Consonants

1
Consonants Vowels
2

• Because the language is being written today using
  english letters to equate Potawatomi sounds the
  letters are actually closer to between to sounds.
  You will find that certain letters are favored in
  the north and certain in the south. If you sound
  out a word with either it makes little
  difference. You should be able to understand what
  is being said. We will cover this more in lesson
  17 dialects

3
Letters we do not have

• L
• R
• X
• V

4
Consenants

• b/p bama pi or pama pi- later on.
• Ch/j bgoj- wild or bgoch
• d/t ngod- one ngot- one
• g/k gises- sun kises sun
• H haw
• m/n mbagen- bed nbagen- bed
• s/z sagech- outside zagech-outside
• Zh/sh shishibe- duck zhizhibe- duck
• W wjanda- he/she is cooking
• Y yayeno- he/she is laughing

5
Vowels

• A- ah as in father
• E- eh as is bat, cat, rat
• O- oh as in go
• i- ee as in read, need, bleed ( we use I to
  indicate ee)
• E- uh/ih

6
Some unique combinations

• g- sounds like goat,good never like giant.
• Kw/gw - as in quiet
• iw- The w sounds like o when it follows i.
  wiwkwan- sounds like weeokwan or tadiwgemek which
  sounds like tadeeogemek
• gw- as in Guam,
• oy- as in toy, boy, joy (when y follows o)
• iy- long a song like ray, bay

7
M or N are often voiced

• This means they are often not strong sound on the
  front of words.
• Ngot- one
• Mko- bear
• Mtek- tree
• Mtegwab- bow (as in arrows)

8
E sound as ih
Usually if e is followed by an n or m it sounds
more like the ih sound.

• Sen- rock
• Sengo- squirrel
• Msen- firewood
• Pen- Potatoe

9
E Sound as uh

• Gishek- sky or day
• Mtek- tree
• Wabek- tomorrow

Usually if e is followed by a k it sounds more
like uh.