LEARNING THE NAVAJO LANGUAGE!
CONSONANTS
(‘) THIS IS THE MOST COMMON CONSONANTAL SOUND IN Navajo and is called a glottal stop. It sounds like the hiatus between the two elements of the English exclamation oh! oh! and hunh, unh. In actual speech the difference between Johnnie yearns and Johnnie earns is that the latter has a glottal closure between the two words. More examples:
ha’a’aah (east)
‘a’aan ( a hole in the ground)
‘abe’ (milk)
ua’at’eeh (It is good)
b baah (bread) - like p in spot
ch chizh (firewood) like ch in church
ch’ Ch’ah (hat, cap)
d dibe’ (sheep) - like t in stop
dz dzit (mountains)
g gah (rabbit) - like k in sky
gh ‘aghaa’ (wool)
h haadi (where?) *
hw hwideelto’ (slippery place) like wh in when
j jadi (antelope)-like j in jug
k ke’ (shoes)-like k in kitten
k’ k’aa (arrow)
kw kw’d (right here-like qu in quick
l lajish (gloves)-like l in late
m mosi (cat)-like m in most
n naadaa’ (corn)-like n in new
s sin (song)
sh shash (bear)
t tin (ice)
t’ t’eesh (charcoal)
ts tsah (needle) like ts in hats
ts’ ts’ah (sagebrush)
w Waashindoon (Washington)
x yiyiisxj (he killed him)
y ya’ (sky)
z zas (snow)
zh bizhi’ (his name) like s in pleasure
*h-represents the sound of ch in German ich, as well as that of h in the English word have. Ordinarily both of the sounds are written h, but when h follows s it is necessary to distinguish the resulting sh sequence from the digraph sh. This is accomplished by substitution of x for the h. Thus: yiyisxj (he killed him) for yiyishj.
