The
Alphabet
and its Pronunciation

Character-Set

A character set has been devised to represent the sounds of (western) North-Iroquoian languages. Basically, it uses an acute accent mark over a vowel to denote that the vowel is long, and a "hook" under the a vowel to denote that it is nasal (it also uses the letter "æ"). The description of the alphabet in site is based on this character set.

Fonts

Some fonts (for PC) have been created to represent the character set. [hopefully, will soon be available from this site] If this font is not used, then the letters appear with different (though consistent) marks: the nasal mark appears as an umlaut (e.g. "ö"), and a long nasal vowel has a circumflex over it ("ô").

Oral (Clear) vs. Nasal

Northern Iroquoian languages contain several oral (clear) vowels, and two nasal vowels ("ë" and "ö"). The oral (clear) vowels are pronounced "through the mouth", i.e. air flows through the mouth. The nasal vowels are pronounced "through the nose" (the toungue is raised to block the passage of air through the mouth, and directs it to go through the nose). A more exact description is supplied with each of the vowels.
A "t" after a nasal vowel tends to be pronounce as a "nt" (or "nd", when coming before a vowel, "w", or "y"); a "k" after a nasal vowel tends to be pronounced as a "nk" (or "ng", when coming before a vowel, "w", or "y").

In writing, the nasal vowels are marked with a "hook" under the vowel-letter. If you are not using one of the North-Iroquian fonts, the short nasal vowels will appear as an umlaut (e.g. "ë"), and long nasal vowels will appear with a circumflex (e.g. "ê")

Long vs. Short

Each vowel can be short or long. A long vowel is prouncounced in the same way as the short vowel, except that its duration is extended to about twice as long as the short vowel.
In writing, a long vowel is denoted with an acute accent mark over the vowel-letter (e.g. "á").

Joined Vowels

If several similar vowels occure together (e.g. "aa", "aá", etc.), then they are pronounced as one long vowel, with the length equal to their added individual lengthes. So, for example, "aa" would be pronouced twice as long as a single "a" (just like "á"). When speaking carefully, the combination "aá", "áa", or "aaa", would be pronounced three times as long as a single "a"; in normal everyday speach it would be pronouced only twice as long (just like "aa" and "á").
However, even though joined vowels are pronounced like one (elongated) vowel, they are counted, grammatically, as separate vowels (e.g. for the stress pattern). So, for example, the combination "aa" counts as two vowels while "á" counts as one, though they are pronounced the same. Similarly, "aaa" counts as three vowels while "aá" counts as two.

Note: Letters in Parentheses

The (big) letters are displayed in graphic format. Under characters which depend on the special font, their equivalent in a "normal" font is displayed in parentheses; this indicates how you would see the letters in text on your browser.

Letter	Variations and Combinations	Pronunciation
		Short A: Like "a" in "father".
	(Á) (á)	Long A: Pronounced the same as the short 'a', but about twice as long.
	(Æ) (æ)	Short Æ: Like the "a" in the word "hat".
	(Â) (â)	Long Æ: Pronounce the same as short 'æ', but about twice as long.
		Clear-E: Pronounce approximately like the "a" English word "bathe" (but without the "y" sound at the end), but a bit shorter.
	(É) (é)	Long Clear-E: Prounouced the same as a short 'e', but about twice as long.
	(Ë) (ë)	Nasal-E: Pronounced like the "a" in the the word "angry".
	(Ê) (ê)	Long Nasal-E: Pronounced the same as a short 'ë', but about twice as long.
	h	Prounounced like the voiceless "h" in the word "house" Note that the letter "h" is always pronounced (there are no "mute" h's in Ökwe'öwékhá').
	h + "t" or "k"	the "h" is pronounced as a "wh" or "hw" (sort of like an "f" without completely closing the lips).
		Short I: Pronounced like the "ee" in the word "sheep", but a bit shorter. (note: not like the "i" in the word "ship"!)
	(Í) (í)	Long I: Pronounced the same as the short 'i', but about twice as long.
	k	Pronounced as a voiceless "k" (without a puff of air), like the "c" in the word "scam"
	k + a vowel,"w" or "y"	Pronounced like the voiced "g" in the word "gate"
	k + "h", "s","n", or "t"	Pronounced like a voiceless "k" accompanied by a puff of air, like the "c" in the English "cape" (or the combination "k h" in the words "pick her")
		A voiced "n", like in the word "night"
		Clear-O: Pronounce like the "o" in "both" (but without the "w" sound at the end). Note that clear "O" and "U" are grammatically equivalent; it is only a matter of dialect if you pronounce "o" or "u".
	(Ó) (ó)	Long Clear-O: Pronounced the same as the short 'o', but about twice as long.
	(Ö) (ö)	Short Nasal-O: Pronounced like the "o" in the word "bone"
	(Ô) (ô)	Long Nasal-O: Prounounced the same as the short 'ö', but about twice as long.
	s	Like the "s" in the English word "soup"
	sh	Like the "s h" combination in the word "grasshopper", "grass hut" Note that it is never pronounced like the English "sh" in "ship"
	si	The combination "si" is pronounced like the word "she" in English. (there seems a tendency towarsd pronouncing the "s" as an English "sh" also in the combinations "se" and "së").
	sy	The combination "sy" is pronounced like the "sh" in English, e.g. "shoe"
	t	Pronounced like like "t" in the word "stop"
	t + a vowel,"w" or "y"	Pronounced like the letter "d" in English in the word "day".
	t + "k"	pronounced like a "t" with a puff of air, like in the word "take"
	th	Pronounced like a "t" with a puff of air, like the "t h" combination in "Bethoven" or "got help". Note that "th" in never pronounced like the English "th" in "think".
	ths	Pronounced like "ts" in English "cats"
	thsi	Pronouced like Englihs "ch" in "cheese" + the Ökwe'öwékhá' "i".
	thsy	Similarly, pronounced like "ch" in "cheese".
	thy	Pronounced like English "ch" in "church". Similar to the way the combination "t y" is pronounced in the expression "got 'ya"-- "gotcha !" (so the expression "I got 'ya" would be transliterated into Ökwe'öwékhá' as "ay kathya !")
	ts	Pronounced like "ds" in "suds".
	tsi	Pronounced like "jee" in "Jeep".
	tsy	Similarly, pronounced like "j" in "Jeep"
	ty	Pronounced like a "d" + "y", as in English "good year". Note that due to similarity of the "ty" sound and "tsy" sound, it is not uncommon to find "tsy" used instead of "ty".
		Short U: Pronounced like the "oo" in the word "boot" (or like the "u" in "put"). Note that clear "O" and "U" are grammatically equivalent; it is only a matter of dialect if you pronounce "o" or "u".
	(Ú) (ú)	Long U: Pronounced the same as the short 'u', but abotu twice as long.
		Pronounced like an English "w", as in "wall"
		Pronounced like an English "y", as in "yes"
or		Glottal Stop: Sounds like the stop in the middle of the expression "uh-oh". Note that the glottal stop is a normal consonant in Ökwe'öwékhá'. It is most commonly written as an apostrophe, and is more intuitive to English speakers. The problem with the apostrophe is that it is small and "gets lost" between letters and accent marks. As a normal consonant, it "deserves" a letter of its own instead of a punctuation mark. In addition, we cannot use the apostrophe as a punctuation mark. The use of the linguists' symbol for a glottal stop fixes the above problems, but in its present form it confusingly resembles a question mark, and is less intuitive to non-linguists.

Legend:

LightYellow	Vowel
LightSteelBlue	Consonant

Notes:

• "khn" vs. "kn"
  Both "khn" and "kn" are pronounced exactly the same (as the "kn" in the word "acknowledge"). This site follows the standard used by the Mingo EGADS, which is "kn" (favoring the shorter spelling...), e.g. «ëkníyatô'» (we two [exclusive] will write). However "khn" is also quite commonly used.

Sound Sources:

Uiwa'   Skát ("Item One")
A small story narrated by a native speaker, Dr. Thomas McElwain; accompanied by sound files (in ".au" format). Translated by the author of this site.
(A modified copy of the original in the Mingo EGADS site)

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