Pronunciation Guide

The following is an abbreviated guide for the most common aspects of Dene phonetic pronunciation and corresponding orthography. A more complete list for other languages will be posted shortly.

Vowel Forms

Plain Vowel Forms (a, e, i, o, u)

In Dene languages, plain vowels indicate the default tone which can be either high or low depending on the regional language. The “i” also loses its dot so as not to confuse it with the grave or acute accents of the low and high tone form, respectively.

Nasal Vowel Forms (ą, ę, į, ǫ, ų)

Familiar to speakers of French, nasal forms in most Dene languages are indicated by an ogonek (similar to a reversed cedilla placed under the vowel). Ogonek marks are not usually found in the standard set of characters, however most modern typefaces with extended unicode support do include them except for the “o” form. The “o” form can be indicated, if imperfectly with a combining diacritical mark.

Low Tone Vowel Forms (à, è, ì, ò – Tłįchǫ/Gwich’in)

Used in Tłįchǫ and Gwich’in, low tone forms usually involve holding the tone longer than the plain form. It is indicated by a grave accent and is often combined with an ogonek to give a low nasal tone. In Slavey and Chipewyan, the low tone remains unmarked.

High Tone Vowel Forms (á, é, í, ó, ú – Slavey/Chipewyan)

High tone in Slavey and Chipewyan, high tones are indicated by an acute accent and can be combined with an ogonek to give the high nasal tone. In Tłįchǫ and Gwich’in, the high tone is left unmarked.

Mid-High Tone Vowel Form (ë / ɘ – Slavey/Chipewyan)

This vowel form is often orthographically abandoned in favour of a plain “e”  but is voiced in a slightly higher tone from the centre of the throat.

Glottal Stop

A glottal stop can be found in English as the sound between “uh-oh”. It is indicated by an apostrophe after consonants and a glottal stop (ʔ) character at the beginning of words or after vowels. The glottal stop character is found in the extended International Phonetic Alphabet set in some typefaces, but also in the upper and lower case form in a few more recent fonts. Indeed, the cased version is only used in the Northwest Territories but it has been registered in the Unicode Standard. Substitution with a question mark is often used when the character is not available.

L with Stroke

An L with a stroke (Ł, ł) is used to indicate a “breathy l” found in the words “flip” or “slip”. It is often seen following a “t” as in Tłįchǫ where it may sound closer to “cl” than “tl”.