I. TEONAHT: WRITING SYSTEMS AND PHONOLOGY

PRONUNCIATION

On this page you will find reference to

The Teonaht alphabet consists of thirty-five characters and digraphs classified according to vowels and diphthongs, stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids, and glides. Following is a table of letters; the roman equivalent is in the center of the table in boldface. The boldface words at the far left of the table are not merely illustrations, but the actual names of the letters, recited by schoolchildren. There are two ways to write Teonaht: one way, impossible to represent here except by a scanned image, is the script used by many conservative Teonim; the other way is the romanized alphabet (a cite of controversy among its people) because it is convenient for emailing, webbing, and printing. If you would like to look at the Teonaht script, click on Le Renuon Teonaht here.

Note that our clusters "th" and "sh" must stand in for a single character in Teonaht, and in the Roman version are reversed: "ht," hs"; likewise, "hd," "hk," and "hg."

Please bear with me: since I don't have access yet to an IPA font program I'm reduced to using the ASCII IPA characters. And those who have received my papercopy grammar, alas: for the purposes of expediency I've had to drop the beloved macron over the lax "o" [ou], used for over twenty years. First, I can't find an easy way to make it, and second, because it appears so much more frequently than the tense "o" (formerly without marking), I've decided to put a tilde over the rarer letter (it shows up better than an umlaut). Those of you accustomed to the cumbersome typing of HTML can understand. This will probably entail my having to adjust my papercopy grammar as well. If there is anyone who cannot read this "tilde-o" character, let me know: scaves@frontiernet.net.)

Le Renuon Romanaht (The Roman Letters)

VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS:
Letter Name Meaning Roman IPA Pronunciation
aiuav ['ai jav] "riverbed" ai [ai] as in "pipe."
imral ['Im ral] "soul" i [I] as in "pip"; when it terminates a word, it's a schwa [ ]
ywem ['i wEm] "thing" y [i] as in "peep"
euab ['e jab] "soul" e [e] as in "pape" only slightly more tense. In certain syllables ending in a consonant, it has the allophone [E], as in "pep."
ûlva [^l v@] "hinge" û [@] or [^] as in "pup"; lax "u," to be distinguished from tense "u," the glide represented by unmarked "u" below. This is less a schwa (/@/, and more a strong middle vowel /^/. It never terminates a word, although terminal "a" and "i" may be pronounced like it.
atwa ['at w@] "walk" a [a] as in "pauper"; leaning more towards an [O] then a relaxed [a]. When it terminates a word as an unstressed syllable it is a schwa [@].
otma ['out m@] "demon" o [ou] as in "pope"; slight diphthong towards [u], unlike the Spanish "o," more like American "o," but starting more tense.
õnde ['un de] "bowl" õ [u] as in "poop"

STOPS:
Letter Name Meaning Roman IPA Pronunciation
pronep ['prou nEp] "spear" p [p] as in "prop."
bõvõb ['bu vub] "bluebell" b [b] as in "bob"
taito ['tai tou] "laugh" t [t] as in "tight"
dyron ['di roun] "black" d [d] as in "deed"
kraiko ['krai kou] "cessation" k [k] as in "cake"
gyvahd ['gi vað] "shovel" g [g] as in "gag"; never as in "George"

FRICATIVES:
Letter Name Meaning Roman IPA Pronunciation
fylim ['fi lIm] "girl" f [f] as in "fife"
vawem ['va wEm] "nothing" v [v] as in "verve"
htindro ['TIn drou] "song" ht [T] as in "thin"; never as in "then"
hdaro ['ða rou] "question" hd [ð] as in "then"
sebro ['se brou] "buckle" s [s] as in "sauce"
zoyzod ['zoi zoud] "stew" z [z] as in "pizazz"
hsehsat ['Se Sat] "porch" hs [S] as in "shush"
joryo ['Zo rio] "sapphire" j [Z] as in "azure"
hea ['he @] "country" h [h] as in "high," with a bit of a velar scrape.
hgoa ['Go w@] "wild" hg [G] as in Germanrath.

AFFRICATES:
Letter Name Meaning Roman IPA Pronunciation
tselte ['tsEl te] "day" ts [ts] as in "its"
dzadr ['dza dr] "sulpher" dz [dz] as in "God's"
celnar ['tSEl nar] "snail" c [tS] as in "church." Never as in "cake." Don't give this letter a hard sound, even before back vowels. Commanco, "feast," is pronounced "cho-MAN-cho" [tSo 'man tSo].
djilny ['dZIl ni] "penny" dj [dZ] as in "judge"

NASALS:
Letter Name Meaning Roman IPA Pronunciation
memwa ['mEm w@] "water" m [m] as in "mum"
narnok ['nar nouk] "form" n [n] as in "nine"
ngarik ['Nar Ik] "throat" ng [N] as in Midwestern "singer," not "linger"; this letter might present confusions in Roman script when ending and beginning letters of separate syllables are juxtaposed, as in bringgarne, pronounced "brin GAR nay [brIn 'gar ne], in which case the "n" is followed by an apostrophe: brin'ggarne ("favor too much"; "be fatuous over").

LIQUIDS AND GLIDES:
Letter Name Meaning Roman IPA Pronunciation
wydo ['wi dou] "truth" w [w] as in "wow"
liluan ['lIl jan] "meadow" l [l] as in "lull"
uendro ['jEn drou] "deed" u [j] as in "yoyo"; it will be tempting to give this letter its traditional pronunciation in Spanish and Italian, but consider it "fronted" and "unrounded," basically a variant on "y" or "i." The lax vowel sound is given to the "u" with a circumflex.
renuo ['rEn jou] "letter" r [r] as in "roar"; this sound is kind of a "retroflex flip"--an exaggerated American "r" that touches the palate when it comes forward. Sometimes it's trilled. After "k" it is uvularized.

You have completed your Renuon, "letters." Again, if you want to see them written in Teonaht script, click here.

CLUSTERS AND DIPHTHONGS

Clusters are not part of the alphabet proper (the double letters in both Roman and Teonaht script are considered "digraphs" representing a single sound, but the following occur so often initially that they make a kind of subset to the alphabet. Initial "h" is also the standard marker for the vocative, which is why these clusters are so frequent:

  • hl --pronounced like Welsh "double l" only a little softer; more like the Old English "hl" in hlaf: hlûmtarn, "lie down."
  • lr --pronounced as one sound by touching the tip of the tongue to the palate, well behind the alveolar ridge: lrapa, "toe."
  • hr --pronounced like a voiceless trilled "r": hrelor, "lord."
  • hm --pronounced with lips closed and breath released through the nose: Hmeo, "O sir" [vocative].
  • hn --pronounced with tongue in alveolar position, throat closed, and breath released through the nose: hneco, "steal."
  • hng --as above: throat closed and breath released through the nose. I have no specific examples, yet.
  • hk --pronounced like "ch" in German Bach. Teonaht "h" already has some velar quality to it, but this is exaggerated, and occurs almost exclusively in the vocative mutation. Rarely, it ends a word.

The following clusters are also not part of the alphabet, but they often begin words:

fl, vl, pl, bl, dl, tl, kl, gl, sl, zl, ps, bz, fr, vr, pr, br, tr, dr, kr, gr, sr, zr, hsr, jr, mr, nr, ngr, fm, vm, sm, zm, fn, vn, sn, zn, cn, jn, kn, gn.

In syllabification they often begin a syllable unless they end and begin separate components of a compound: avvnoty ("declaration"): ah-VNO-tee [a'vnouti], where the double "v" funtions to signal the stressed syllable vno (see "stress" below). Compare this to dõvnnakys ("silly"): Doov-NA-kees [duv'nakis], a compound of "happy" and "disgusting," where the stressed syllable begins with "n," not "v," and so "n" is doubled. Double letters and their role in sigalling stress is discussed below.

Diphthongs are common in Teonaht; two of them are incorporated into the alphabet as you saw above (ai and o); here are the rest:

  • ea --an attempt to imitate the flat American "a" in "Dad"; it sounds more like "day-add."
  • ey --a common diphthong which stretches the sound of the ambiguous Teonaht "e": pronounced "aye-ee."
  • eya --pronounced as in "pay up."
  • eua --same.
  • eo --pronounced as in "pay over."
  • ya --pronounced as in "peon."
  • yo --pronounced as in "Leo."
  • yõ --pronounced as in "pee yew!"
  • oy --pronounced as in "poise"; sometimes the more exaggerated "Bowie."
  • õy --pronounced as in "Louie."
  • ao --pronounced as in "powder."

SYLLABIFICATION

Syllables generally begin with a consonant and end with a vowel: ke-le-mõ-nne, ta-ti-ly-na-kõ-se, mi-ni-ka, etc. When two consonants that do not make a consonant cluster come together, then the division is made between them: em-ddo-me, nem-ta, al-me, with the exceptions noted above. When more than two consonants come together, then the division is made after the first consonant usually: kom-pwy, kes-trl.

Doubled letters are typographical, and used to indicate stress only, not length of vowel. A double letter shows you that the syllable it heads is stressed abnormally.

STRESS

Stress in Teonaht has nothing to do with the length of the vowel, but rather the pitch of the syllable, which is slightly raised, and the extra plosive quality of the consonant that heads it (hence the use of double letters seemed natural to them). Teonaht has some rigid rules about "normal" stress of multi-syllable words. The normal stress for two and three syllable words is on the first syllable:

OR-wem, NY-ka-nel

Abnormal stress is indicated with a doubling of the initial consonant in the syllable, or the dominant vowel in a juxtaposition of vowels. Ultimate and penultimate stress, then, are considered abnormal, so the vast number of words that have this stress pattern must be written this way:

pyttela; myeebi, Tinnalt

Exceptions are when the digraphs "ht," "hd," "hs," and "hz" end a syllable that comes before another one beginning with "t," "d," "s," and "z": Lehttel /'lETtEl/ ("fiery") is not stressed on the second syllable-- but Ahttteyly /aT'teili/ (a woman's name) is. Note the triple "t." The first "t" belongs to the "ht" digraph ending the first syllable, and the second two signal the abnormal stress on the penultimate syllable. Brihhtil /brI'TIl/ ("fog") is how you spell a word where the stressed syllable begins with "ht"--you double the "h," not the "t."

Rule of thumb: four syllable words are usually stressed on the second: estelvema; five on the third: Erahenahil; six on the first and fourth: tatilynakõse. This rule is more academic than descriptive of actual Teonaht stress patterns, and seems to have been an imposed grammatical convention.

GLOTTAL STOP

This is a common feature of Teonaht pronunciation expressed by the use of an apostrophe (') or a superscript period ., indicating the glottal stop between words ending and beginning with vowels: le'epa, "the eye." In different dialects, a glide or the aspirant is used: leuuepa, lehhepa.

© 1998, Sally Caves Publishing

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