from word to word depending on the word's gender, root, and historical stress. By examining the plural form of the word, one can generally determine the word's gender and root. Animate plurals end in -g, while inanimate plural nouns (and obviative nouns) end in -n. The underlying form of a root determines the "linking vowel" — the vowel that appears before the plural suffix (-g or -n) but after the root itself. Person There are seven Ojibwe inflectional categories expressing person/gender combinations for each of the two numbers (singular and plural). However, the singular and plural categories do not always exactly correspond. The total number of 14 "persons" arises from taking into consideration all the contrasts of animate/inanimate, proximate/obviative, and singular/plural. Animate gender (singular) X — unspecified actor 1 — first person singular 2 — second person singular 3 — third person, animate 3’ — animate obviative, or fourth person, animate 3’’ — third person animate, possessed by obviative Animate gender (plural) 1p — first person plural, exclusive 21 — first person plural, inclusive 2p — second person plural 3p — third person plural, animate 3’p — third person plural, animate obviative, or animate fourth person proximate plural Inanimate gender 0 — third person singular, inanimate 0’ — third person singular, inanimate obviative 0p — third person plural, inanimate 0’p — third person plural, inanimate obviative Characteristics of the resulting 14 persons are built into Ojibwe nouns and pronouns, thus dictating which verb forms would be used in speech. In nouns and verbs, all 14 forms of persons may or may not present themselves, as words are divided as either animate or inanimate genders and very few words exist as both, but all 14 forms of persons generally do appear with pronouns. Pronouns Ojibwe pronouns, along with distinguishing singular and plural number and first, second, third, and fourth (obviative) persons, also carry a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Pronouns may present themselves either as independent words or as series of prefixes and suffixes. An inclusive first person plural indicates that the pronoun includes the addressee, i.e., "we including you" (giinawind). An exclusive first person plural indicates that the addressee is not included, i.e., "we excluding you" (niinawind). The other personal pronouns are the first singular niin, second singular giin, third singular wiin, second plural giinawaa, and third plural wiinawaa. Like the independent words, Ojibwe pronominal prefixes indicate