Ojibwe phonemes

Ojibwe dialects tend to have 29 phonemes: 11 vowels (seven oral and four nasal) and 18 consonants.

Vowels

All dialects of Ojibwe have seven oral vowels. Vowel length is phonologically contrastive, hence phonemic. Although the long and short vowels are phonetically distinguished by vowel quality, recognition of vowel length in phonological representations is required, as the distinction between long and short vowels is essential for the operation of the metrical rule of vowel syncope that characterizes the Ottawa and Eastern Ojibwe dialects, as well as for the rules that determine word stress. There are three short vowels, /i a o/; and three corresponding long vowels, /iː aː oː/, in addition to a fourth long vowel /eː/, which lacks a corresponding short vowel. The short vowel /i/ typically has phonetic values centering on [ɪ]; /a/ typically has values centering on [ə]~[ʌ]; and /o/ typically has values centering on [o]~[ʊ]. Long /oː/ is pronounced [uː] for many speakers, and /eː/ is for many [ɛː].

vowel	stressed	unstressed
/a/	ɑ a ɐ ɔ ʌ ɨ	ə~ʌ a ɨ ɔ
/aa/	ɑː aː
/e/	eː~ɛː æː
/i/	i ɪ ɨ	ɨ ə ɪ ɛ
/ii/	iː ɪː
/o/	o~ʊ ɔ	o ɨ ə ʊ
/oo/	oː~uː ʊː

but more generally as

Oral Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː			oː~uː
Near-Close	ɪ		o~ʊ
Mid	eː	ə
Open		aː

Ojibwe has a series of three short oral vowels and four long ones. The two series are characterized by both length and quality differences. The short vowels are /ɪ o ə/ (roughly the vowels in American English bit, bot, and but, respectively) and the long vowels are /iː oː aː eː/ (roughly as in American English beet, boat, ball, and bay respectively). In the Minnesota variety of Southwestern Ojibwe language, /o/ varies between [o] and [ʊ] and /oo/ varies between [oː] and [uː]. /eː/ also may be pronounced [ɛː] and /ə/ as [ʌ].

Nasal Vowels

	Front	Central	back
Close	ĩː		õː~ũː
Mid	ẽː
Open		ãː

Ojibwe has nasal vowels; some arise predictably by rule in all analyses, and other long nasal vowels are of uncertain phonological status. The latter have been analysed both as underlying phoneme, and also as predictable, that is derived by the operation of phonological rules from sequences of a long vowel followed by /n/ and another segment, typically /j/.

The long nasal vowels are iinh ([ĩː]), enh ([ẽː]), aanh ([ãː]), and oonh ([õː]). They most commonly occur in the final syllable of nouns with diminutive suffixes or words with a diminutive connotation. In the Ottawa dialect long nasal aanh ([ãː]) occurs as well as in the suffix (y)aanh ([-((j)ãː]) marking the first person (conjunct) animate intransitive. Typical examples from Southwestern Ojibwe include: -iijikiwenh- ('brother'), -noshenh- ('cross-aunt'), -oozhishenh- ('grandchild') bineshiinh ('bird'), asabikeshiinh ('spider'), and awesiinh ('wild animal').

Orthographically the long vowel is followed by word-final ⟨nh⟩ to indicate that the vowel is nasal; while ⟨n⟩ is a common indicator of nasality in many languages such as French, the use of ⟨h⟩ is an orthographic convention and does not correspond to an independent sound.

One analysis of the Ottawa dialect treats the long nasal vowels as phonemic, while another treats them as derived from sequences of long vowel followed by /n/ and underlying /h/; the latter sound is converted to [ʔ] or deleted. Other discussions of the issue in Ottawa are silent on the issue.

A study of the Southwestern Ojibwe (Chippewa) dialect spoken in Minnesota describes the status of the analogous vowels as unclear, noting that while the distribution of the long nasal vowels is restricted, there is a minimal pair distinguished only by the nasality of the vowel: giiwe [ɡiːweː] ('he goes home') and giiwenh [ɡiːwẽː] ('so the story goes').

Nasalized allophones of the short vowels also exist. The nasal allophones of oral vowels are derived from a short vowel followed by a nasal+fricative cluster (for example, imbanz, 'I'm singed') is [ɪmbə̃z]). For many speakers, the nasal allophones appear not only before nasal+fricative clusters, but also before all fricatives, particularly if the vowel is preceded by another nasal. E.g., for some speakers, waabooz, ('rabbit') is pronounced [waːbõːz], and for many, mooz, ('moose') is pronounced [mõːz].

Consonants

	Bilabial		Alveolar		Postalveolar and palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosive and affricate	p [pʰ]	b [p~b]	t [tʰ]	d [t~d]	ch [tʃʰ]	j [tʃ~dʒ]	k [kʰ]	g [k~ɡ]	’ [ʔ]
Fricative	f [ɸ]	v [β]	s [sʰ]	z [s~z]	sh [ʃʰ]	zh [ʃ~ʒ]	x [x]	l [ɣ]	(h [h])
Nasal	m [m]		n [n]		ɲ [ɲ]		ŋ [ŋ]
Approximant			r [ɹ]		y [j]		w [w]

The "voiced/voiceless" obstruent pairs of Ojibwe vary in their realization depending on the dialect. In many dialects, they are described as having a "lenis/fortis" contrast. In this analysis, all obstruents are considered voiceless. The fortis consonants are characterised by being pronounced more strongly and are longer in duration. They often are aspirated or preaspirated. The lenis consonants are often voiced, especially between vowels, although they often tend to be voiceless at the end of words. They are pronounced less strongly and are shorter in duration, compared to the fortis ones. In some communities, the lenis/fortis distinction has been replaced with a pure voiced/voiceless one.

In some dialects of Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwe), the sounds of ⟨sh⟩ and ⟨zh⟩ have merged with ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ respectively. This means that, for example, Southwestern Ojibwe wazhashk, ('muskrat') is pronounced the same as wazask in some dialects of Saulteaux. This merging creates additional consonant clusters of /sp/ and /st/ in addition to /sk/ common in all Anishinaabe dialects.

/n/ before velars becomes [ŋ].

The glottal fricative /h/ occurs infrequently in most dialects, only appearing in a handful of expressive words and interjections, but in a few dialects it has taken the place of /ʔ/.

External links

• Ojibwe phonology