Spelling

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.

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

The main differences between Mi'gmaq and English pronunciation are explained in the Pronunciation Differences 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.

Diphthongs

In addition to the six simple vowels listed above, Mi'gmaq also has a few diphthongs: that is, sequences of vowels that are pronounced as one sound. These sequences, or diphthongs, can be either long or short. All diphthongs in Mi'gmaq end in either w or i. Some examples are given in the table below:

Diphthong	Pronunciation	Example	Translation
aw	[aw]	anawtig listen	'cheap'
a'w	[aːw]	lnuoqta'w listen	'statue'
ew	[ew]	apistanewj listen	'marten'
e'w	[eːw]	aqalasie'w listen	'English person'
iw	[iw]	apjiw listen	'always'
i'w	[iːw]	Hypothetical; no example found
ai	[aj]	g'p'tai listen	'ceiling, top'
a'i	[aːj]	atla'i listen	'shirt'
ei	[ej]	alawei listen	'pea'
e'i	[eːj]	ge'iteget listen	'he or she is intelligent'

It should also be noted that w and i can appear before these vowels as well, as in ansale'wit, 'angel', and gaqtaqaiaq, 'it (wire) ends'. These are not considered diphthongs since the w and the i are at the beginning of a syllable.

Vowels in sequence, such as in tia'm, 'moose', will be pronounced as two separate syllables: ti.a'm.

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	Translation
p	[p]	apjiw listen	'always'
	[b]	getapat listen	'he or she sinks'
t	[t]	si'st listen	'three'
	[d]	gesita'tl listen	'he or she hurts someone badly'
g	[k]	alsutg listen	'he or she owns it'
	[g]	tege'g listen	'it is cold'
q	[q]	elaptoq listen	'he or she makes tracks toward'
	[ħ]	iloqomoqwa'toq listen	'he or she wraps it'
gw	[kʷ]	ila'sgw listen	'playing card'
	[gʷ]	a'gwesn listen	'hat'
qw	[qʷ]	esamqwat listen	'he or she drinks'
	[ħʷ]	esamqwat listen	'he or she drinks'
j	[tʃ]	misegnuj listen	'rag'
	[dʒ]	jiptug listen	'perhaps'
s	[s]	sepei listen	'this morning'
	[z]	na'gu'set listen	'sun'
m	[m]	maqtawe'g listen	'is being black'
n	[n]	nalagit listen	'swift, eager'
l	[l]	elpilatl listen	'he or she sends him or her by rope'
w	[w]	welp'teg listen	'it is nice and warm'

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
• Diphthongs ending in the sound [i] are written with a y
• [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
• Diphthongs ending in the sound [i] are written with a y
• [ə] is written ɨ (when written at all)
• Long vowels are sometimes written using an apostrophe after the vowel, but mostly written with an accent mark: á, é, í, ó, ú

Lexicon Orthography

This is another orthography that is very similar to the Francis/Smith and Hewson & Francis orthographies. Differences to the Listuguj orthography are listed below:

• k is used instead of g
• Diphthongs ending in i will instead end in y
• Schwa is written ɨ
• Long vowels are written with a colon after the vowel: a:, e:, i:, o:, u:

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.
• y is used instead of i to end diphthongs
• Long vowels are written with the mark à, è, ì, ò, ù instead of an apostrophe, a', e', i', o', u'
• 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 is written as u
• 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
• y is used in diphthongs

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 to the early 20th centuries by the Mi'gmaq people, and still has some limited use. It was adapted by the missionary Chrétien le Clercq into a logographic system for use in the liturgy. The general system was one picture = one word. However, Mi'gmaq words change their form depending on the words around them (for example, verbs will change depending on who is doing the action, nouns will change if they are possessed or absent), making anything written in the system difficult to interpret with absolute precision.

References

• Hewson, John, and Bernard Francis. 1990. The Micmac Grammar of Father Pacifique. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics Memoir 7. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
• Ladefoged, Peter. 2006. A Course in Phonetics. 5th ed. Boston: Thomson Higher Education.
• 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 language
• Mi'kmaq Pronunciation and Spelling Guide
• Ta'n Teloqsi'tij Lnueie'g Gnugwatigng