The Ojibwe alphabetic order is as follows:
a, aa, b, ch, d, e, g, h, ’, i, ii, j, k, m, n, o, oo, p, s, sh, t, w, y, z, zh
Note that the double vowels are treated as standing for unit sounds, and are alphabetized after the corresponding single vowels. The character ( ’ ) represents a glottal stop, which is a significant speech sound in Ojibwemowin.
There are three short vowels: a, i, o. The four long vowels are: aa, e, ii, oo. The long and short refer to the amount of time you hold on to the sound when you say it – the four long vowels take more time to say than the short vowels.
a “uh” sound as in “about”
i “ih” sound as in “pin”
o “oh” sound as in “obey” or
“oo” sound as in “book”
aa “ah” sound as in “cob”
e “ay” sound as in “café”
ii “ee” sound as in “see”
oo “oa” sound as in “boat” or
“oo” sound as in “boot”
Nasal vowels are indicated by writing the appropriate basic vowel followed by nh. Before a y or a glottal stop (‘) the h may be omitted in writing. There are no direct English equivalents.
aanh banajaanh nestling
enh nisayenh my older brother
iinh awesiinh wild animal
agaashiinyi or agaashiinhyi (someone) is small
oonh giigoonh fish
gaawiin ingikendanziin I don’t know it
jiimaanens small boat
oshkanzhiin someone’s fingernail(s)
Long vowels after a nasal consonant m or n are often nasalized, expecilly before s, sh, z, or zh. It is often difficult to decide whether to write these as nasalized vowels or not. Example: we write the word for “moose” without indicating the phonetic nasalization, many prefer to write it with an n: mooz or moonz
The non-nasal consonants occur in pairs with one being a strong consonant and the other a weak consonant. The strong consonants do not occur at the beginning of words (unless a vowel is left off), they may sound long or double, and are voiceless. The weak consonants can occur at the beginning of words and are often voiced, especially in the middle of words.
Consonant Clusters occur in the Ojibwe language:
sk miskozi is red
shp ishpiming up above, in heaven
sht nishtigaan my head
shk ishkode fire
gayaashk gull
mb wiimbaa is hollow
nd aandi where
aanind some
nj biinjise flies in
nininj my hand
ng bangii a little bit
waagang tomorrow
In the brief description of Ojibwe sounds given here, some English words containing equivalents for Ojibwe sounds are listed. These are only approximations as each language has its own system of sounds and pronunciations. The actual pronunciation of a speaker of Ojibwe should be followed.