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) 

 Exceptions (x6) 

 Asymmetrical (x7)