The Mi'kmaq language's phonology consists of 6 short vowels and 5 long vowels as well as 11 consonants. In Mi'kmaq, each letter represents a sound.
The tables below show the Mi'kmaq characters in Francis-Smith and Listuguj orthographies (see Chapter 3 for more details) and their pronunciation using the symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
When consonants are doubled, they must be pronounced with double length, as if there were a word break between the two consonants. Also note that in Mi'kmaq, the consonants l, m and n can also form syllabic peaks like vowels. As such, words don't need to have a vowel, as it is the case with "kmtm" (or "gmtm" depending on the orthography) meaning "mountain" for example.