{"id":950,"date":"2010-05-20T13:09:28","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T18:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eastcree.org\/cree\/?page_id=950"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:03:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:03:43","slug":"sounds","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.eastcree.org\/cree\/en\/grammar\/sounds-east-cree\/sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n

<\/a>Introduction: the East Cree sound system<\/h1>\r\n

East Cree Consonants and Vowels<\/h3>\r\n

East Cree has eleven consonants and six vowels. (Southern East Cree has seven vowels.) The remainder of this page is an overview of East Cree consonants, vowels, and syllables, leading to other pages with more detailed descriptions.<\/p>\r\n

Letters between slash brackets often stand for more than one sound. For example, \/ p \/<\/span> stands for three sounds, [ p ]<\/span>, [ b ]<\/span>, and [ p\u02b0 ]<\/span>. For details see the the introduction to the orthography<\/a>. (For those who are curious, the sounds are organized according to linguistic categories like place<\/a> and manner<\/a> of articulation.)<\/p>\r\n

Consonants<\/h4>\r\n

The eleven consonants of East Cree are listed below. The technical terms at the end of each table row are linked to more detailed descriptions of how the consonants are pronounced.<\/p>\r\n
P \/p\/<\/td>\r\nT \/t\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\nK \/k\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n(plosives<\/a>)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>
<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\nCH \/t\u0283\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n(affricate<\/a>)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>
<\/td>\r\nS \/s\/<\/td>\r\nSH \/\u0283\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\nH \/h\/<\/td>\r\n(fricatives<\/a>)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>
M \/m\/<\/td>\r\nN \/n\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n(nasals<\/a>)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>
W \/w\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\nY \/j\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n(glides<\/a>)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

The \/ w \/<\/span> sound in East Cree is sometimes written with U and sometimes with W. For an introduction and further links, see the page on how to write Cree<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

One sound that is often heard at the end of word ending in a vowel is the glottal stop<\/a>. This sound, however, is not written and therefore doesn’t correspond to a letter in the Cree Roman alphabet.<\/p>\r\n

Vowels<\/h4>\r\n

The East Cree vowel letters<\/strong> and their corresponding sounds are:<\/p>\r\n
II \/i\/, I\u00a0 \/\u026a\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\nUU \/u\/, U \/\u028a\/<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>
E \/e\/<\/td>\r\nAA \/a\/, A \/\u0259\/<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

(For the curious, the vowels are organized according to height<\/a> and backness<\/a> \/ rounding<\/a>.)<\/p>\r\n

In the writing system, there are three ‘long’ vowels (II or \u00ce, UU or \u00db, and AA or \u00c2) and three ‘short’ vowels (I, U, and A). Long vowels sometimes take twice as long to pronounce as short vowels. However, there are lots of exceptions: ‘long’ vowels do not always sound long, and ‘short’ vowels do not always sound short. For more details, see the page ‘Are East Cree vowels “long” and “short” or “tense” and “lax”<\/a>?’.<\/p>\r\n

There are other important differences between long and short vowels. See these pages for details:<\/p>\r\n