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Atikamekw Pronunciation and Spelling Guide

The following charts show the pronunciation for the Atikamekw spellings we have used on our site -- which come from the official Atikamekw orthography -- as well as some alternate spellings that you may find in other books and websites. You may also like to visit our Algonquian languages homepage to see how Atikamekw relates to other languages from the Algonquian family.

˜Vowels

As in other Algonquian languages, vowel length is phonemic in Atikamekw -- the difference between a short /o/ and a long /o:/ is important to the meaning of a word. However, the official Atikamekw orthography does not differentiate long and short vowels. An Atikamekw speaker simply must remember whether an "o" is pronounced short or long, just as an English speaker must remember that the "a" in "rather" is pronounced differently than the "a" in "father."

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
a			Like the a in what .
a	â, aa	a	Like the a in father.
e	ê, ee	e	Like the e sound in Spanish, similar to the a in gaze.
i		I	Like the i in pit.
i	î, ii	i	Like the i in police.
o	u	o	Like the o in open.
o	ô, oo	o ~ u	Like the o in note or the u in flute.

˜Diphthongs

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
aw		aw	Like ow in English cow.
ai	ay	aj	Almost like English eye.
ew		ew	This sound doesn't really exist in English. It sounds a little like saying the "AO" from "AOL" quickly.
ei	ey	ej	Like the ay in hay.
iw		iw~uw	Like a child saying ew!, or like the oe in shoe.

˜Consonants

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
c	c, š, sh, zh	~	Like sh in shy or ge in beige.
h		h	Like h in English hay.
k	k, kk, g	k	Like k in skate or g in gate.
kw		kw ~ k^w	Before a vowel it sounds like the qu in queen, but at the end of a word it sounds like a rounded k with a silent w.
m		m	Like m in English moon.
n		n	Like n in English night.
p	p, pp, b	p ~ b	Like p in spin or b in bin.
r			Like Spanish r, or the tt in American English butter.
s	s, ss, z	s	Like s in see or z in zoo.
t	t, tt, d	t ~ d	Like t in sty or the d in die.
tc	ch, č, j	t ~ d	Like ch in chair or j in jar.
w		w	Like w in English way.
i		j	Like y in English yes.

˜Nasal Vowels

In Atikamekw, vowels that come after the letter h are always nasalized.

˜Dialect Variation

Atikamekw is closely related to Cree, and some people consider it to be a particularly divergent dialect of Cree. Some characteristic phonological features of Atikamekw are the existence of the approximant r, rounded sounds like k^w, the use of long tense consonants, and differentiation between s and š.

˜Thanks to Bonnie Geleynse at Wactenamakan Translation Services for help with this page!

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