Example Words

nussim	my grandson	nipin	it’s summer
atusseu	s/he works	patush	later
minupanu	s/he is well	pimipatau	s/he runs by
minuenitamu	s/he is happy	minashtakan	Sunday
unashinataimu	s/he draws something	ishinamu	s/he sees something
utishinikashun	his/her name	mishishtu	s/he is big
nutim	completely	atashpiteu	s/he changes clothing
shenamu	s/he opens something	animan	it’s difficult
massin	shoe	nipuamun	I dream
tshituteu	s/he leaves on foot	ashukan	bridge
namesh	fish	nimish	my sister

The bolded vowels in the above table are short.

NOTE
Short vowels probably pose the greatest challenge with regard to learning how to spell in Innu. The difficulty comes from the fact that, often, short vowels aren’t actually pronounced, when they aren’t completely deleted in some contexts.

Writing Short Vowels

While letters corresponding to long vowels are easy enough to decode, and easy to transcribe when heard spoken, the transcription of short vowels is more complicated, for different reasons:

• In western dialects, and often also in that of Sheshatshiu, short vowels a and i are not pronounced as [a]The phonetic transcriptions are between [ ]. The phonetic symbols used to transcribe Innu are presented on the following page or [i], but rather as [ǝ]For more information, please see the drop-down text at the bottom of the page.. In certain cases, u is also replaced by a [ǝ]. It is therefore difficult to know if we must write an a, an i or a u. The examples in the table at the beginning of the section illustrate this situation well.
• In the eastern dialects, particularly those of Mamit, short vowels have preserved their [a] and [i] pronunciations, especially at the beginning or end of a word. Within words, the short i is less clear than the long i; it is transcribed with [ɨ] in the Innu dictionary, which corresponds with what we call a centralized i (pronounced between [i] and [ǝ]); it is perceived as more relaxed than the long i. In certain cases, we have a long vowel in the eastern dialects where in other dialects it is short: atik^u caribou, takuashu it is short, mikuau it is red.
  • Note: Mamit dialects: – In the languages of the Lower North Shore, we often pronounce short i vowels as a when placed before the consonants k, m and p: shikak^u skunk, atipish fine babiche, nutim all. These cases require particular attention from speakers.
• At the start of a word, short vowels are often erased: auass child, atusseu s/he works, ishkuteu fire, ishpimit up, above. The deletion of short vowels at the start of a word is the topic of its own section.
• At the end of a word, certain vowels that serve as grammatical markers can also be deleted: utapana cars, utauassima his/her child, atusseti when s/he will work. The question of short vowel deletion at the end of a word is also the topic of a separate section.
• Short vowels can also be deleted between certain consonants, which we call homorganic consonantsHOMORGANIC CONSONANTS: same place of articulation, for example m and p, which are labial consonants, meaning they are pronounced with the lips; n and t, tsh, which are dentals, meaning they are pronounced with the teeth, etc.: between n-t, t-n, n-tsh, tsh-n, n-n, m-p, p-m, m-m, etc. Here are some examples of vowel deletion between consonants: mamitunenitam^u s/he thinks, nitshik^u otter, pimi grease/fat.
• In some cases, short vowels a and i are pronounced as u, but we still write them as a or i, as in the following examples: pishim^u month, uapikun flower, nitshik^u otter, pipun winter, pakuenam^u s/he removes a piece of something, takuashu it is short. This is the topic of a separate section.

Spelling Solution

The spelling solution that was kept comes from the history of the Innu language.  Short Innu vowels were once pronounced as true [a], [i] or [u]. Additionally, short vowels are still pronounced as short [a], [i] and [u] in certain dialects, especially those of Mamit. There is a long tradition of writing these short vowels as in ancient Innu.

RULE FOR SHORT VOWELS – To write short vowels, use the letters a, i and u, based on the historical vowels.

Caution: The letter e is never used to write a short vowel because in Innu, this letter is used exclusively to write the long vowel [e:] which corresponds to the vowel in English ‘say’. Here are a few examples with the letter e, which corresponds to the long vowel [e:]:

EXAMPLES OF WORDS INCLUDING THE SOUND [e:]

eniku	spider, ant	nemu	it (dog) growls
neneu	s/he breathes	minuenitamu	s/he is happy
shenamu	s/he opens something	nitatussen	I work
tepateu	pie	Pinashue	Francis, François
pineu	grouse, partridge	meshkanau	road, path

Tools

The Innu dictionary is the best tool for knowing how to write a word that includes short vowels pronounced as [ǝ]; the conjugation guide is also useful for learning how to spell conjugated verb forms.

Learning Strategies for Short Vowels

The correct spelling of short vowels is part of  lexical spellingLEXICAL SPELLING: Spelling that is not based on the application of grammatical rules (GRAMMATICAL SPELLING). Lexical spelling can be based on word pronunciation, but not always: it can be abstract in part, for historical reasons, among others. This is what happens for short vowels in Innu, which aren’t always based on the actual pronunciation of a word but on the older, historical form.: we must learn it when we learn to write a word, and use the dictionary in cases of doubt.

Since the Innu language is based in large part on morphology, meaning the building of words using morphemesA morpheme is a part of word that holds significance, for example mińu- in mińuau it’s good, mińumu it’s well installed, mińuateu s/he likes him/her; -pańu in upipańu it lifts itself up, unipańu s/he straightens him/herself, paupańu it (contents) spills; -am^u in uapatam^u he sees something, kunam^u s/he spills something, naikam^u s/he cleans something., it can be useful to learn the spelling of words based on morphemes. Since one of these morphemes can occur in a large number of words, knowing how to spell the morpheme makes it easier to spell more words. Here are some examples:

mishta-	big	mishta-ashini	big rock
		mishtakup	overcoat
		mishtameku	whale
-pitamu	quickly, suddenly	nashkuepitamu	s/he quickly takes something
		shepitamu	s/he quickly opens something
		kupitamu	s/he knocks something down suddenly
		manipitamu	s/he tears something off
-pan	past suffix	atussepan	s/he was working
		mishkamupan	s/he found something
		atussekupan	s/he had to work
		mishkamushapan	[we know now that] s/he had found something

Whenever we learn the spelling of a morpheme, a root, a radical, an inflection, we’re also learning how to write a large number of words. This is the case for the spelling of short vowels, as well as for other spelling rules.

Suggestion

Spelling vowels correctly is important. However, in reading, vowels should be pronounced as they naturally would be in each person’s own dialect. Writing using the standard Innu spelling does not mean a change in the way each dialect is pronounced. The Guide pratique d’orthographe montagnaiseDrapeau, L. et J. Mailhot. Guide pratique d’orthographe montagnaise. Québec : Institut éducatif et culturel attikamek-montagnais, 1989, item 3b. makes the following recommendation (translated): “DO NOT CONFUSE WRITING AND SPEAKING! We can all write the same way, but pronounce according to our own dialect.”

THE INNU The vowel chart of French is more complex because there are more different vowels than in innu.  VOWEL CHART

The short vowel reduction to [ǝ] phenomenon is naturally called vowel centralization. It’s a natural phonetic phenomenon found in many languages (such as English for non-accented vowels).

The schwa also tends to get deleted in certain contexts, such as in French (petite [pti:t], je me demande [jmǝdmãd]) and in Innu (nitakushin [nta:ku∫ǝn] je suis malade, pimi [pmi:] grease).