Page 27 - Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation

Language

Our people are members of the Anishinabek Nation who spoke
Anishinaabemowin as their main language. Our people now
speak English as our main language. This is because we spend
most of our lives in English-speaking settings. We use the English
language in our homes and in our schools.

There is only one person in our community who stills speaks
Anishinaabemowin. There are some other people who
understand but do not speak it, and quite a few of us who
understand a few words, but do not speak it at all. However, we
maintain a strong culture and rich history. We continue to look
for ways to revive our language use in the community.

The person in our community who speaks Anishinaabemowin
has a very special way of thinking. In Anishinaabemowin, many
words represent concepts, so it is impossible to translate the
language into English word for word. One word might paint
a whole picture in an Anishinaabemowin speaker’s mind. This
means that how the person thinks in the English language is very
different from how we think in Anishinaabemowin.

Our language was once completely oral—we didn’t write in the
language—but that has changed over time. We now have a
system of writing that goes back to the 1830s, although the real
communication in our language remains oral.

WORDS TO KNOW
Noozhoo Nokiiyan
(noh-zshoh noh-key-an):
working together

We are beginning to reclaim our language in simple ways, such as using
our words in our activities. Our business name, Noozhoo Nokiiyan, means
“working together.”

Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation 25

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