How to write East Cree sounds (in roman orthography)

This page provides some general guidelines about what to write when you hear an East Cree sound. A separate page describes the reasons behind the roman writing system (the alphabet).

Fricative Sounds

Write S when you hear an [ s ] sound. This rule doesn’t always work due to dialectal variation.

Northern			Southern
ᓯᓯᔅ		sisis	ᓴᑲᑆᓐ		sakapwaan

Write SH when you hear an [ ʃ ] sound. This rule doesn’t always work due to dialectal variation.

Northern			Southern
ᔒᔒᑉ		shiishiip	ᔒᐹ		shiipaa

Write H when you hear an [ h ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᐃᔮᔫᐦᐊᐤ		iyaayuuhau	ᒥᓇᐦᐄᒄ		minahiikw

• See the H Sounds page for more details on this sound.

Nasal Sounds

Write M when you hear an [ m ] or [ m̩ ] sound

Northern			Southern
ᒨᔅ		muus	ᒦᑐᔅ		miitus
ᒥᐦᒌᐙᓯᐤ		mihchiiwaasiu

Write N when you hear an [ n ] or [ n̩ ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᓈᐤ		naau	ᓇᒣᐲ		namepii
ᓂᑐᒋᑭᓐ		nituchikin	ᓂᒋᒄ		nichikw

Plosive Sounds

Write P when you hear any of these sounds [ p, b, pʰ ].

Northern			Southern
ᒦᐱᑎᓲᑉ		miipitisuup	ᐯᐹᐤ		pepaau

Write T when you hear any of these sounds [ t, d, tʰ ].

Northern			Southern
ᑖᐦᑎᐳᐎᓐ		taahtipuwin	ᑌᐦᑌᐤ		tehteu

Write K when you hear any of these sounds [ k, g, kʰ ].

Northern			Southern
ᑰᒃ		kuuk	ᐋᐦᑯᓰᐅᑲᒥᒄ		aahkusiiukamikw

• See about plosives and plosive voicing for more details and examples.

Affricate Sounds

Write CH when you hear a [ dʒ ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᒑᑭᑦ		chaakit	ᒌᒌᔥ		chiichiish

Write CH when you hear a [ tʃ ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᐊᓵᒥᒡ		asaamich	ᒋᐦᒋᐸᔫ		chihchipayuu

Write CH when you hear a [ dz ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᑳᐦᑳᒋᐤ		kaahkaachiu	ᐊᐦᐄᐱᐦᒉᓲ		ahiipihchesuu

Write CH when you hear a [ ts ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᒀᔅᒋᐱᐳᓐ		kwaaschipipun	ᐊᔅᒌᒥᓐᐦ		aschiiminh

• In some words this sound is written as CHIS, CHISH, CHICH

Glide Sounds

Write Y when you hear a [ j ] sound.

Northern			Southern
ᔫᔅᑳᔮᐤ		yuuskaayaau	ᔫᑎᓂᐸᔫ		yuutinipayuu

The [ w ] and [ w̥ ] sounds are spelled two ways.

• Sometimes a [ w ] or [ w̥ ] sound is written with the letter W.

Northern			Southern
ᐐᐱᑦ		wiipit	ᐐᐹᐤ		wiipaau
ᒥᓂᐦᐄᒄ		minihiikw	ᑏᐅᐊᔅᒋᐦᒄ		tiiuaschihkw

• Sometimes a [ w ] or [ w̥ ] sound is written with the letter U.

Northern			Southern
ᐙᐦᐙᐤ		waahwaau	ᑌᐦᑌᐤ		tehteu
ᓃᔓ		niishu	ᓃᔓ		niishu

Some words are spelled with the letter W, even though they do not have a [ w ] sound. See the page on W-clusters and the page on diphthongs for more discussion of this complicated topic.

Vowel Sounds

Tense vowels

• Write II or Î when you hear [ i ] or [ i: ]. See the vowel listening practice page for examples.

• Write UU or Û when you hear [ u ] or [ u: ]. See the vowel listening practicepage for examples.
  • Sometimes the [ u ] or [ u: ] sounds are spelled with a U. See the page on lax vowels for details.
• Write AA or  when you hear [ a, a:, æ, æ:, ɛ ] or [ ɛː ]. See the vowel listening practice page for examples.
• Southern only: write  E when you hear [ e, eː, ɛ ] or [ ɛː ]. See the vowel listening practice page for examples.
• Write WAA or WÂ when you hear [ ɔ, ɔː, ɒ ] or [ ɒː ]. See the vowel listening practice page for examples.

Lax vowels

• Write U when you hear [ ʊ ]. See the vowel listening practicepage for examples.
  • In some words, the [ ʊ ] sound is spelled with the letter I. See the page on lax vowels for details.
• Write either A or I when you hear [ ɪ, ɛ, ɨ, ə ] or [ ʌ ]. See the vowel listening practice page for examples.

Sounds that are heard but not spelled

Some sounds that can be heard in speech are not spelled. The glottal stop sound is one of these sounds.

Letters that are spelled but not heard

Some letters in East Cree spelling are silent. This includes some instances of H and W, and silent vowels.

For more information

• See the pages on fricatives, nasals, plosives, affricates, glides, vowels, tense vowels, lax vowels, diphthongs, and silent vowels.
• See the about vowels page.