The phonemic inventory of Miꞌkmaq is shown below.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | i | iː | ɨ | ɨː | u | uː | |
| Close-mid | unrounded | e | eː | ə | |||
| rounded | ø | øː | o | oː | |||
| Open-mid | unrounded | ɛ | ɛː | ɜ | ɜː | ʌ | ʌː |
| rounded | œ | œː | ɔ | ɔː | |||
| Open | æ | æː | a | aː | ɒ | ɒː | |
Consonants[]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | plain | lab. | lat. | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | kʷ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡ʃ | ||||||
| voiced | d͡ʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | |
| voiced | v | z | ɮ | ʒ | ɣ | ɣʷ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Approximant | ʋ | ɹ | l | j | ɰ | w | ʟ | |
The consonants of Miꞌkmaq can be divided into two groups: the obstruents /p, t, k, kʷ, t͡ʃ, s, x, xʷ/, and the sonorants /m, n, w, l, j/. The vowels of Miꞌkmaq are also counted as sonorants.
The obstruents have a wide variety of pronunciations. When they are located word-initially or next to another obstruent, they are voiceless. However, when they are located between sonorants, they are voiced, and appear as [b, d, g, ɡʷ, d͡ʒ, z, ɣ, ɣʷ]. When the stops and affricate are located word-finally, they may be aspirated, and appear as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, kʷʰ, tʃʰ]. An example of each kind of pronunciation is given below.
| Allophone | Orthography | Phonemic | Phonetic | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | tiꞌam | /tiːam/ | [tiːam] | moose |
| Voiced | Miꞌkmaq | /miːkmax/ | [miːɡmax] | Miꞌkmaq |
| Aspirated | sqolj | /əsxolt͡ʃ/ | [əsxolt͡ʃʰ] | frog |
Miꞌkmaq distinguishes between both long and short vowels and consonants, symbolized in Listuguj by doubling the consonant. Beyond expanding in length, long consonants add a schwa when they precede other consonants. For instance, compare /en.mitk/, written in Listuguj as enmitg ("flow away") with /en.nə.mit/, written in Listuguj as ennmit ("stick into"); or, /tox.tʃu.pi.la.wek/, written in Listuguj as toqjuꞌpilaweg ("hoist"), with /ke.si.kaw.wek/, written in Listuguj as gesigawweg ("loud").
Listuguj orthography occasionally begins words with consonant clusters, such as with gtaꞌn ("ocean") or mgumi ("ice"). However, such clusters are pronounced over separate syllables, with a schwa preceding the cluster: for instance, gtaꞌn is pronounced /ək.taːn/ while mgumi is pronounced /əm.ku.mi/. On the other hand, word-final clusters, such as in asigetg ("investigate") are pronounced over a single syllable: compare the pronunciation of asigetg, /a.si.ketk/, with mestꞌg ("taste"), /mes.tək/.