.... and I hear that you are also an expert in drawing horses.
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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Yes I have absolutely seen a horse in person and no it wasn't a dog
Lol
I'm indigenous Canadian ... ojibway from northern Ontario and my first language is my indigenous one, English being the second language I learned as a child.
The word we use for dog is ATIM
the word we use for horse is MISHTATIM ... (adding the word MISHTA, usually denotes something as being big or huge) ... so the word MISHTATIM literally translates as 'big dog'
We came up with this word because we didn't have horses in the mushkeg swamps of northern Ontario.
That’s really interesting that the comparison is to dogs rather than moose or deer, I guess both being domesticated was more relevant than the physical appearance? Any chance you know more of the history of the word, or where to find it? I checked the Ojibwe People's Dictionary but it didn’t have much to add to what you already said, etymology-wise.
I did find the word bebezhigooganzhii as a synonym, is that one also a common word or are either of these less used than the other?
Also for anyone who hasn’t heard the language, the link above is to the page for this word and it has spoken examples - it’s a really pretty language.
There are a ton of dialects between communities. And my family's roots touch northern mushkego Cree on James and Hudson Bay while also being in touch with inland Ojibways towards the height of land south of James Bay. On the Cree side, their dialects change from Quebec to Ontario and to Northern Manitoba. Ojibway is even more complicated because there are the northern tribes like mine that share some with Cree but less with southern tribes around the great lakes. And Ojibway go all the way to Manitoba and wrap around the great lakes down into the northern American states. I can barely understand any Ojibway from Minnesota and Michigan but I can hear how our languages are the same. I know people from Manitoulin Island who speak a dialect of Ojibway that is mixed with Algonguin, Odawa and several other great lakes languages because their cultures communicated with people all around the great lakes.
As far as the word for horse. I think we just used the reference to a dog because we never had any horses in our parts because we're mostly near water and swamp. We wouldn't have seen horses until about 100-150 years ago, so it was a new animal to us.
Even personally, I'm terrified of horses. I respect them but I'd never ride one. I ride motorcycle and I've often told my friends that riding a horse would be like riding a motorcycle with a mind of its own .... and that's a scary thought for me.
Fully agree that horses are terrifying lmao, and thank you for expanding on that!
It's funny how words develop! When the Romans first encountered elephants (as part of an enemy conqueror's army), they called them Luca Bos - 'Lucanian cows', after the region they encountered them in, because they had no other frame of reference for the creatures.
Roman: "Damn strange cows you have here in southern Italy, what with the mouth-horns and the prehensile nose."
Lucanian: "Bro what are you talking about"
Then you would appreciate our word for Europeans, or 'white people' .... we call them MISHTIKOOSHOO
The last part OOSHOO is a word fragment you use to denote that you are describing a person or people to a thing or place.
The first part of the word is MISHTIK which is our word for 'wood' or 'a wooden stick' .... we called them 'people of the stick' because when we encountered them they all wore, decorated with, held in their hand or talked about this funny looking stick that was extremely important to them.
At the risk of spoiling the joke, I think that's an ermine.
I think they're referencing the thing he's riding on not the thing on his head
Exactly. The "horse" mentioned in the above comment.
Shoutout to our local medieval meme art aficionado, @ladybutterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 🙏
rotisserie chicken
King Richard, is that you?
"WHAT IS MY CRIME!? EATING A MEAL!?"
I too learned recently he was arrested due to a rotisserie chicken
Richard sitting in prison: "At least I got chicken."
Was bored and this inspired me to fire up WWE and make a whole new federation of characters made from old medieval books and paintings.
Where is the squirrel? I see a fox, fish, chicken, and an opossum.