Hello! I have been learning Ojibwe now for a few years and have gotten to what I would say is an intermediate level. I am trying to use Lingq to help with studying certain stories/conversations, adding them as private lessons on the english language part (saw that as a tip somewhere, dont remember where)
It is common in Ojibwe to separate parts of words with a - for readability,
for example “Giga-waabamin”, “I will see you” , which Lingq is reading as 2 separate words “Giga” and “Waabamin”. However it is one word, is there a way to tell the system that it is one word and not separate?
Or do I have to forgo the - and reduce readability?
In some cases it wont matter but in other it will, “giga” can mean “I will” or “You will” depending on the suffix so it can get confusion if it is read as separate words, rather than the single word it is.
Any helps advice is greatly appreciated.
And yes, I already applied to be a librarian for incubation language incase anyone is wondering.
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I have two ideas:
#1 - Select multiple “words” to add/find a LingQ for a “phrase”. I mean to say, that you could select both “Giga” and “waabamin” to add/find “Giga-waabamin”.
#2 - Before importing a text file, search and replace to remove the "-"s. As you point out, this would reduce readability.
I’ve also noticed that some texts in Spanish, and probably other languages, often have words split with hyphens for formatting reasons. And the same unwanted “split word” effect happens for me. So it’s not just Ojibwe, although from your description, it sounds more annoying to deal with in that case.
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I have no idea about what Ojibwe is and works. However, I would stay in line with the structure of the language. There are reasons behind the way a language works.
I personally would do this way:
If I encounter Giga-waabamin, I would create a Giga translation, a waabamin translation, AND if the compound word has another meaning when put together, I would select both words together and create an independente translation. In this scenario you would have 3 lingqs. You can create lingqs in this way as well. They would exist on top of each other.
If for some reason there is no point to have that “-” in certain compound words, you can edit them on the go after you imported the lesson.
Hope it helps.
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