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 count the beats.
moskw
kta·waw
aa·kwee·we
nga·thãakw·the'·nã
kwokw·to·kwo'·kwa'·thow
naxk·tho·wee·nãakw·the'·nã
Each vowel sound must belong to its own syllable.
Every language has its own ideas of what is permissible within one syllable. Mohican has clusters of consonants within a single syllable which English speakers might find surprising at first.
From Mind to Pronunciation
Language and words exist in the mind of speakers and listeners. Imagine that the mind thinks about words in a raw state, that is, an original and primary form but not yet ready for consumption. Pronunciation is the process that transforms the mind words into sounds which can be transmitted to other people; like cooking the raw state into something edible. And like cooking food, the very act of pronouncing changes the mind words. All languages “cook” their words, but each one does it differently in its own way.
Mind words are called underlying forms. These are understood instinctively but subconsciously by native speakers. It is helpful for some learners to think about the underlying forms of words to comprehend why words are pronounced the way they are. In Algonquian linguistics, underlying forms are often presented in between |pipe brackets|.
Pronounced words are called surface forms. These are words written on a page or transmitted as sound waves from one person to another. Surface forms are words that exist in the outside world. Linguists of Algonquian languages represent surface forms in between /slash brackets/. If a more detailed phonetic analysis of a surface form is required, they will be in [square brackets].
The pathway from the mind to voice, or from ears back to the mind, consists of rules of phonology. Applying these rules will assure acceptable pronunciation. There are many phonological rules in Mohican as there are in any language, but here we will look at the phonology of syllables.
Strong and Weak Syllables
In Mohican, each syllable (except the last) in a word is understood to be strong or weak. This determines which syllable in a word is said the loudest, and which ones are so quiet that they disappear altogether. We can figure out the strength of each syllable working from the underlying form, then we can apply phonological rules that will affect the how the surface form sounds:
The strength of the last syllable of a word does not matter, it does not participate in the strong-weak process.
All long vowels are inherently strong. These are indicated in writing by doubling the vowel letter.
All cut long vowels are strong. Think of a cut vowel as a long vowel that is trimmed off because the next sound is a glottal stop. These are indicated in the dictionary with a circumflex accent {â, ê, ô} or, in the case of the nasal vowel, a single {ã}.
In a few words, a short vowel can be irregularly strong. These are pronounced like normal short vowels, except that they are considered strong for the purposes of phonological rules. They are indicated in the dictionary with a grave accent {à, ì, ò}.
Short vowels in the first syllable of an underlying form are weak.
Short vowels after a weak syllable are strong.
Short vowels after a strong syllable are weak.
Below, strong vowels will be written in capital letters, weak vowels in subscript letters. Let's look at the audio examples from earlier, but this time we will start with the underlying forms and work our way to the surface forms following the phonological rules. For the sake of completeness, the last row in each table here is the surface form after applying even more phonological rules like consonant voicing, vowel shortening, and vowel deletion. However, for now the focus is on the strong~weak rules.
Underlying form
|amoskw|
Rule 5. First syllable short are weak.
amoskw
Surface form
/moskw/
Underlying form
|ke'tawaaw|
Rule 5. First syllable short are weak.
ke'tawaaw
Rule 6. Short is strong after weak.
ke'tAwaaw
Surface form
/ktawaw/
Underlying form
|aakweewee|
Rule 2. Long vowels are strong.
AAkwEEwee
Surface form
/aakweewe/
Underlying form
|nikathãakwothê'nãa|
Rule 2. Long vowels are strong.
nikathÃAkwothê'nãa
Rule 3. Cut long vowels are strong.
nikathÃAkwothE'nãa
Rule 5. First syllable short are weak.
nikathÃAkwothE'nãa
Rule 6. Short is strong after weak.
nikAthÃAkwothE'nãa
Rule 7. Short is weak after strong.
nikAthÃAkwothE'nãa
Surface form
/ngathãakwthe'nã/
Underlying form
|kwòkwotokwò'kwâ'thow|
Rule 3. Cut long vowels are strong.
kwòkwotokwò'kwA'thow
Rule 4. Gràve accented short are strong.
kwOkwotokwO'kwA'thow
Rule 6. Short is strong after weak.
kwOkwotokwO'kwA'thow
Rule 7. Short is weak after strong.
kwOkwotOkwO'kwA'thow
Surface form
/kwokwtokwo'kwa'thow/
Underlying form
|ninaxkithoweenãakwothê'nãa|
Rule 2. Long vowels are strong.
ninaxkithowEEnÃAkwothê'nãa
Rule 3. Cut long vowels are strong.
ninaxkithowEEnÃAkwothE'nãa
Rule 5. First syllable short are weak.
ninaxkithowEEnÃAkwothE'nãa
Rule 6. Short is strong after weak.
ninAxkithOwEEnÃAkwothE'nãa
Rule 7. Short is weak after strong.
ninAxkithOwEEnÃAkwothE'nãa
Surface form
/naxkthoweenãakwthe'nã/
What is Stress?
Each Mohican word has a syllable that is pronounced louder than all the others: this is called the stressed syllable. Stress sets the rhythm of the language and helps listeners know where a word begins and ends in relation to other words. The historical Mohican sources that we have can be, at times, somewhat unreliable in writing stress, if it is indicated at all.
In Moravian 18th century sources, a plethora of accent marks attempt to represent vowel length and stress, but often contradict, the same word can be written with different stress indicators.
|a'kwat-ha| ‘not yet’ is written ⟨achquódha⟩, ⟨achquadhà⟩, or ⟨achquódhà⟩. He indicates stress on the second syllable, the third syllable, or both the second and third. (Schmick 1991:103)
|otine| ‘s/he does it in a certain way’ is written ⟨udénne⟩ or ⟨ŭdĕnnì⟩ (Passion)
In 20th century linguistics sources, stress is often written, but different speakers might have varied in their pronunciation. Also, speakers in many languages have different stress forms depending on whether a word is spoken in a sentence, in isolation, or in a list.
|aamhãan| ‘spoon’ is written with first-syllable stress ⟨ā́m‘han⟩ (Alfred Miller) and last-syllable stress ⟨ amhų́ˑ ⟩ (Bernice Huntington).
|neemaanaak| ‘men’ is written in Dennis Turkey's story with second-syllable stress ⟨nemának⟩, and last-syllable stress ⟨nemanaák⟩.
With this in mind, stress in Mohican requires a fuller study than I have done up to this time. Stress is also subject to irregularites making it impossible to propose iron-clad rules. However, a few general patterns can be distinguished.
In words with at least one long vowel, the long vowel closest to the end is stressed.
In words with no long vowels, the strong syllable closest to the end is stressed.
In words with no strong vowels, the final syllable is stressed.
Here are some examples: the stressed syllable is underlined.
Underlying form
|omasãatamin|
Strong-weak syllables
omAsÃAtamin
Surface form
/omAsÃAtamin/
Stress Rule 1.
omasãatamin
Underlying form
|animithow|
Strong-weak syllables
anImithow
Surface form
/nImthow/
Stress Rule 2.
nimthow
Underlying form
|katin|
Strong-weak syllables
katin
Surface form
/katin/
Stress Rule 3.
katin
In a few rare cases, phonological processes will result in two different underlying forms having identical surface forms except that they have different stress.
