Language/Mohawk/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Mohawk Alphabet & Pronunciation

Kwe! Mohawk Learners! 😃

➡ In today's lesson you will learn how to write and pronounce the letters of the Mohawk Alphabet.

Happy learning!

Twelve letters of the Roman alphabet are used towrite the Mohawk language.

The vowels are “a,”“e,” “i,” “o,”“en,” and “on.” The consonants are“h,” “k,” “n,” “r,”“s,” “t,” “w,” and“y.”

Mohawk Vowels

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA Pronunciation	Mohawk pronunciation (English approximant) :
a		a	Like the a in father.
a:	a, a·	a	Like the a in father, only held longer.
e		ε ~ e	Like the e in get or the a in gate.
e:	e, e·	e	Like the a in gate, only held longer.
i		i	Like the i in police.
i:	i, i·	i	Like the i in police, only held longer.
o		o	Like the o in note.
o:	o, o·	o	Like the o in note, only held longer.

Mohawk Nasal Vowels

Nasal vowels don't really exist in English, but you may be familiar with them from French (or from hearing people speak English with a French accent).

They are pronounced just like oral ("regular") vowels, only using your nose as well as your mouth.

To English speakers, a nasal vowel often sounds like a vowel with a half-pronounced "n" at the end of it. You can hear examples of nasal vowels at the end of the French words "bon" and "Jean" or in the middle of the word "Français".

CharacterWe Use:	SometimesAlso Used:	IPA symbol:
en	ę, , enh
en:	en, ę:, :
on	ų, , onh	ũ
on:	on, ų:, :	ũ

---

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ũ
Mid	e	ʌ̃	o
Low		a

i, e, a, and o are oral vowels, while en (/ʌ̃/) and on (/ũ/) (see help:IPA) are nasalized; oral versions of /ʌ̃/ and /ũ/ do not occur in the language.

Suprasegmentals

In the standard spelling, a colon is placed after a vowel to lengthen it. There are 4 tones: mid, high, mid-low falling and mid-high rising, the latter two appear on long vowels (marked as V:).

Mohawk Consonants

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA pronunciation:	Mohawk pronunciation (English approximant):
h		h	Like h in English hay.
k	g	g~k~kh	Like g in gate, soft k in skate, or hard k in Kate.
kw	gw, khw	gw ~ kw	Like the gw in Gwen or the qu in queen.
r	l		Like r in right in some dialects, but like l in light in others.
n		n	Like n in night.
s	sh, c	s ~	Like s in sell. Before y or i, the Mohawk pronunciation sounds more like the sh in shell.
t	d	d~t~th	Like d in die, soft t in sty, or hard t in tie.
ts	j, ch	ts~t~d	Like ts in tsunami. Before y or i the Mohawk pronunciation sounds more like the j in jar, and before hy or hi it is pronounced more like the ch in char.
w		w	Like w in way.
wh		f ~	Some Mohawk speakers pronounce this sound with the voiceless "breathy w" that many British speakers use in words like "which," but others pronounce it like the f in English fair.
y		j	Like y in yes.
’	, ?		A pause sound, like the one in the middle of the word "uh-oh."

Note that in this spelling system, h is always pronounced-- th is pronounced like the th in "outhouse," never the th in "think", and sh is pronounced like the sh in "mishap," not the sh in "shell."

---

The phoneme inventory of Mohawk is as follows (using the International Phonetic Alphabet). Phonological representation (underlying forms) are in /slashes/, and the standard Mohawk orthography is in bold.

An interesting feature of Mohawk (and Iroquoian) phonology is that there are no labials (m, p, b, f, v), except in a few adoptions from French and English, where [m] and [p] appear (e.g., mátsis matches and aplám Abraham); these sounds are late additions to Mohawk phonology and were introduced after widespread European contact.

	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	n
Plosive	t (d)		k (ɡ)	ʔ
Affricate		d͡ʒ
Fricative	s (z)			h
Approximant	l	j	w
Rhotic	r

Consonant Clusters

The Central (Ahkwesáhsne) dialect has the following consonant clusters. All clusters can occur word-medially; those on a tinted background can also occur word-initially.

1st↓ · 2nd→	t	k	s	h	l	n	d͡ʒ	j	w
t	tt	tk	ts	th
k	kt	kk	ks	kh					kw
ʔ	ʔt	ʔk	ʔs		ʔl	ʔn	ʔd͡ʒ	ʔj	ʔw
s	st	sk	ss	sh	sl	sn		sj	sw
h	ht	hk	hs		hl	hn	hd͡ʒ	hj	hw
l				lh				lj
n				nh	nl			nj
d͡ʒ								d͡ʒj
w				wh

Note that th and sh are pronounced as consonant clusters, not single sounds like in English thing and she.

Consonant and Consonant Cluster Voicing

The consonants /k/, /t/ and the clusters /ts kw/ are pronounced voiced before any voiced sound (i.e. a vowel or /j/). They are voiceless at the end of a word or before a voiceless sound. /s/ is voiced word initially and between vowels.

• car – kà꞉sere [ˈɡàːzɛrɛ]
• that – thí꞉ken [ˈthiːɡʌ̃]
• hello, still – shé꞉kon [ˈshɛːɡũ]

Mohawk Stress and Tone

In most Mohawk words the next to last syllable is stressed, and is also pronounced with a rising tone. This is represented in the standardized orthography with an acute accent, like this:

• ohkwá:ri
• áhsen

Since this is the standard way to pronounce Mohawk words, many speakers don't bother with the accent marks and just spell words like these ohkwa:ri and ahsen.

However, there are some words in which the stressed syllable is pronounced with a falling tone, and those are spelled with a grave accent, like this:

• karòn:ya

Mohawk Dialect Variation

In different Mohawk communities, the language is spoken slightly differently. The most noticeable difference is the letter r, which is pronounced as an l in Ahkwesahsne. Another difference is the pronunciation of ts. In Kahnawake, this sound is always pronounced like the ts in tsunami, but on other reserves it varies.

A third difference is the pronunciation of the consonants k and t. In most dialects, these consonants are pronounced voiced (like English g and d) before a vowel. But in Tyendinaga, some speakers pronounce them as unaspirated voiceless consonants before some vowels (like k in English skate or t in English stake).

The differences between Mohawk dialects are comparable to the differences between English dialects spoken in Canada and the United States.