Powhatan/Syllabic

Punctuation The only punctuation in most is cases is spacing between words and ᕁ for a full stop. Punctuation from the Latin alphabet, other than the period (.), may also be used.

^Consonants

Syllables (full-sized)

The full-sized characters, whether standing for consonant-vowel combinations or vowels alone, are usually called "syllables". They may be phonemic rather than morphophonemic syllables. That is, when one morpheme (word element) ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel, the intermediate consonant is written as a syllable with the following vowel. In other cases, a "syllable" may in fact represent only a consonant, again due to the underlying structure of the language. Syllabication is important to determining stress in Algonquian languages, and vice-versa, so this ambiguity in syllabics is relatively important in Algonquian languages.

Series

The word "series" is used for either a set of syllables with the same vowel, or a set with the same initial consonant. Thus the n-series is the set of syllables that begin with n, and the o-series is the set of syllables that have o as their vowel regardless of their initial consonant.

Finals (reduced letters)

A series of small raised letters are called "finals". They are placed after a syllable to indicate a final consonant, as the ᕽ -hk in ᔨᕽ yihk above. The ᕽ would be the consonant usually in “A” form.

^Vowels

Vowels are divided into two groups, symmetrical & asymmetrical. Symmetrical vowels (e.g. p-, t-, sp-) are rotated 90 degrees (a quarter turn) counter- clockwise, while those which are asymmetrical top-to-bottom, c-, k-, m-, n-, s-, y-, are rotated 180 degrees (a half turn). They rotate like this to represent the four sacred winds (directions). So once you learn 25% of the "alphabet" you basically will know the whole thing which increases literacy.

^{Diacritics & Diphthongs} Diphthongs are represented by diacritics on the vowel. Much like the reduced consonants.

Symmetrical (x7)

Script	Roman	Script	Roman
ᐃ	I	ᙁ	ZI
ᐊ ᐅ	A O	ᙅ ᙂ	ZA ZO
ᐁ	E	ᙀ	ZE
ᑎ	TI	ᙜ	TSI
ᑕ ᑐ	TA TO	ᙬ ᙝ	TSA TSO
ᑌ	TE	ᙛ	TSE
ᐱ	PI	ᕬ	BI
ᐸ ᐳ	PA PO	ᕮ ᕭ	BA BO
ᐯ	PE	ᕫ	BE
	ᗑ	SPI
	ᗕ ᗒ	SPA SPO
	ᗐ	SPE

Exceptions (x6)

Script	Roman	Script	Roman
ᔑ	SHI	ᘛ	ZHI
ᔕ ᔓ	SHA SHO	ᘔ ᘕ	ZHA ZHO
ᔐ	SHE	ᘚ	ZHE
ᘏ	RI	ᘩ	DI
ᘓ ᘐ	RA RO	ᘭ ᘪ	DA DO
ᘎ	RE	ᘨ	DE
ᕕ	FI	ᘡ	NGI
ᕙ ᕗ	FA FO	ᘜ ᘝ	NGA NGO
ᕓ	FE	ᘞ	NGE

Asymmetrical (x7)

Script	Roman	Script	Roman
ᑭ ᑫ	KI KE	ᖾ ᖽ	GI GE
ᑲ ᑯ	KA KO	ᖼ ᖿ	GA GO
ᓂ ᓀ	NI NE	ᒥ ᒣ	MI ME
ᓇ ᓄ	NA NO	ᒪ ᒧ	MA MO
ᓯ ᓭ	SI SE	ᔨ ᔦ	YI YE
ᓴ ᓱ	SA SO	ᔭ ᔪ	YA YO
ᖘ ᖗ	SKI SKE	ᖺ ᖹ	SHKI SHKE
ᖚ ᖙ	SKA SKO	ᖸ ᖻ	SHKA SHKO
ᕋ ᕈ	LI LE	ᕠ ᕡ	THI THE
ᕍ ᕊ	LA LO	ᕞ ᕟ	THA THO
ᕵ ᕴ	HI HE	ᒋ ᒉ	CHI CHE
ᕹ ᕷ	HA HO	ᒐ ᒍ	CHA CHO
	ᖋ ᖊ	VI VE
	ᖍ ᖌ	VA VO