Mine, Yours, and His or Hers
What's yours and what's mine?
You probably already know how to say 'my___' and 'your___' in Mi'gmaq: you just add the first letter of ni'n 'me' or of gi'l 'you', that is, just n- and g-.
As you'll see in our second set of words, though, when words start with a vowel a /-t-/ sound usually is added to link everything together.
Only a few words that are either parts of the body (like your teeth) or parts of your family (like your father) do not need this /-t-/ added in before a vowel. A word starting in consonants just adds the n- and g- right before it, nothing else.
But you will notice that when the combination of n- or g- with the following consonant needs some help to make it pronounceable, a /'/ sound comes in to make it easier to say. When this happens, you'll notice that the 'n- sound in particular sounds sort of "stopped", almost like "nt" at the end of a word in English.
Vocab 1
n-ujj |
|
my father | |
g-ujj |
|
your father | |
n-ipitl |
|
my teeth | |
g-ipitl |
|
your teeth |
Vocab 2
a'su'n |
|
blanket | |
'nT-a'su'nm |
|
my blanket | |
'gT-a'su'nm |
|
my blanket |
Vocab 3
'n-gij |
|
my mother | |
'g-gij |
|
your mother | |
'n-sis |
|
my older brother | |
'g-sis |
|
your older brother |