Initial Change

There is a pattern of vowel change (or substitution) that applies to the vowel in the first syllable of Ojibwe verbs, under certain grammatically specified circumstances. Each of the seven vowels, a, aa, e, i, ii, o, and oo, shows a particular pattern of change (or alternation).

Unchanged (Plain)			Changed
a	anokii	work	e	enokiid	one who is working
aa	aakozi	be ill	ayaa	ayaakozid	one who is sick
e	debwe	tell the truth	aye	dayebwed	one who tells the truth
i	ikido	speak	e	ekidod	one who is speaking
ii	niimi	dance	aa	naamid	one who is dancing
o	odamino	play	we	wedaminod	one who is playing
oo	boodawe	make (a) fire	waa	bwaadawed	one who makes a fire

Plain and Changed Conjunct. Initial change only occurs in the conjunct order, not in the independent or the imperative orders. The conjunct can thus have both plain (unchanged) and changed forms, but the independent and imperative have only plain forms.

Initial Change with Participles. Certain kinds of grammatical constructions require initial change. For example, participles, which in Ojibwe grammatical tradition refers to verbal nouns, that is, verbs functioning as nouns meaning such things as 'the one who...' All verbs have participle forms. For example, all of the changed forms in the table above are participles, and so ayaakozid means 'the sick one' (from the verb aakozi, 'be sick'). Participles have special nominal endings that link them to nouns, e.g., bwaadawejig, 'those making a fire,' as opposed to boodawewaad, 'when/as ANpl make a fire.'

Initial Change with Relative Roots and Preverbs. Initial change is also almost always obligatory when a verb has as either a root or preverb representing one of six so-called relative roots (or relative preverbs). These are as follows:

Preverb Form	Changed Preverb	Root Form	Changed Root	Meaning
izhi-	ezhi-	/izh/, /in/	/ezh/, /en/	'to such place; in such a way'
onji-	wenji-	/ond/, /onj/	/wend/, /wenj/	'from such place; from such source; for such reason'
daso-	endaso-	/das/, /dash/	/endas/, /endash/	'such quantity; such amount'
apiichi-	epiichi-	/apiit/, /apiich/	/epiich/, /epiit/	'such extent, such degree'
ako-	eko-	/akw/	/ekw/	'such time; since; so far'
dazhi-	endazhi-	/dan/, /dazh/	/endan/, /endazh/	'there; at such place'

These relative roots and preverbs are extremely common in Ojibwe words, and are very common in actual usage. Initial change is one of the most active grammatical processes in the language. See the section on relatives for more information and examples of usage.

Verbs Showing Irregular Initial Change

There is a large subclass of verbs which begin with dan, das, dash, or daa and which do not show regualar initial change, but instead prefix an element /en/ (which looks like the changed form of the relative root /in/). Here are some examples

Unchanged		Changed
danenim	think s.o. to be in a certain place	endanenimaad	one who thinks s.o. to be in another place
danitaagozi	be heard in a certain place	endanitaagozid	one heard in a certain place
daso-biboonagizi	be a certain number of years old	endaso-biboonagizid	one who is a certain number of years old
dashiwag	they are so many in number	endashiwaajig	ones who are so many in number
daa	live there	endaad	one who lives there; where ANsg lives

To refer to the place where someone lives, the verb form daa, live somewhere, is commonly used in a changed conjunct form:

         endaayaan         where I live

         endaayan           where you (sg.) live

         endaad               where s/he (prox.) lives

         endaanid            where s/he (obv.) lives

         endaayaang        where we (but not you) live

         endaayeg           where you (pl.) live

         endaawaad         where they live

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