of alphabetic letters. Letters of the English alphabet substitute for specialized phonetic symbols, in conjunction with orthographic conventions unique to Ojibwe. The system embodies two principles: (1) alphabetic letters from the English alphabet are used to write Ojibwe but with Ojibwe sound values; (2) the system is phonemic in nature in that each letter or letter combination indicates its basic sound value and does not reflect all the phonetic detail that occurs. Accurate pronunciation thus cannot be learned without consulting a fluent speaker. The long vowels are paired with the short vowels , and are written with double symbols that correspond to the single symbols used for the short vowels . The long vowel does not have a corresponding short vowel, and is written with a single . The short vowels are: . The long vowels are: . The short vowel represented as orthographic has values centering on ; short has values centering on ; and short has values centring on . The long vowel has values centering on ; long has values centering on ; and long has values centering on . The long vowel has values centering on . The long nasal vowels are phonetically , , , and . They most commonly occur in the final syllable of nouns with diminutive suffixes or words with a diminutive connotation. Orthographically they are represented differently in word-final position as opposed to word-internally. In the final syllable of a word the long vowel is followed by word-final to indicate that it is nasal; the use of is an orthographic convention and does not correspond to an independent sound. The examples in the table below are from the Ottawa dialect. Word-internally long nasal vowels are represented by orthographic , as in Southwestern Ojibwe mindimooyenyag 'old women'. The nasalized allophones of the vowels, which occur predictably preceding the nasal+fricative clusters ns, nz, and nzh are not indicated in writing, in words such as gaawiin ingikendanziin "I don't know it", jiimaanens "small boat", and oshkanzhiin "someone's fingernail(s)". Long vowels after the nasal consonants or are frequently nasalized, particularly when followed by . In such cases the nasalization is sometimes overtly indicated by optionally writing immediately after the vowel: moonz or mooz "moose." In the original Double Vowel system, nasal long vowels now represented with / were written with the ogonek diacritic in some publications, while in others they are represented by underlining the