Glottal Stops

Under certain conditions, vowels can be pronounced with a final glottal stop [ʔ].  A glottal stop is the sound you hear in the middle of the English word uh-oh; it feels like a catch in your throat.

In Southern East Cree, when a long vowel or a diphthong occurs before a [tʃ] sound, you can hear a glottal stop before the [tʃ].

Southern Syllables IPA
 waapaache  waa-paa-che  [waː -ˈpaːʔ- ʃe ]
Click here to hear this word  aweche  a-we-che  [a -ˈweːʔ – ʃe ]
michisuuche  mi-chi-suu-che  [mi – chi -ˈsuːʔ –  ʃe ]

Similarly, in the Northern dialect, you can hear a glottal stop before the [tʃ]. In this dialect the glottal stop that occurs with dubitative inflection or dubitative pronouns is often written chi.

Northern Syllables IPA
 waapaachichaa  waa-paachi-chaa  [waː -ˈpaːʔ – ʃaː ]
Click here to hear this word awaachichaa  a-waachi-chaa  [a -ˈwaːʔ – ʃaː ]
michisuuchichaa  mi-chi-suuchi-chaa  [mi – chi -ˈsuːʔ –  ʃaː ]

Words that end in a vowel can also be optionally pronounced with a glottal stop when they are pronounced by themselves (that is, when they are not in a sentence). However, this doesn’t happen if the word already ends with an [h] sound.

Northern Syllables IPA
puushi puu – shi [ ˈpu ̞ – ʃiʔ ]
nuutimiiwaasiu nuuti – mii – waa – siu [ nu̞ːt – miː – ˈwaː – suʔ ]
pwaashtuu pwaash – tuu [ ˈpɔːʃ – tu̞ʔ ]
Southern Syllables IPA

Words with only one vowel sound are often pronounced with a glottal stop when they are pronounced in isolation. You can hear the glottal stop right after the vowel.

Northern Syllables IPA
aan aan [  ˈaːʔ – n  ]
piin piin [  ˈiːʔ – n  ]
tii tii [  ˈiːʔ  ]
Southern Syllables IPA