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'Western Abnaki' is an indigenous language spoken by around 20 individuals along the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City. It is being supplanted by French and is considered nearly extinct.

Contents

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Writing systems

Notes

See also

External links

References

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Near-Close
Mid
Open mid nasal
Open

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive
Affricate
Fricative
Nasal
Lateral approximant'
Semivowel

Writing systems

Several different writing systems have been developed by various authors for writing the sounds of Abenaki: Pial Pol Wzokihlain, Sozap Lolô, Henry Lorne Masta, and Gordon Day (author of the Western Abenaki Dictionary) each use a slightly different system.^[1] Common to all four are the characters A, B, D, E, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, U, W, and Z. Wzokihlain, Lolô, and Masta all have an additional digraph CH, which corresponds to Day's C.¹ Lolô writes I for and ; where confusion could result, he writes Ï for .¹
Lolô and Masta use both W and U for the semivowel . Day consistently writes lax stops using voiced symbols: B, D, G, J, Z; the other three write lax consonants using P, T, K, Ch, S word-initially and word-finally.¹ Day also consistently writes the schwa with E, while the others leave it unwritten when not stressed.¹ Lolô and Day write the nasal vowel as Ô, while Wzokihlain writes O and Masta writes .¹
{| class="wikitable"
! IPA
! Wzokihlain
! Lolô
! Masta
! Day
|-
|
| align="center"|p
| align="center"|p
| align="center"|p
| align="center"|p
|-
|
| align="center"|b/p
| align="center"|b/p
| align="center"|b/p
| align="center"|b
|-
|
| align="center"|t
| align="center"|t
| align="center"|t
| align="center"|t
|-
|
| align="center"|d/t
| align="center"|d/t
| align="center"|d/t
| align="center"|d
|-
|
| align="center"|k
| align="center"|k
| align="center"|k
| align="center"|k
|-
|
| align="center"|g/k
| align="center"|g/k
| align="center"|g/k
| align="center"|g
|-
|
| align="center"|ch
| align="center"|ch
| align="center"|ch
| align="center"|c
|-
|
| align="center"|j/ch
| align="center"|j/ch
| align="center"|j/ch
| align="center"|j
|-
|
| align="center"|s
| align="center"|s
| align="center"|s
| align="center"|s
|-
|
| align="center"|z/s
| align="center"|z/s
| align="center"|z/s
| align="center"|z
|-
|
| align="center"|h
| align="center"|h
| align="center"|h
| align="center"|h
|-
|
| align="center"|m
| align="center"|m
| align="center"|m
| align="center"|m
|-
|
| align="center"|n
| align="center"|n
| align="center"|n
| align="center"|n
|-
| {{IPA|[l]
| align="center"|l
| align="center"|l
| align="center"|l
| align="center"|l
|-
|
| align="center"|w
| align="center"|w/u
| align="center"|w/u
| align="center"|w
|-
|
| align="center"|y
| align="center"|i
| align="center"|y
| align="center"|y
|-
|
| align="center"|i
| align="center"|i/ï
| align="center"|i
| align="center"|i
|-
|
| align="center"|o
| align="center"|o
| align="center"|o
| align="center"|o
|-
|
| align="center"|e/Ø
| align="center"|e/Ø
| align="center"|e/Ø
| align="center"|e
|-
|
| align="center"|o
| align="center"|ô
| align="center"|
| align="center"|ô
|-
|
| align="center"|a
| align="center"|a
| align="center"|a
| align="center"|a
|}

Notes

1. Harvey

See also

★ Abenaki (tribe)

★ Abenaki language

External links

★

References

★ Day, Gordon M. 1994a. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 1: Abenaki to English. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 128.

★ Day, Gordon M. 1994b. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 2: English to Abenaki. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 128.

★ Abenaki Harvey, Chris

★ Laurent, Joseph. 1884. ''New Familiar Abenakis and English Dialogues.'' Quebec: Joseph Laurent. Reprinted 2006: Vancouver: Global Language Press, ISBN 0-9738924-7-1