Ottawa Phonology - Consonants

Consonants

Consonants are written using the conventional symbol from the Ottawa writing system, with the symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabetic (IPA) following where the two vary.

The stop, fricative, and affricate consonants are divided into two sets, conventionally referred to as Fortis and Lenis, or equivalently 'Strong' and 'Weak.' Each fortis consonant is matched with a corresponding lenis consonant with the same place of articulation and manner of articulation.

The fortis consonants (p, t, k, ch, s, sh) are invariably voiceless and phonetically long. The stops are also aspirated in most positions:, but unaspirated after another consonant.

The lenis consonants (b, d, g, j, z, zh) are typically voiced intervocalically and word-initially before a vowel but are devoiced in word-final position. They are also often subject to other phonological processes when adjacent to fortis consonants.

A number of consonants occur only in loanwords from English: f, r, l.

The labialized stop consonants and also occur in the speech of some speakers. Labialization is not normally indicated, but a subscript dot is utilized in Rhodes (1985a), a dictionary of Ottawa and Eastern Ojibwe, to mark labialization: ɡ̣taaji ('s/he is afraid') and aaḳzi ('s/he is sick.')

The contrast between fortis and lenis consonants has been interpreted as a distinction between geminate and non-geminate consonants. However, it has also been argued that Ottawa fortis consonants should be analysed as consonant clusters. In support of this analysis, Ottawa fortis consonants correspond to clusters of /h/ followed by a lenis consonant in the dialects of northwestern Ontario, and the fortis consonants are descended from sequences of consonants in Proto-Algonquian, the reconstructed ancestor language from which Ojibwe and its dialects descend.