Fun With Language And How It Can Leave A Person Scratching Your Head!

I decided to respond to a prompt from the publication Everything Fun and this is what I chose:

“For this prompt, let’s have fun with language. Have you ever had a misunderstanding, miscommunication, or some other hiccup with language that left you laughing or scratching your head? Bring it on! We want to read all about it.”

My Story: I am an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation in Minnesota. My enrollment is removal Fond du Lac which means I have lots of relatives there too.

I believe because of who I am and how I was raised, I get told all the time that my storytelling is interesting and sometimes I interpret that as a good thing, and other times, not so much!

When first hired and speaking at a state job, in policy and administration, someone would interpret for me. I was speaking English, not Ojibwe. I recognized what they said as being exactly what I said but said a bit differently.

I found there is such a thing as bureaucracy speak. Either people got used to how I spoke, or I got used to how they spoke, or they didn’t care what I said. Not sure which but the interpretation stopped soon after I started to work there.

I was not there long enough to become a bureaucrat. And then again, I don’t believe I could ever be a bureaucrat!

When telling stories from the culture, there isn’t usually a beginning, middle, and end as we are taught in English classes. Many times the story ends before the end, and it is left up to you to figure out how the story applies, what you think it means, the moral, punchline, or lesson.

And the beginning doesn’t start by telling you what the story is about.

Some stories can only be told when there is snow on the ground. And some believe it must be dark outside. And this is confusing to many when being asked that I tell a story that is only told at certain times.

Then I am from Minnesota, and people from other states are always asking about my accent. I don’t hear an accent on me, but I do on Southerners and Easterners. And I find it difficult to understand people speaking English from Great Britain and other English-speaking countries!

My brother has lived in Texas most of his adult life and he does not sound like he grew up in Minnesota but people from Texas will ask him about his accent.

Then there is my age, I told my granddaughter that she sounds like a broken record. She responded with, “What’s a broken record Grandma?” Or I say ‘that’s cool’ or ‘far out’ and I get some laughs and questions like, “Were you a hippie grandma?” or “Were you a beatnik?”

I have some smart grandchildren. How do they know about hippies or beatniks? Due to them having tablets and the pandemic, they picked what they wanted to learn.

I’m not good with language, any language. Not English, Ojibwe, or any other language. I can count in German and Spanish which I learned in grade school to about twenty, well maybe just ten! I can count in Ojibwe a bit more and know sentences and words in those languages.

I know more words and sentences in the Ojibwe language than all others.

Also being socialized in the Native American culture with the Ojibwe language spoken in my home, but not shared, has helped with the confusion.

I have an Ojibwe name, clan name, and name for White Earth for an introduction. I can understand more than I can speak of the Ojibwe language. I am not fluent, nor will I become fluent before death.

So what is funny or leaves me scratching my head? All of it at different times!

Some of my favorites that I have laughed at again and again:

We live on the iron range in Minnesota, and you must have been born on the range to be a ranger. My husband was born here, so he is a ranger. He lived much of his life on the Leech Lake reservation and in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

It doesn’t matter where he has lived, he is a ranger as he was born here. Hubby understands the ranger language and can speak it. I think much of it is Hillbilly talk. He understands some of the Ojibwe language and understands the humor. We laugh all of the time!

I scratched my head and was annoyed with the interpretation of my statements by other State workers. I am retired, so now I laugh!

I learned to write with a beginning, middle, and end much of the time! Not all of the time! So, it is funny when someone corrects me. Here I am very close to a doctorate and I still can’t do that all of the time! I have been accused of murdering the English language!

When people will use terms like ayyye as they are disputing something. Howwah means wow or great and when it comes from a non-Native person it sounds funny to me sometimes, probably because I don’t expect it and maybe because they don’t have the right accent.

Grandkids’ sayings are almost always cute and funny, and sometimes it is a scratch of the head! My grandson had a special friend and called him Bitch. His mother worked on him and worked on him until his name became Butch.

My 2-year-old granddaughter called her toy fox, fucks. Again her parents worked on that and since she is in a Spanish emersion, they weren’t exactly sure that she wasn’t saying something in Spanish! They aren’t fluent in Spanish.

I say the Spanish I know the best is No! As in No Espanol.

And finally, when listening to fluent Ojibwe language speakers talking and laughing, I think why would anyone want to get rid of or contribute to getting rid of such a beautiful fun language?

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First published by Everything Fun on Medium