Pronunciation Practice
Here are more examples of the Karuk vowels. Practice them.
Feel free to jump around and select words out of sequence.
Do you need to know what you’re saying?
Not necessarily, you are learning the ‘musical scales’ of the language.
Remember a baby hears the language and then begins to mimic what he/she hears.
Think of yourself as a pretty little yupsítanach.
Vowels
a i tah if yav pif ára fíthih ákah ípih áta íshkih áxak íhivrik yáxa pimnáanih man'áta kinínaasich anamahach ataháriva kun'áraarahiti kupánakanakana u tu'uh vuh vuhvúh úruh múmuh yúruk mu'úruh kútutuk muyukúkuh aa ee aan náa êem káan êev táay kêech áraar vêena chéemyaach kêemish kunâach'aa chéemyaach yícheech matêek chími na'êehi! ii oo íim ôok píit kóo vítviit hôoy thiina anooh tíiptiip chôora chiihvíichva itrôop chíish ipmahóonkoon yíish hûut teepmahóonkoon? uu úum uum ûup yuup hûut xuun úuhkir hûut takúupha
The above pronunciation guide is the first step to learning the vowels used in the Karuk language. Again the student’s job is to repeat and listen to the lengths of the vowels. Some vowels are short, some are long.
The short vowels are denoted by a single letter: a, i, and u.
The long vowels have double letters: aa, ee, ii, oo and uu.
Also the syllables in the Karuk language can have one of 3 kinds of stresses.
1. First the “unstressed” syllable: see anooh. Each syllable is in this word is even: an-nooh.
2. A syllable can be “stressed” (and usually has an acute accent) as in: íhivrik where the first syllable is stressed and the following 2 syllables are unstressed: IH-hi-vrik.
3. A third stress is called “rising-falling tone” as in the phrase: hûut takúupha, and is designated with a ^, cap over the vowel. The vowel in the word hûut first rises and then falls: HUUut ta KUUP-ha.
In the next pronunciation exercise we’ll be introduced to the pronunciation of phrases and common expressions using the words that we’ve already learned.
Finished 5-4-09.