Pronunciation of Plosives (P, T, K)

East Cree has three plosive (or ‘stop’) sounds. (The flow of air through the mouth is abruptly stopped during the production of these sounds. The air explodes out of the mouth when released.)

The letters for the East Cree stops are P, T, and K. For the most part, they sound like this:

At the end of a word, East Cree P, T, and K often sound like the [ pʰ ] in English pill, the [ tʰ ] in English till and the [ kʰ ] in English kill.

Northern			Syllables	IPA
ᒦᐱᑎᓲᑉ		miipitisuup	mii – piti – suup	[ mi – ˈpɪtʰ – supʰ]
ᒑᑭᑦ		chaakit	chaa – kit	[ ˈtʃa – kɪtʰ ]
ᑰᒃ		kuuk	kuuk	[ ˈkuːkʰ ]

Southern			Syllables	IPA
ᐙᐸᔑᑉ		waapaship	waapa – ship	[ ˈwap – ʃɪpʰ ]
ᐆᐎᑦ		uuwit	uuwit	[ ˈuːtʰ ]
ᓂᔅᒃ		nisk	nisk	[ ˈnɪskʰ ]

Sometimes you can hear two stops in a row in East Cree. In such cases, the first P, T, and K also sound like the [ pʰ ] in English pill, the [ tʰ ] in English till and the [ kʰ ] in English kill.

Northern			Syllables	IPA
ᐋᐱᐦᑐᐎᓐ		aapihtuwin	aapih – tuwin	[ apʰ – ˈtuʷən ]
ᐊᑎᐦᒄ		atihkw	atihkw	[ ɪːtʰkʷ ]

Southern			Syllables	IPA
ᐊᑎᐦᒄ		atihkw	atihkw	[ ˈʌtʰkʰ ]
ᐊᑯᐦᑉ		akuhp	akuhp	[ ˈakʰpʰ] or [ ˈakʷpʰ ]

Anywhere else in the word, especially between vowels, P can sound like the B in English bed, or like the P in spill. T can sound like the D in English den, or like the T in still. Finally K can sound like the G in English good, or like K in skill. See the page on plosive voicing for many examples.

One major difference between East Cree and English, illustrated in the above examples, is that East Cree uses fewer letters to write stop sounds than does English. For a quick guide to East Cree spelling, see the page on how to write East Cree sounds in the roman orthography. For a more in-depth discussion of how to hear and pronounce P, T, and K in East Cree, see the linguistic description of plosives and the page on plosive voicing.