Kiwôbodian 1: Pazekw

A regular feature included in Retreat Farm’s biweekly e-newsletter - this issue 6/29/21 - Kiwôbodian: Looking around, with Atowi

Stories, reflections, language, lifeways of this place — Wantastegok — through an Indigenous perspective

Pazekw [pah ZOOK (eh)] the Western Abenaki word for the cardinal number ‘one’, as with an item when counting.

As is common practice with the Abenaki language, this is a polysynthetic word (combinations of smaller roots) that describes an active relationship. Abenaki is constituted primarily of verbs, in comparison to English, which is mostly nouns.

“paz-” to enable or cause, plus

“-ekw” the essence/being of something, which suggests

the concept of: the tangible substantiation of something, i.e. here is ‘one’ incarnate, a possibility made visible, a something rendered.