University of Virginia Library

KEY TO THE PHONETIC SYSTEM EMPLOYED

For this electronic edition, Hoijer's original 1938 orthography has been converted the new 'practical orthography' which is used for writing many of the Apachean languages today.

Click the thumbnail for a full-size image of the Hoijer's 1938 orthography.

The contemporary practical orthography involves small changes to roman alphabet characters, or combinations of these characters to represent the phonemes of the Apache language.

For those interested a more detailed comparison between Hoijer's orthography and the one employed here-- go to: Introduction to the Electronic Edition, under the subheading "Orthography and Apache Phonemics"(under construction)

Vowels

               

a	as in German mann
aa	as in English father
e	as in English bet
ee	as in English bed
i	varies from the sound of English bid to that of English beat
i	as in English bead
o	varies from the sound of German so to that of English boot.
oo	varies from the sound of German Sohn to that of English sooth.

Vowel length, short or long, is phonetic in the Apachean languages. Short vowels are written as single letters, long vowels are written as double letters

Vowels are also distinguished phonemically by nasalization. Nasalization is indicated by a subscript hook: aͅ, eͅ, iͅ, oͅ.

Both Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache employ pitch accent as a syllable phoneme. The pitch of the syllable is carried by its vowel or by a syllabic n. Two pitch registers are distinguished together with two inflected tones. These are indicated as follows: an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, denotes the high tone, no accent mark on a vowel indicates the low tone. In syllables with long vowels an acute accented onset letter followed by its unaccented double indicates the falling tone: áa, ée, íi, óo, and an unaccented onset vowel followed by its accute accented double indicates the rising tone: aá, eé, ií, oó.

Consonants

                                                         

b	intermediate unaspirated bilabial stop
m	voiced bilabial nasal continuant. In one word, ~ma'ye~ 'coyote', this is pronounced as a combination of m and b.
t	unvoiced aspirated alveolar stop. The aspiration is velar before the vowels a and o, and front palatal before the vowels a and i
d	intermediate unaspirated alveolar stop
t'	glottalized alveolar stop
n	voided alveolar nasal continuant
nd	prenasalized n, pronounced as a combination of n and d. In Chiricahua:, the n-sound is predominant but in Mescalero the two sounds have approximately equal value
s	unvoiced alveolar sibilant. When this sound occurs in a prefix to a stem containing the phonemes sh, zh, j, ch, or ch', it assimilates to sh
z	voiced alveolar sibilant
dz	intermediate unaspirated alveolar affricative.
ts	unvoiced aspirated alveolar affricative. The aspiration tends to be velar before a and o and front palatal before a and i. In many cases, however, the aspiration is no heavier than that of German Zeit.
ts'	glottalized alveolar affricative
ł	voiceless spirantal alveolar lateral roughly similar to the ll of Welsh
l	voiced alveolar lateral. In the final position, it takes on syllabic quality
dl	intermediate lateral affricative
tł	voiceless lateral affricative
tł'	glottalized lateral affricative
y	voiced front palatal spirant. roughly as in English young
sh	unvoiced blade alveolar spirant. When it occurs in a prefix to a stem containing the phonemes s, z, dz, ts, or ts', it assimilates to s
zh	voiced blade alveolar spirant
j	intermediate unaspirated blade alveolar affricative. When it occurs in a prefix to a stem containing the phonemes s, z, dz, ts, or ts', it assimilates to dz
ch	unvoiced aspirated blade alveolar affricative. The aspiration varies in quality as in the case of ts, q.v.
ch'	glottalized blade alveolar affricative
k	unvoiced aspirated back palatal stop. Before the vowels a and o, the aspiration is velar and before e and i, it is front palatal.
g	intermediate unaspirated palatal stop. Before the vowels a and o, it is back palatal and before a and i, it is front palatal.
k'	glottalized back palatal stop
h	unvoiced spirant. Before the vowels a and o, it is back palatal and before e and i, it is front palatal. Also expressed as faucal spirant--as in English home
gh	voiced palatal spirant. Before a it is back palatal, before o, back palatal and labial- ized, and before e and i, front palatal.
'	the glottal stop

If an unvoiced spirant, which is otherwise written as 'h', occurs after 's', 'ts', or 'z', it is written as 'x' to avoid confusing its order in the consonant sequence with single consonant phonemes which are expressed by letter combinations ending with 'h'.