oshkinawe) is shkinawe in some dialects of Central Ojibwe and shkinwe in Eastern Ojibwe and Odawa. Regular, pervasive syncope is a comparatively recent development, arising in the past eighty years or so. A common morphophonemic variation occurs in some verbs whose roots end in n. When the root is followed by certain suffixes beginning with i or when it is word final, the root final n changes to zh (e. g., miin , 'to give something to someone' but gimiizhim, 'you guys give it to me'). In Ojibwe linguistics, this is indicated when writing the root with the symbol (so the root 'to give something to someone' would be written ). There are also some morphophonemic alternations where root final s changes to sh (indicated with ) and where root final n changes to nzh (indicated with ). In some dialects, obstruents become voiceless/fortis after the tense preverbs gii (marking the past) and wii (marking the future/desiderative). In such dialects, for example, gii baapi ('s/he laughed') becomes (often spelled gii paapi).