< Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu
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ALPHABET
| ᵃ, ⁱ, ᵘ | vocalic resonance of consonants. |
| ₐ, ₑ, ᵢ, ᵤ | short weak vowels, very slightly voiced. |
| ᴇ | very weak vowel of indeterminate timber, lips, palate, and tongue almost in rest position, larynx not raised. |
| aₐ, eᵢ, iᵢ, oᵤ | diphthongized vowels, ending with a decided glottal stricture, so as to be set off from the following consonants, without, however, forming a complete glottal stop. |
| p, t, ts, k, kᵘ, q | strongly aspirated surd stops (kᵘ labialized, q velar). ts is pronounced by many individuals as tc; but careful speakers, particularly old men, pronounced a clear ts. When followed by w or y, the stops lose some of the strength of their aspiration. Terminal k is somewhat palatalized, except when it follows a u. |
| p!, t!, ts!, k!, q! | very strong glottalized consonants (fortis). ts! has in its continuant part a pure s character. |
| s | as in English. |
| x̣ | velar spirant. |
| ł | voiceless l. |
| dl | voiced affricative, only in the word kudlidlus ("butterfly"). |
| m, n | often strongly sonant, with sonancy beginning suddenly before complete labial or lingual closure. |
| ʼ | glottal stop. |
| ʻ | aspiration. All surd stops are strongly aspirated, but the aspiration has been indicated only in words beginning with aₐʻ. |
The primary accent is always on the penultima, the weak vowels, ₐ, ᵢ, ᵤ, not being counted.
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