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Tag: geolinguistics

A Failure in Translation

A Failure in Translation

This blog post is, essentially, a cautionary tale. It’s about automatically assuming that we understand a word or a concept, rather than questioning our assumptions—even the most basic of these–and then digging deeper to find an “Aha!”. Let me explain this through the place name Ottawa. Ottawa is an important place for a lot of reasons. For me, personally, it is the location of the school that I attended, my work location, and the location of friends and family members….

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Wa’tkwanón:weron Ohneganos Ohnegahde:gyo – Water is life Workshop Participants

Wa’tkwanón:weron Ohneganos Ohnegahde:gyo – Water is life Workshop Participants

General Maps in Chronological Order Nunaliit Atlases Nunaliit Demo “The CBC Map” – Carte de l’Amerique Septentrionnale : depuis le 25, jusqu’au 65⁰ deg. de latt. & environ 140, & 235 deg. de longitude (1688) Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin, hydrographe du roy, à Québec en Canada Atlas of Ontario Neuroscience Partie orientale du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France où sont les provinces ou pays de Saguenay, Canada, Acadie etc.; (1689) Coronelli Siku Ice Atlas Carte du Canada ou de la…

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Language is Identity: A Case for Indigenous Language Revitalization

Language is Identity: A Case for Indigenous Language Revitalization

Many thanks to Melanie Lefebvre (@theoriginalmel on Twitter) for this week’s blog post. This paper, “Language is Identity:A Case for Indigenous Language Revitalization” was written for Concordia University’s course INDI 620/2 Language, Land, Identity, taught by Professor Elizabeth Fast. Melanie’s glorious artwork, a watercolour painting of buffalo anatomy is also presented here. Maarsi for your work, Melanie!   By: Melanie Lefebvre   Concordia University October 31, 2018   êkoni ê-kî-kiskinohamâkot tâpiskôc onipâwinihk ohci. it was as if the porcupine had taught her…

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Rice Lake

Rice Lake

In my post on Chaudière Falls, I mentioned that there are at least three names for this important “landmark”: the French term, used both in English and in French (Chaudière Falls), the Mohawk name (Kana:tso), and the Algonquin term (Akikpautik). A single place having more than one name is relatively common, even if one name is more commonly utilized than another. This blog post will give another, lesser-known example. The name Rice Lake is a reference to the abundance of…

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Placename bumps and potholes

Placename bumps and potholes

Have you ever heard the name Lake Itasca? It’s a relatively small, not particularly deep glacial lake located in Minnesota. It also happens to be the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Minnesota is both traditional Ojibwe and Dakota territory (Indian Affairs-State of Minnesota, 2007), so it would seem to make sense that Itasca is a name of Indigenous origin. However, Lake Itasca is actually a great example of why we need to be very cautious when working on place names…

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