Chapter 7: Ownership and Possessive Nouns

Watch the Video: Level 2 Mi’kmaw: Video 01 Ownership: Possessive Nouns and Body Parts Source: Video produced by Captive Expression for No’kmaq Village / Flat Bay Band, Inc., June 12, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXjYapZ07hg

This chapter introduces ownership and possession. To start, consider how English categorizes singular and plural for first, second, and third person pronouns.

In Mi’kmaw, there are two major differences, resulting in more pronouns:

1. the use of two plural forms, dual, for two people, and then three or more people;
2. the use of inclusive vs exclusive language for first person plural.

Later, you will learn more about how to apply these terms, but for now, simply compare them against the following word list to see the pattern in determining who owns the objects being discussed.

Ownership in the Singular Form

Starting with singular forms, consider the following body parts and see how a simple prefix can indicate whose body part it is.

Thus, by simply taking a word root like body (-tinin), you can specify “my body” by adding an n; use a k to say “your body”; or use a w to say “his/her body”. This pattern extends to other objects as well, as you see in the word list below.

Ownership Word List

These words all indicate singular forms of the three pronoun categories. Some show slight variations on the N/K/W rule from the previous page, like “my care” (nutepaqn) or “his/her male friend” (witapl), which also adds a suffix. As in the pluralization lessons, some differences occur due to the starting letter, and eventually, as your ear becomes more familiar with the sound of Mi’kmaw, these variations will make greater sense.

In the case of the third person however, the l on the end is there to indicate that you are speaking about another person entirely who is connected to him or her. This is sometimes referred to as the fourth person. Once again, this pattern shows a shift in thinking between English speakers and Mi’kmaw speakers.

Finally, there are words that do not follow the standard N/K/W ownership rules, such as wa'qi (skin), which keeps the same form regardless of the subject of the sentence. When in doubt, seek out a fluent speaker.