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Alphabet

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Alphabet.

The characters used in this work, in spelling Navaho words, are given below, with the value assigned to each character.

Vowels.

a has the sound of English a in father.

has the sound of English a in hat. has the sound of English a in what.

a has the sound of English e in they. In some connections it varies to the sound of English e in their.

has the sound of English e in then.

i has the sound of English i in marine.

has the sound of English i in tin.

o has the sound of English o in bone.

u has the sound of English u in rude.

ai unmarked, or accented on the i (a), is a diphthong having the sound of English i in bind. When it is accented on the a (i), or has a diaeresis (a), it is pronounced as two vowels.

ow has the sound of English ow in how. It is heard mostly in meaningless syllables.

A vowel followed by an inverted comma (`) is aspirated, or pronounced with a peculiar force which cannot be well represented by adding the letter h.

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Consonants.

b has the sound of English b in bat.

d has the sound of English d in day.

"d" represents a strongly aspirated dental sonant. It is often interchanged with d.

g has the sound of English g in go, or, in some connections, the sound of English g in gay.

"g" has a sound unknown in English. It is the velar g, like the Arabic ghain, or the Dakota g.

h has the sound of English h in hat.

"h" has the sound of German ch in machen. It is sometimes interchanged with h.

k has usually the sound of English k in koran; but sometimes the sound of English k in king.

l has the sound of English l in lay.

"l" has a sound unknown in English. It is an aspirated surd l, made with the side rather than with the tip of the tongue. It is often interchanged with l.

m has the sound. of English m in man.

n has the sound of English n in name.

"n" has the effect of French n in bon. It has no equivalent in English.

s has the sound of English s in sand.

"s" has the sound of English sh in shad. It is often interchanged with s.

t has the sound of English t in tan.

"t" represents a strongly aspirated dental surd. It is often interchanged with t.

w has the sound of English w in war.

y has the sound of English y in yarn.

z has the sound of English z in zone.

z has the sound of English z in azure. It is often interchanged with z.

c, f, j, p, q, v, and x are not used. The sound of English ch in chance is represented by t"s"; that of English j in jug by d"z".

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