Sound Charts document you can use for your own projects:

There are many more than this, but I put them in this layout and color so that my friends and I could practice speaking only the sounds. I sound ridiculous when I go through these and end up doing sing song but the exercise of doing sound ‘drill’ type of exercise while standing and even more physical movement in place (jumping jacks / squats / dancing) can help some learners build new connections in their brain, so it gets easier to speak these sounds and to recognize the sound we want to make when we see these letter combos in the bigger phrases and words later.

When you are new to these sounds and you do the exercise, it can cause some physical discomfort for speakers that never made these sounds before. Glottal and nasal sounds require different muscles, so your muscles can get tired when you do these sounds for drills.

Tekawennathe:tha   alphabet

Alphabet A  E  H  I  K  N  O  R  S  T  W  Y

Consonants           H     K     KW     N    R     S     T    TS     W     WH     Y 

Vowels                   A   E   I   O   EN   ON

Long vowels, hold longer a:   e:   i:   o:   en:   on:   á:  é:  í:  ó:  én:  ón:       à:  è:  ì:  ò:  èn:  òn:

Up stress, rising tone á   é   í   ó   én   ón   Á   É   Í   Ó   ÉN   ÓN

Down stress, falling tone à   è   ì   ò   èn   òn   À   È   Ì   Ò   ÈN   ÒN

Lengthen, up stress, rising tone :á   :é   :í   :ó   :én   :ón   :Á   :É   :Í   :Ó   :ÉN   :ÓN

Lengthen, down stress, falling tone :à   :è   :ì   :ò   :èn   :òn   :À   :È   :Ì   :Ò   :ÈN   :ÒN

Glottal stop ‘ a    ‘ e    ‘ i    ‘ o    ‘ en    ‘ on

Tekawennathe:tha   alphabet

Phonetics: a  ah a’

Phonetics: e  eh  e’

Phonetics: i  ih  i’

Phonetics: o  oh  o’

Phonetics: en  enh  en’

Phonetics: on  onh  on’

From the Mohawk Language Standardization Guidelines: The first issue for the plenary was to decide which alphabet was to be used in Mohawk. As all Mohawk writing systems use the Latin alphabet, this decision was easily reached. A presentation on the writing systems of Mohawk was made by steering committee members in order to start the discussion on choosing a standard writing system at the conference. This panel of six, one representative from each Mohawk territory, discussed the orthography used on each territory.

For example, the following diacritical marks are now used:

´: length with rising tone tó:kwahre (cranberry)

`: length with falling tone ià:ia’k (6)

‘ an apostrophe to indicate glottal stop sha’té:kon (

´ accent to mark stress ohwísta (money)

Following this presentation, the participants formed six groups of 10. The six groups were asked to: decide on a writing system, letters, and diacritical marks; reach a consensus; and report back the plenary session.

By consensus, the participants agreed that the Mohawk alphabet would consist of the following letters:

VOWELS:

Aa Ee Ii Oo EN en ON on

CONSONANTS:

Hh Kk Nn Rr Ss Tt Ww Yy

DIACRITICAL MARKS:

The Mohawk names for the diacritical marks are:

‘: Kawennakará:tats tánon teiotsistóhkwake (Rising tone with length)

‘ Tekawénniaks (Glottal stop)

´ Kawennakará:tats (Rising tone)

`: Kawennénhtha tánon teiotsistóhkwake (Falling tone with length)

PUNCTUATION:

? Question Mark

” ” Quotation Marks

. Period

, Comma

! Exclamation Mark

Categories: UncategorizedTags: alphabet, consonants, Kanien’kéha, sound charts, tekawennathe:tha, vowels