Pronunciation of the affricate CH

East Cree has four AFFRICATE sounds [ tʃ , ts, dʒ, dz ]. They are all spelled with the letters CH (with some minor exceptions described later.)

CH [ tʃ ] and J [ dʒ ] pronunciations

At the beginning of a word and between vowels, CH can sound like the [ tʃ ] in Chuck; it also often sounds like the [ dʒ ] in John.

Northern			Syllables	IPA
ᒌᐲ		chiipii	chii – pii	[ ˈdʒiː - piː ]
ᒋᔥᑖᐹᐐᐙᑭᓐ		chishtaapaawiiwaakin	chishtaa – paa – wii – waa -kin	[ tʃta - pa - wi - ˈwa - kɪn ]

Southern			Syllables	IPA
ᒌᒫᓐ		chiimaan	chii – maan	[ ˈdʒi - man ]
ᒋᔑᑌᐤ		chishiteu	chishi – teu	[ ˈtʃɪ - tew ]

Cree speakers can use the [ tʃ ] and [ dʒ ] sounds interchangeably, without signalling any change in the meaning of a word. For examples, see the page on voicing. In contrast, these sounds are not interchangeable in English; think of ‘chain’ versus ‘Jane’, which have two different meanings.

Similarly, the [ p ] sound in pit and the [ b ] sound in bit are both acceptable ways of pronouncing the letter P in East Cree. Similar facts hold for T and K. For more information, see the page about plosives.

At the end of a word, CH usually sounds like the [ tʃ ] in Chuck.

Northern			Syllables	IPA
ᐊᓵᒥᒡ		asaamich	a – saa – mich	[ ɪ - ˈsaː - mɪtʃ ]

Southern		Syllables	IPA
ᐹᓯᐦᒡ	paasihch	paa – sihch	[ paː - ˈsɪtʃ ]

TS [ ts ] and DZ [ dz ] pronunciations

CH can also sound more like the [ dz ] in English adze or like the [ ts ] in cats.

Northern		Syllables	IPA
ᒋᒧᐎᓐ	chimuwin *	chi – muwin	[ dzɪ - ˈmuʷən ]
ᑳᐦᑳᒋᐤ	kaahkaachiu	kaah – kaa – chiu	[ kaʰ - ˈ ka - dzɨʷ ]
ᒀᔅᒋᐱᐳᓐ	kwaaschipipun	kwaas – chipi – pun	[ kɔs - ˈtsɪp - pʊn ]

* CH sounds like [ dz ] … or maybe like [ ts ]? See the page on plosives for explanation of why it is difficult to tell.

Southern		Syllables	IPA
ᐊᐦᐄᐱᐦᒉᓲ	ahiipihchesuu	a – hii – pih – che – suu	[ a - hi - pɪ - dʒe - ˈsuʔ ]
ᐐᒉᔅᒄ	wiicheskw	wii – cheskw	[ wi - ˈdʒeskʷ ]

Dialectal Variations in the pronunciation of CH

CH will often sound like [ ts ] in the Wemindji dialect of Northern East Cree. Many words pronounced [ tʃ ] in Chisasibi will be pronounced [ ts ] in Wemindji.

		Wemindji [ ts ]		Chisasibi [ tʃ ]
ᒋᓂᔅᑯᒥᑎᓐ	chiniskumitin
ᐊᓵᒥᒡ	asaamich				[ ɪ - ˈsaː - mɪtʃ ]

Other ways to spell the affricate.

The letters CHIS sound like [ tʰs ] or [ ts ]:

Northern		Syllables	IPA
ᒋᓵᐲᓯᒻ	chisaapiisim	chisaa – pii – sim	[ tʰsa - ˈpi - sʊm ]
ᒋᔅᐱᑳᐤ	chispikaau	chispi – kaau	[ˈtspɪ - kaːw ]
ᐊᒋᔅᑖᓱᓐᐦ	achistaasunh	a – chistaa – sunh	[ ɪ - tstaː - ˈsʊn ]

Southern		Syllables	IPA
ᒋᔅᐸᑳᐤ	chispakaau	chispa – kaau	[ tspʌ - ˈkaw ]
ᐸᐸᔦᒋᓲ	papayechisuu	pa – pa – ye – chisuu	[ pʌ - pə - je - ˈtsuʔ ]
ᒋᓲᐙᓲ	chisuuwaasuu	chisuu – waa – suu	[ (t)s(u)waː - ˈsuʔ ]

The letters CHISH sound like [ tʰʃ ] or [ tʃ ]:

Northern			Syllables	IPA
ᒋᔥᑖᐹᐐᐙᑭᓐ		chishtaapaawiiwaakin	chishtaa – paa – wii – waa – kin	[ t(ʰ)ʃtaː - paː - wiː - ˈwaː - kɪn ]
ᒋᔣᑖᓐ		chishwaataan	chishwaa – taan	[ ˈtʃʷɔː - taːn ]