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The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Navajo language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Navajo phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Navajo.

Consonants
IPA Orthography English approximation
ʔ the catch in uh-oh
p b spill [1]
tʃʰ ch child
tʃʼ ch' a glottalized version of ch
t d stay [2]
t ɬ dl somewhat like atlas
ts dz cats
k g skate [3]
ɰ gh war, but unrounded
h h he [4]
hw blowing out a candle, or as in which (without the witch-which merger)
j teacher
k king
k' somewhat like bike, with glottalization
ʼ kw' liquid with glottalization
l l lake
ɬ ł no English equivalent; Welsh llwyd
m m man
n n nice
s s sad
ʃ sh shell
t "t" in tie
t' somewhat like right with glottalization
tɬʰ no English equivalent
tɬʼ tł' no English equivalent
tsʰ ts cats with aspiration
tsʼ ts' somewhat like cats with glottalization
w w was
j y yellow
z z was
ʒ zh garage, pleasure
Oral vowels
IPA Orthography English approximation
a ˩ a somewhat like bra with low tone
a ˥ á somewhat like bra with high tone
a ː ˩ aa long "a" in bra with low tone
a ː ˥ áá long "a" in bra with high tone
e ˩ e met with low tone
e ˥ é met with high tone
e ː ˩ ee long "e" in met with low tone
e ː ˥ éé long "e" in met with high tone
i ˩ i [5] seet with low tone
i ˥ í seet with high tone
i ː ˩ ii long "ee" in see with low tone
i ː ˥ íí long "ee" in see with high tone
o ˩ o somewhat like go [6] with low tone
o ˥ ó somewhat like go with high tone
o ː ˩ oo long "o" with low tone
o ː ˥ óó long "o" with high tone
Nasal vowels
IPA Orthography English approximation
ã ˩ ą nasal "a" for bra with low tone
ã ˥ ą́ nasal "a" for bra with high tone
ã ː ˩ ąą long nasal "a" for bra with low tone
ã ː ˥ ą́ą́ long nasal "a" for bra with high tone
˩ ę nasal "e" for met with low tone
˥ ę́ nasal "e" for met with high tone
ː ˩ ęę long nasal "e" for met with low tone
ː ˥ ę́ę́ long nasal "e" for met with high tone
ĩ ˩ į nasal "ee" for see with low tone
ĩ ˥ į́ nasal "ee" for see with high tone
ĩ ː ˩ įį long nasal "ee" for see with low tone
ĩ ː ˥ į́į́ long nasal "ee" for see with high tone
õ ˩ ǫ nasal "oa" for coat with low tone
õ ˥ ǫ́ nasal "oa" for coat with high tone
õ ː ˩ ǫǫ long nasal "oa" for coat with low tone
õ ː ˥ ǫ́ǫ́ long nasal "oa" for coat with high tone

Notes

  1. ^ "Native Languages" website
  2. ^ "Native Languages" website
  3. ^ "Native Languages" website
  4. ^ "Native Languages" says it can be realized also as the raspy x, somewhat like the "h" in he.
  5. ^ "Native Languages" says it can be realized also as the "i" in sit ( ɪ.
  6. ^ The Navajo /o/ is identical to no English vowel, but the nearest equivalents are the vowel of coat (for most English dialects) and the vowel of saw.

References

  • "Navajo pronunciation and spelling guide". Native Languages of the Americas. 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2012.

See also