lesson 1 sounds and letters - vocabulary

The materials in these lessons are written in a phonetic alphabet, which has one main rule: Every sound has only one letter, and every letter makes only one sound, or for short: One letter, one sound.

These materials are written in the same orthography that Russell Ultan used for his dissertation and other materials (with minor exceptions - see below). We decided on this because many Konkow people are already familiar with that writing system.
Also, people can access his materials online at the California Language Archive

There are minor ways the transcriptions you see here will differ from Ultan’s system:

  • Ultan uses a raised dot • to represent vowel length (see below); for simplicity of typing and copying, we use a colon : instead.
  • Ultan uses apostrophes above letters to represent glottalized consonants. Since most people can’t type letters that way, we put the apostrophe just after the letter instead, as in c’, p’, t’, k’.
  • Ultan uses capital letters to indicate sounds that change. Here you will see (w) - in parentheses - when that sound becomes something else.
ʔàkym and
salt
c’íc’i rib
c'ýk'è:ti cricket
ʔə́:k'ə raccoon
émuli black
héno coyote
hípindi above
hoʔoli rale, lung sound
name
já: sky
jémpo: young man
kə́lkəli pine cone
kójo: garden, meadow
kó: snow
kóleh boy
k’úmi roundhouse
májdy man or person
mínwete all by yourself
mómi water
nímwete all by myself
péky food, anything you eat
p'ó:t'i feather
fire
séwi river
solim song
t’óje bring something
tútu child, son
ʔú:ti acorn
wénnem It's medicine.
part 1. vowels

An example of the difference between the Konkow phonetic alphabet and English would be the way vowels are written. Most of the vowels use the same letters as English, but in English the letters can stand for various different sounds, whereas the same letter in Konkow will always stand for the same sound.

a The English letter "a" can sound like the "a" in father, or fan, fate, or alone.

The Konkow letter a always sounds like the "a" in father.

You can listen to this vowel in the Konkow word for “fire”: sá

English: fire
Konkow:

e The English letter “e” can sound like the “e” in pet, female, cafe, ; or if there are two of them, peek - or it can even be silent, like in shore.

The Konkow letter e always sounds most like the "e" in pet.

Listen to the vowel in the Konkow word for “black”: ʔémuli

English: black
Konkow: ʔémuli

i The English letter "i" can sound like the "i" in pin or pine. The Konkow letter i sounds part way between the vowel sound in pin or peek.

Listen to the last vowel in the Konkow word for “black”: ʔémuli

Or the first vowel in the word for “all by yourself”: mínwete

English: all by yourself
Konkow: mínwete

o The English letter “o” can sound like the “o” in snow, or in hop, or if there are two of them, balloon. The Konkow letter o is always like the "o" in snow.

Listen to the vowel in the Konkow word for “coyote” héno

English: coyote
Konkow: héno

u The English letter “u” can sound like the “u” in hula, or put, or hut. The Konkow letter u is always like the one in hula.

Listen to the vowel in the Konkow word for “acorn”: ʔú:ti

English: acorn
Konkow: ʔú:ti

English uses 5 vowel letters to stand for over a dozen different vowel sounds! So the phonetic rule “one letter, one sound” means that different letters other than a, e, i, o, and u have to be used to represent a few other vowel sounds.

The most difficult one to get used to is a vowel sound that is not used in English. It’s a vowel that sounds sort of like a "u" but with the lips spread apart. Ultan represents that sound with the letter y

y Listen to this vowel in the Konkow word for “and”, ʔákym

English: and
Konkow: ʔàkym

It may be hard to get used to recognizing or pronouncing this sound, and also to using y to represent it – but pretty soon it will come easy to you.

The last vowel in Konkow is very rarely used. It is sort of like the "a" in English “alone”. It is represented in Konkow with an upside-down e – that is, ǝ The linguistic name for this letter is "schwa".

ə Listen to this sound in the Konkow word for “pine burr” or "pine cone", kǝlkǝli or "racoon", ə:k'a

English: pine burr, pine cone
Konkow: kə́lkəli
English: raccoon
Konkow: ʔə́:k’ə
part 2. vowel length and stress

There are two more things to say about vowels. One thing is “vowel length.” Sometimes the vowel is held just a little bit longer than other times. The “long vowel” can actually mean something different than the same word with a short vowel.

As you have seen in some of the examples so far, we represent a long vowel with a colon after the vowel, as in the word for “acorn”: ʔú:ti

Listen to a short vowel in contrast to a long vowel, by listening to these two words:
“name”: and “sky”: já:

English: name
Konkow:
English: sky
Konkow: já:

The other thing to mention is the accent marks you’ve been seeing on our example words. A vowel with an accent mark just sounds a little higher than the rest of the syllables in a word. Usually it’s the first syllable that’s highest; it has “primary stress.” When a word has three or more syllables, there will be another high syllable, but not quite as high as the first; that’s called “secondary stress.”

English: river
Konkow: séwi
English: cricket
Konkow: c’ýk’è:ti

In English we have a tendency to put the stress on the second syllable rather than the first. It is important to pay attention to the Konkow accent marks, because otherwise our English-speaking background may lead us to pronouncing the words wrong.

part 3. konkow consonants

We don’t need to go over all the consonants. They follow the same “one letter, one sound” principle as the vowels do and most of them sound like what we would expect the letters to stand for. But we will go over several sets of consonants that are very different from English.

b, d - Implosives

If you listen to the sample words with b and d, they are noticeably different from English "b" and "d". Sometimes we make those sounds in a joking or derisive way – try saying “duh” mockingly, and maybe you’ll use an implosive. (They are not mocking sounds in Konkow, though!) These sounds are called “implosives” because to make them, you make a bit of a vacuum in your mouth before you release the d (or b), so that upon release the air flows momentarily into your mouth rather than out (it implodes).

English: salt
Konkow:
English: man or person
Konkow: májdy

t’, c’, k’, p' - Glottalized Consonants

These consonants have a little “catch” in them when they are released. When you make a regular "t" or "k" sound, your tongue closes off the air stream for a moment before you release it into a vowel. But a glottalized consonant also closes the airstream off at the vocal cords at the same time, and the vocal cords also have to open up at the same time or just after the tongue is released. That makes the little popping sound or catch.

English: bring something
Konkow: t’óje
English: rib
Konkow: c’íc’i
English: roundhouse
Konkow: k’úmi
English: feather
Konkow: p’ó:t’i

j - There is nothing unusual about this sound, actually.

It’s just how it’s written! Remember that the letter y is used for a vowel, so the sound that sounds much like the English "y" in “yay” has to use a different letter. The letter Ultan chose is "j", which is used in the official International Phonetic Alphabet. Just like using the y for the vowel, you’ll just have to get used seeing a j for this sound!

English: young man
Konkow: jémpo:

ʔ - glottal stop - you will often see this letter that looks like a question mark. It actually marks the momentary stoppage of all sound. We use it all the time in English without noticing it - but it is noticeable in a few words, such as in “uh-uh!” (a way of saying “no”.) That dash in the middle is the glottal stop. The glottis is the hole going through our adams’ apple where the air goes in and out for breathing and speech. It has a set of vocal cords that are usually open when we speak, to let the air through - but they can close tight in the middle of a word like “uh-uh!” In Konkow, glottal stops occur in the middle of many words, but also at the beginning of words, where they seem unnoticeable. But if a word comes before a word beginning with a glottal stop, then you can hear that it is there. For example ʔa is ‘say’; and samʔa is ‘so it is said.’

exercises - ways to practice this lesson
  • Play the sample words for each sound and repeat them out loud. Go through the list of words several times this way.
  • Find more words for each sound in the Audio Dictionary and say them out loud too.
  • Print out the flash cards for this lesson and use them in games

exercise 1

Write the Konkow word next to it’s English translation below. If you don’t already know these words in Konkow, Click the ANSWERS key and listen to them, then try to write them down using the writing system above.

acorn
sky
river
fire
coyote
racoon
man
roundhouse
black
young man
salt
feather


English: acorn
Konkow: ʔú:ti
English: sky
Konkow: já:
English: river
Konkow: séwi
English: fire
Konkow:
English: coyote
Konkow: héno
English: raccoon
Konkow: ʔə́:k’ə
English: man or person
Konkow: májdy
English: roundhouse
Konkow: k’úmi
English: black
Konkow: ʔémuli
English: young man
Konkow: jémpo:
English: salt
Konkow:
English: feather
Konkow: p’ó:t’i


exercise 2

Use this lesson and the AUDIO DICTIONARY to find up to five examples each: the vowel sound y, a glottalized consonant, an imploded consonant, a long vowel, and a mid-word glottal stop. Listen for the sounds and say them aloud. Write them down so you can practice.

vowel sound y

glottalized consonant

imploded consonant

long vowel

mid-word glottal stop


exercise 3

Click on the up and down arrows to move an item one space. When you think you have them right, click the Check button. Scramble to play again.


májdy
p'ó:t'i
t'óje
c’íc’i
k’úmi
jémpo:
ʔàkym
ə:k'a
saltUPDOWN
man, personUPDOWN
featherUPDOWN
bring somethingUPDOWN
ribUPDOWN
roundhouseUPDOWN
young manUPDOWN
andUPDOWN
racoonUPDOWN
Hit Check to see if you have them all correct

Mary Jones
The wonderful Mary Jones videos have lessons organized by topic rather than grammar, and are very good for learning conversational speech.


Click the arrow to start the video. Once started, moving the curser off the image causes the controls to disappear. Move the curser over the image to return the controls.

Want to learn more? All the Mary Jones videos lessons are available HERE

or you can download a PDF of the lesson here DOWNLOAD - LESSON 1
Each lesson has a set of flashcards that can be printed and used for practice. As you work through the lessons, the sets can be combined to create more advanced sentences. There are several fun games you can play using these flashcards. The cards can be printed either single or double sided depending on what and how you want to play. Three games will be outlined below.

Go Fish
This is a multiple player game. It can be played from a basic level with simply the vocabulary words, to a more advanced game where all the questions are asked in the language. At the most basic level, you can play with an open hand. The object is to get pairs and practice the vocabulary. You will need to print two or four copies of each card to play Go Fish and Concentration.

Concentration
This can be played individually or as a multiplayer game. Cards can be double sided or single sided. Pictures can be facing up or hidden. You can match pictures and/or words.The object is to find matches and pronounce the vocabulary.

Flashcard Drills
This can be played individually or as a two player game. One person shows the image to their partner, who says the Konkow word. This is repeated until each player can identify and pronounce each card in the stack. The amount of cards in the stack can be increased as needed.

sounds and letters chart

Here is the complete list of Konkow Sounds and Letters with audio examples.

sounds not in english
b (imploded)
salt
d (imploded)
man or person
májdy
p' (glottalized)
feather
p’ó:t’i
t' (glottalized)
bring something
t’óje
c' (glottalized)
rib
c’íc’i
k' (glottalized)
roundhouse
k’úmi
consonants
p 'pet'
food, anything you eat
péky
t 'tent'
child or son
tútu
k 'kept'
garden, meadow
kójo:
s 'said'
sing
solim
h 'help'
above, up above
hípindi
m 'make'
water
mómi
n 'need'
all by myself
nímwete
l 'lay'
boy
kóleh
w 'when'
It’s medicine.
wénnem
j 'yay'
young man
jémpo:
vowels
i 'key'
all by yourself
mínwete
y ' '
and
ʔàkym
u 'bamboo'
acorn
ʔú:ti
e 'hay'
black
ʔémuli
ǝ 'alone'
pine burr, pine cone
kə́lkəli
o 'snow'
coyote
héno
a 'rah'
fire
sound modifiers
: 'slope'
snow
kó:
ʔ 'uh-oh'
rale, lung TB sound
hoʔoli
é 'primary'
river
séwi
è 'secondary'
cricket
c’ýk’è:ti