ᐅᓯᒥᓴ
osimisa
The Cree word for granddaughter is ᐅᓯᒥᓴ (osimisa).
The term refers to the daughter of one's child.
Meaning: daughter of someone’s child (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
osimisa
Did you know?
- The structure of ᐅᓯᒥᓴ reflects the 'animacy' of the person, a core grammatical feature of Cree that divides the entire world into animate and inanimate categories.
- The Cree writing system used for ᐅᓯᒥᓴ is a syllabary, where each character represents a consonant and a vowel combined.
- While English uses the word 'granddaughter' to mean any granddaughter, Cree morphology allows the speaker to encode whether the granddaughter is actually the daughter of a son or a daughter.
Example conversation
Two friends are looking at a family photo.
- Aᐊᐪ ᓂᐄ ᐅᓯᒥᓴ ᐄ?au nii usimisa ii?Is this your granddaughter?
- Bᐄ, ᐅᓯᒥᓴ ᓂᓇᐄ ᐄ.ii, usimisa ninaaii ii.Yes, she is my granddaughter.
- Aᐋᑯᐉᐄ ᒥᐄᐄ ᐄ.akowaii miiii ii.She is very cute.
- Bᒪᐄ, ᐄ ᓂᐄ ᐅᓯᒥᓴ ᐄ.mai, ii nii usimisa ii.Yes, she is a great granddaughter.
