See Glossary for terminology explinations.

The Naskapi Syllabarium has several unique features.  There is only one column of a w-series, /wa/.  So that /pwa/ is written ᑈ, /twa/ is ᑥ, etc. (as /r/ and /l/ are only found in loanwords, there is not a special symbol for /rwa/ or /lwa/).  Although /h/ is included on the chart, it is rarely written, except when occurring before /k/, where it is in the form of a mid-dot (not to be confused with /kwa/).  Furthermore, when the s-final ᔅ appears before the colon-w, the two merge into ᔋ, so that /spwa/ is ᔌ, /stwa/ is ᔍ, etc.

In Roman orthography, preverbs are separated from verb roots with a hyphen (as in most northern Algonquian languages).  In syllabics, this can be duplicated by using a half-space, although many writers do not mark the preverb-stem boundary. 

Information for Naskapi was kindly provided by Bill Jancewicz, who has also designed fonts and keyboards for Naskapi.

Last Update: December 12, 2007