Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Guide To Vowel Pronunciation In Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey, Penobscot, And Abenaki, Greyson Kurtz

Thinking Matters Symposium

There are many structural and cultural barriers to learning Wabanaki languages. These barriers are compounded by the fact that Abenaki, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy use similar but varying writing systems. This issue was not contrived, but arose through the independent development of these writing systems. The key difference lies in the vowels; vowels are often among the first sounds to shift in any given language, and these three languages have followed this pattern. Any modern word that comes from a shared Proto-Eastern Algonquian root and appears in Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki will exhibit clear systematic variation in the pronunciation of their …