The phonology of the Massachusett language was re-introduced to the Mashpee, Aquinnah, Herring Pond and Assonet tribes that participate in the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, co-founded by Jessie Little Doe Baird in 1993. The phonology is based regular sound changes that took place in the development of Proto-Eastern Algonquian from Proto-Algonquian, as well as cues in the colonial orthography regarding pronunciation, as the writing system was based on English pronunciation and spelling conventions in use at the time, keeping in mind differences in late seventeenth century English versus today. Other resources included information from extant Algonquian languages with native speakers.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | uː | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open | aː, aːj | ã |
Massachusett vowels can be subdivided into two categories, the short vowels /a/ and /ə/ and the long vowels /aː/, /ã/, /aːj/, /iː/, and /uː/—although /ã/ is sometimes considered in its own category of nasal vowel.[1] /aːj/ is technically a diphthong, and is particularly prevalent in inanimate intransitive verbs that translate as 'it is X.' PA *wapyawi > PEA *wa·pe·yɘw > PSNEA *wąpa·yɘw > Massachusett wompi (wôpay) /wãpaːj/, ('it is white.')[2]
Consonants[]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal/ Postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Stop | p | t | tʲ | k | |
| Affricate | tʃ | ||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||
| Approximant | w | j |