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Ottawa (or Odawa) is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, spoken by the Ottawa people in southern Ontario in Canada, and northern Michigan in the United States. Descendants of migrant Ottawa speakers live in Kansas and Oklahoma. The first recorded meeting of Ottawa speakers and Europeans occurred in 1615 when a party of Ottawas encountered explorer Samuel de Champlain on the north shore of Georgian Bay. Ottawa is written in an alphabetic system using Latin letters, and is known to its speakers as ''Nishnaabemwin'' "speaking the native language" or ''Daawaamwin'' "speaking Ottawa". Ottawa is one of the Ojibwe dialects that has undergone the most language change, although it shares many features with other dialects. The most distinctive change is a pervasive pattern of vowel syncope that deletes short vowels in many words, resulting in significant changes in their pronunciation. This and other innovations in pronunciation, in addition to changes in word structure and vocabulary, differentiate Ottawa from other dialects of Ojibwe. Like other Ojibwe dialects, Ottawa grammar includes animate and inanimate noun gender, subclasses of verbs that are dependent upon gender, combinations of prefixes and suffixes that are connected with particular verb subclasses, and complex patterns of word formation. Ottawa distinguishes two types of third person in sentences: proximate, indicating a noun phrase that is emphasized in the discourse, and obviative, indicating a noun phrase that is less prominent. Ottawa has relatively flexible word order compared with languages such as English. Ottawa speakers are concerned that their language is endangered as the use of English increases and the number of fluent speakers declines. Language revitalization efforts include second language learning in primary and secondary schools. ==History of scholarship== Explorer Samuel de Champlain was the first European to record an encounter with Ottawa speakers when he met a party of three hundred Ottawas in 1615 on the north shore of Georgian Bay.〔Fox, William, 1990, p. 457〕 French missionaries, particularly members of the Society of Jesus and the Récollets order, documented several dialects of Ojibwe in the 17th and 18th centuries, including unpublished manuscript Ottawa grammatical notes, word lists, and a dictionary.〔Hanzeli, Victor, 1961, pp. 237-238〕〔See Hanzeli, Victor, 1969, pp. 122-124 for the text and a facsimile reproduction from two pages of a circa 1688 manuscript of Ottawa grammatical notes and vocabulary attributed to Louis André, a Jesuit.〕 In the 19th century, Ottawa speaker Andrew Blackbird wrote a history of the Ottawa people that included a description of Ottawa grammatical features.〔Blackbird, Andrew J., 1887, pp. 107-128〕 The first linguistically accurate work was Bloomfield's description of Ottawa as spoken at Walpole Island, Ontario.〔Bloomfield, Leonard, 1958〕 The ''Odawa Language Project'' at the University of Toronto, led by Kaye and Piggott, conducted field work in Ottawa communities on Manitoulin Island in the late 1960s and early 1970s, resulting in a series of reports on Ottawa linguistics.〔Kaye, Jonathan, Glyne Piggott and Kensuke Tokaichi, eds., 1971〕〔Piggott, Glyne and Jonathan Kaye, eds, 1973〕 Piggott also prepared a comprehensive description of Ottawa phonology.〔Piggott, Glyne, 1980〕 Rhodes produced a study of Ottawa syntax,〔Rhodes, Richard, 1976〕 a dictionary,〔Rhodes, Richard, 1985〕 and a series of articles on Ottawa grammar.〔See Further Reading for articles by Rhodes on Ottawa grammar.〕 Valentine has published a comprehensive descriptive grammar,〔Valentine, J. Randolph, 2001〕 a volume of texts including detailed analysis,〔Valentine, J. Randolph, 1998〕 as well as a survey of Ojibwe dialects that includes extensive description and analysis of Ottawa dialect features.〔Valentine, J. Randolph, 1994〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ottawa dialect」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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