Spelling
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The Mohican Alphabet: Syllables and Stress
What is a syllable? Think of spoken language as a musical rhythm: some beats are louder than others, some are faster or slower. A syllable is like a drumbeat; the focus of each beat is a vowel sound. Here are some Mohican words divided up into syllables, listen for the rhythm of each word and
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The Mohican Alphabet: Consonants
Conventions Basic Consonants ⟨b⟩ English ‘tumble’. This almost always follows /m/. mbey hambat ⟨ch⟩ English ‘mischief’. May sometimes sound like /j/ ‘major’ to English speakers. cha'kwtãan kaache kaakwaach ⟨d⟩ English ‘mending’. This almost always follows /n/ or /m/. ndawat kooseendam ⟨g⟩ English ‘finger’. This almost always follows /n/. ngomaawe peengith ⟨j⟩ English ‘conjure’. This almost
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The Mohican Alphabet: Vowels
Conventions Long Vowels The sound of these is stretched out, elongated, they take more time to say. They are spelled with doubled vowels to indicate how long it takes to say them. There are four long vowels: ⟨aa⟩ English ‘nod’, ‘broad’ maamaakis waak ⟨ãa⟩ English ‘long’, ‘owned’, ‘wood’. The airflow is nasal, breathing out through
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The Mohican Alphabet
Spelling is, at best, an approximation of what a language actually sounds like. Letters of the alphabet are pronounced subtly (or dramatically) differently by different speakers at different times. For this reason, I advise learners to practice speaking the way they hear the language as opposed to how it is spelled here.