Western Abenaki Dictionary, WAR Radio, and Online Lessons: Home of the Abenaki Language

Pronunciation Guide
Important information about orthography (spelling) and pronunciation is listed below. If you have any questions, or suggestions please let us know.
The Western Abenaki language is not a difficult language for English speakers to learn to pronounce as most of its sounds are similar to sounds that exist in English. However, spelling can sometimes cause problems for language learners. It was not originally a written language, and there have been multiple different alphabets used.

Key of the Pronunciation

The fifteen consonants of the Western Abenaki Alphabet are sounded as they are in English.

When a consonant or vowel is doubled the two letters are to be sounded as one, with the sound being prolonged.

When b, d are final letter of a word they are always sounded respectively, as p, t.

All the consonants must be sounded. There is no exception.

The letters F, R, Q, V, X, or Y are not used in the language.

When -gw and -kw are at the end of a word, the w is sounded as unvoiced wha.

8 nasal sound like skunk.
A as in amen.
B as in boy.
Ch is sounded as 'ts.'
E as in label.
G is always hard, as in good and begin.
H as in hello.
I as in the double 'e' in free.
J is sounded like dz (ch and j are often interchanged).
K as in kill.
L as in loon.
M as in mom.
N as in nurse.
O as in notice.
P as party (p and b are often interchanged).
S as in the word school (s and z are often interchanged).
T as in the word time (t and d are often interchanged).
Ph never sounded as 'f'.
Always pronounce both letters, with the hard p sound followed by a short aspirate H sound.
U is sounded as 'u' in union.
W sounded as the 'ew' in flew, when followed by a vowel like 'w' in we.

Comparison of Pronunciation Between Algonquian Languages

Comparison of Western Abenaki Orthographies

home

search

pronunciation

radio

lessons

videos

sources

about

contact