Ojibwe writing systems

Correspondence Chart of the Popular Roman systems

Fiero Double Vowel system	Rhodes Double Vowel system	Hybrid system	Saulteaux system	Algonkin system	IPA Value
	'	'	'
a	a	a	a	a	ə
aa	aa	aa	â	â	aː
b	b	p	p	b	b
ch	ch	hc	hc	tc	ʧ
d	d	t	t	d	d
e	e	e	ê	ê	eː
g	g	k	k	g	ɡ
gw	gw/ġ	kw	kw	gw	ɡɰ
h	h	h	h	h	h
'	h	h	h	h	ʔ
i	i	i	i	i	ɪ
ii	ii	ii	î	î	iː
j	j	c	c	dj	ʤ
k	k	hk	hk	k	k
kw	kw/k̩	hkw	hkw	kw	kɰ
m	m	m	m	m	m
mb	mb	mp	mp	mb	mb
n	n	n	n	n	n
nd	nd	nt	nt	nd	nd
ng	ng	nk	nk	ng	ŋɡ
n'	nh	/	/	/	Ṽʔ
nj	nj	nc	nc	ndj	nʤ
ns	ns	nhs	nhs	ns	Ṽs
nz	nz	ns	ns	nz	Ṽz
ny/-nh	ny/-nh	y/	/	/	Ṽ
nzh	nzh	nsh	nš	nj	Ṽʒ
o	o	o	o	o	o / ʊ
oo	oo	oo	ô	ô	oː / uː
p	p	hp	hp	p	p
s	s	hs	hs	s	s
sh	sh	hsh	hš	c	ʃ
shk	shk	shk	šk	ck	ʃk
shp	shp	shp	šp	cp	ʃp
sht	sht	sht	št	ct	ʃt
sk	sk	sk	sk	sk	sk
t	t	ht	ht	t	t
w	w	w	w	w	ɰ
y	y	y	y	y	j
z	z	s	s	z	z
zh	zh	sh	š	j	ʒ

Folk Spelling

Folk spelling of Anishinaabemowin is not a system, per se, as it varies from person to person writing speech into script. Each writer employing folk spelling would write out the word as how the speaker himself would form the words. Depending on if the reference sound representation is based on English or French, a word may be represented using common reference language sound representation, thus better able to reflect the vowel or consonant value. However, since this requires the knowledge of how the speaker himself speaks, folk spelling quickly becomes difficult to read for those individuals not familiar with the writer.

Historical Roman orthographies

Evans system

Evans' Ojibwe writing system recognized short and long vowels, but did not distinguish between lenis and fortis consonants. Another distinct character of Evans system was the use of and to serve both as a consonant and vowel. As vowels, they served as /i/ and /o/ while as consonants, they served as /j/ and /ɰ/. The system distinguished long vowels from short vowels by doubling the short vowel value. Evans also used three diacritics to aid the reader in pronunciation. He used a macron (¯) over a vowel or vowels to represent nasals (/Ṽ/) and diaersis (¨) over the vowel to indicate a glottal stop (/ʔ/); if the glottal stop was final, he duplicated the vowel and would place a circumflex (ˆ) over the duplicated vowel. "Gladness," for example, was written as buubenandumooen (baapinendamowin in the Fiero system).

Evans eventually abandoned his Ojibwe writing system and formulated what would eventually become the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. His Ojibwe syllabics parsing order was based on his Romanized Ojibwe.

Evans system	a	aa	b	d	e	ee	g	j	m	n	o	oo	u	uu	z	s
Fiero system	i/e	e	b/p	d/t	y/i	ii	g/k	j/ch	m	n	w/o	oo	a	aa	z/s	zh/sh

Evans system	V̄	V̄V̄	V̈	VV̂
Fiero system	Vn	VVny/VVnh	'V/hV	V'

Baraga system

His work A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, explained in English is still considered the best reference regarding the Ojibwe vocabulary. In his dictionary, grammar books and prayer book, the sound representations of Ojibwe are shown in the table below. There has also been discussion regarding if Baraga represented nasal. In his earlier editions of the dictionary, circumflex accents were used to indicate nasals but in his later editions, they appear to instead either represent long vowels or stressed vowels, believed to be changed by the editor of his dictionary.

Baraga system		a	â	b	d	dj	e/é/ê	g	h	i	j	k	m	n	o	ô	p	s	sh	ss	t	tch	w
Fiero system	'	a	a/aa	b	d	j	e	g	'/h	i/ii/y	zh	k/g-	m	n	o/oo	oo	p/b-	z	sh	s	t/d-	ch	w

Cuoq system

Cuoq system		a	b	c	d	dj	e	g	h	i	j	k	m	n	o	p	s	t	tc	v	w	z
Fiero system	'	a/aa	b	sh/zh	d	j	e	g	'/h	i/ii/y	zh	k/g	m	n	o/oo	p/b	s/z	t/d	ch/j	(none)/w	w	z

Syllabary

Ojibwe Syllabics

See Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics for a more in-depth discussion of the Ojibwe syllabary and related scripts

The Ojibwe syllabary is primarily used by northern (i.e., Canadian) Ojibwe; speakers of more southern dialects (i.e., American speakers) tend to use the Double Vowel system more often. The syllabary involves ten basic symbols <∅ p t k ch m n s sh y> called "initials," which indicate the initial consonant of the syllable, used in conjuction with two alphabetic diacritcs called "medials." The <∅> character serves as a no-consonant character, and as a glottal stop character in some communities. The "initials" can be rotated into one of four directions, each direction representing one of the four primary vowels, . The vowels (except e) can be lengthened by adding a dot above the character. For example, the character for the syllable taa would be written by taking the t initial and rotating it in the a direction, then adding a dot above the symbol.

There are also "finals," smaller symbols which follow the main syllable character and indicate what, if any, final consonants the syllable has. For example, for the syllable taan, the taa character would be written, and then the n final placed to the right. Not all speakers indicate all finals in writing. Two major group of finals exists. "Eastern finals" is characterized by resembling a supercripted form of the initial, most commonly in the a direction, though other directions may be found. "Western finals" are characterised by having shapes independent of the initials.

The fortis consonants are generally not distinguished in the common unpointed writing from the lenis ones, and thus both /d/ () and /t/ () are written , etc. However, some speakers will place the initial before another initial to indicate that that initial is fortis rather than lenis.

The initial and final are also used to represent the glottal stop in most communities, but in some, a superscripted is used as a glottal stop character.

Not shown in the sample table are the characters representing non-Ojibwe sounds . All syllabics-using Ojibwe communities use

with an internal ring to represent , typically ᕓ, ᕕ, ᕗ, ᕙ and ᕝ, and use with an internal ring to represent , typically ᕞ, ᕠ, ᕤ, ᕦ and ᕪ, but variations do exist on the placement of the internal ring. However, method of representing and varies much greatly across the communities using Ojibwe syllabics.

The syllabics-using communities can be classified into:

• Finals use
• * Eastern A-Finals—consonant in a-direction shown as a superscript; most common finals in use
• * Eastern I-Finals—consonant in i-direction shown as a superscript; used in some communities of Ontario and Quebec
• * Eastern Mixed Finals—consonant in i-, o- or a-direction shown as a superscript with choice dependent upon the word's root; typically found in James Bay Cree influenced communities
• * Western Finals—typically found in Saulteaux (ᑊ

  , ᐟ , ᐠ , ᐨ , ᒼ , ᐣ , ᐢ , ᐡ and ᕀ )

• W-dot positioning
• * pre-glyph—most commonly associated with Eastern communities (ᐌ)
• * post-glyph—most commonly associated with Western communities (ᐍ)
• L/R representation
• * independent Sigma form—shaped like Greek capital letter sigma (ᓬ for and ᕒ for ).
• * nesting Sigma form—similar to above, but nesting on the N-shape with superscripted sigma-form alone as finals
• * N-shape modified form—most common form, created by an erasure of part of the N-form (ᓓ ᓕ ᓗ ᓚ ᓪ for and ᕃ ᕆ ᕈ ᕋ ᕐ for )
• * Roman Catholic form—most often found in western communities (ᕃ ᕆ ᕊ ᕍ ᔆ for and ᖊ ᖋ ᖌ ᖍ ᙆ for )