The spelling used on this wiki will follow the Listuguj orthography, since that is the orthography used by the majority of our consultants. However, other spelling systems, or orthographies, are in use by the Mi'gmaq community and researchers of the Mi'gmaq language. The differences in the systems will be described at the end of the page.

Vowels

Mi'gmaq has five main or "full" vowel sounds: a, e, i, o and u. In the International Phonetic Alphabet they are written [a], [e], [i], [o], and [u]. It also has a reduced vowel, [ə] in IPA, called, schwa, that is not always written using the Listuguj orthography. When it is, it is written with an apostrophe.

All of the full vowels may be lengthened. This is written in the Listuguj orthography by following the vowel with an apostrophe: a', e', i', o' and u'. In IPA this would be written [aː], [eː], [iː], [oː] and [uː]. It should be noted that a difference in length will cause a difference in meaning: see e'pit, 'woman', and epit, 'he or she is seated'.

A table with some examples is given below. All Pronunciation examples are taken from the online audio companion to Peter Ladefoged's "A Course in Phonetics" Textbook. All Mi'gmaq examples are taken from the Mi'gmaq Talking Dictionary.


Vowel	Pronunciation	Example	Translation
a	[a]	ala listen	'that, there'
a'	[aː]	a'papi listen	'rope'
e	[e]	epit listen	'he or she is seated'
e'	[eː]	e' pit listen	'woman'
i	[i]	ila'sgw listen	'playing card'
i'	[iː]	ji' nm listen	'a man'
o	[o]	oqoti listen	'friend, companion'
o'	[oː]	majo' qiaq listen	'it wobbles'
u	[u]	gutang listen	'town'
u'	[uː]	su' n listen	'cranberry'
'	[ə]	e'n ' g listen	'he or she loses it'

A note on schwa (ə): If a pronounced ə is not written with an apostrophe, this means that it is predictable by rule and is not necessary to be included in the orthography. For more information, please see Writing Schwa.

It should also be noted that these pronunciations are a rough approximate only. For more detailed pronunciations, please see Sound Inventory and Pronunciation.

Consonants

There are also thirteen consonants recognized in the Listuguj orthography: p, t, g, q, gw, qw, j, s, m, n, l, y and w. These consonants can be grouped into two classes: sonorants, which have the same pronunciation throughout (m, n, l, y and w); and obstruents, which may have two pronunciations depending on what appears on either side of them (p, t, g, q, gw, qw, j and s).

For those consonants that have two pronunciations, it is usually the case that they have one pronunciation at the beginnings of words and between vowels and another everywhere else. A table with the appropriate pronunciations is given below:


Consonant	Pronunciation	Example	IPA	Translation
p	p	mt'p	əmtəp	'brain'
p	b	nipugt	nibukt	'forest'
t	t	si'st	siːst	'three'
t	d	gesita'tl	gesidaːdəl	'he or she hurts someone badly'
g	k	nutmg	nudəmk	'he or she hears'
g	g	tege'g	degeːk	'it is cold'
q	q	tuoq	duoq	'I don't know'
q	ɢ	mi'soqo	miːsoɢo	'as far as'
gw	kʷ	tapusi'gw	dabusiːkʷ	'we (incl.) are two'
gw	gʷ	gwe'	gʷeː	'greetings' or 'hello'
qw	qʷ	esamqwat	esamqʷat	'he or she drinks'
qw	ɢʷ	esamqwat	esaməɢʷat	'he or she drinks'
j	tʃ	nujj	nʊtʃ	'my father'
j	dʒ	jiptug	dʒɪptʊk	'perhaps'
s	s	sepei	sebei	'this morning'
s	z	na'gu'set	naːguːzɛt	'sun'
m	m	maqtawe'g	maqtaweːk	'is being black'
n	n	nalagit	nalagit	'swift, eager'
l	l	elpilatl	ɛlpiladəl	'he or she sends him or her by rope'
y	j	atlayg	adəlajk	'shirts'
w	w	wela'lin	welaːlin	'thank you'

Consonants can also be doubled, or lengthened, just as vowels can. This also may lead to a difference in meaning. So, for example, wigatign, 'book', will be different than wigatignn, 'books'.

Other Orthographies

The following are the different orthographies that Mi'gmaq speakers and researchers have used. The more current ones are listed near the top, while older writing systems are listed near the bottom.

Hewson & Francis' Translation of Father Pacifique

A common resource that will be used throughout this wiki will be Hewson & Francis' 1990 Translation of Father Pacifique's Mi'gmaq Grammar, published in 1939. The major differences in their orthography and the Listuguj orthography are listed below:

k is used instead of g
[ə] is written using the figure ɨ instead of the apostrophe, but is still only written when unpredictable (see Writing Schwa)
Doubled consonants are written with an apostrophe after the consonant: e.g., llnuit, 'he is a man', is written l'nuit

Francis/Smith Orthography

Another common orthography in use for transcribing the Mi'gmaq language is the Francis/Smith Orthography. Differences to the Listuguj orthography are given below:

k is used instead of g
[ə] is written ɨ (when written at all)
Long vowels are sometimes written using an apostrophe after the vowel, and sometimes written with an accent mark: á, é, í, ó, ú

Metallic Orthography

The Metallic Orthography is yet another modern system used for transcribing Mi'gmaq. Unlike the Listuguj orthography, all sounds - whether they lead to a difference in meaning or not - are transcribed. Thus, the word meaning 'old or historic' would be spelled amgwesamu'gw in the Listuguj orthography, but amkwesamùgw in the Metallic orthography. A list of differences is given below:

Listuguj p, t, g, gw and j are written p, b, t, d, k, g, kw, gw, ch and j in the Metallic orthography, depending on how they are pronounced as given in the table above.
Long vowels are written with the mark è instead of an apostrophe, e'.
Schwa - when written - is written ê.

Pacifique's Original Orthography

The following is a list of the differences between the original orthography used by Father Pacifique in his original Mi'gmaq grammar and the Listuguj orthography:

Vowel length is not written in any way; long and short vowels are written with the same letter.
u or [u] is written o
o or [o] is written ô
q is not written and is replaced instead by g
j is written tj
w and y are written as u and i, respectively
Schwa is not written

Rand Orthography

A source that Father Pacifique drew heavily on when he was writing his grammar was "Rand's Micmac Dictionary", published in 1888. The differences in consonants are listed below:

j is written ch
g is written with either a c or a k
p is written b (although sometimes with p, according to Father Pacifique)
q is written h
t may be written as t or as d

The differences in Rand's vowels are too numerous to list. Instead, a table given his vowel orthography compared to the Listuguj orthography and appropriate pronunciations is found below:

Vowels
Listuguj Orthography	a	a'	e	e'	i	i'	o	o'	u	u'	ə
Rand Orthography	ă	a or â	ĕ	ā	ĭ	e	ŏ	o or ō	ŏŏ	oo or u	ŭ
IPA	a	aː	e	eː	i	iː	o	oː	u	uː	ə

Mi'gmaq Hieroglyphic System

The Mi'gmaq hieroglyphic system is a writing system that was in use in the 17th through 19th centuries by the Mi'gmaq people. It was more of a mnemonic device than a writing system (that is, new sentences could not be written with it), but was adapted by the missionary Chrétien le Clercq into a logographic system for use in the liturgy.

References

Hewson, John, and Bernard Francis. 1990. The Micmac Grammar of Father Pacifique. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics Memoir 7. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Metallic, Emanuel N., Danielle E. Cyr, and Alexandre Sévigny. 2005. The Metallic Mìgmaq-English Reference Dictionary. Saint-Nicolas, Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval.
Rand, Silas Tertius. 1888. Dictionary of the language of the Micmac Indians, who reside in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Halifax: Nova Scotia Printing Company. Reprinted 1994: New Delhi & Madras: Asian Educational Services
Mi'gmaq Talking Dictionary
Mi'kmaq Pronunciation and Spelling Guide
Ta'n Teloqsi'tij Lnueie'g Gnugwatigng

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