\n
00:09 – \u201cS\u201d, just like the english S, [Sahaptin].<\/span><\/p>\n00:20 – [Sahaptin] The next letter is the \u201cSH\u201d [Sahaptin]. The next letter is a \u201csoft T\u201d, [Sahaptin]. The next word is \u201cHard T\u201d and it has the glottal after it and this is a click clicked word, [Sahaptin], you click it between your teeth, close your teeth and put your tongue behind your teeth and say the \u201cT\u201d, see? [Sahaptin].<\/span><\/p>\n1:44 – The next letter is a \u201csoft T barred L\u201d, \u201csoft T barred L\u201d. [Sahaptin]. You say the \u201cT\u201d and you say the \u201cbarred L\u201d you have to say the letters together, [Sahaptin]. Don\u2019t forget to make it sound like a \u201cbarred L\u201d. Now the other letter that is similar but just a little different you flatten your tongue at the roof of your mouth when you blow the air out of your mouth to make this sound and its different from [Sahaptin], you open your mouth wide after you make the \u201cTL\u201d sound, [Sahaptin], you open your mouth wide. The other one, see, you [Sahaptin], keep closed tight all the muscles in your throat, your mouth is tense. This way you relax the muscles in your mouth and you open your mouth when you say it, [Sahaptin]. <\/span><\/p>\n3:24 – The next sound is a \u201csoft TS\u201d [Sahaptin]. The next letter is a \u201chard TS\u201d. The \u201chard TS\u201d is again made with your teeth clenched. [Sahaptin]. You say the \u201cTS\u201d sound together but you blow it through your clenched teeth, [Sahaptin], and after you say the \u201cTS\u201d you open your teeth, [Sahaptin], see? [Sahaptin]. The \u201cshort U\u201d is made like the English double o, [Sahaptin]. The \u201clong U\u201d is of course lengthened, [Sahaptin]. Now in the Indian language, in Sahaptin, you have to pronounce every letter, we don\u2019t do like the English when there\u2019s a double letter we just make one sound we have to pronounce both letters, like a \u201cdouble T\u201d you see here, you have to say [Sahaptin]. You don\u2019t say [Sahaptin]. That means something else, you have to say the first and second T. [Sahaptin]. Then we have the \u201cW\u201d, which is easy to pronounce. [Sahaptin]. You just need to know where to put your accent and the accent here is on the second \u201cshort A\u201d, if you say [Sahaptin] it won\u2019t mean \u2018mosquito\u2019, you have to say [Sahaptin]. Same way with [Sahaptin], you have to say [Sahaptin], you don\u2019t say [Sahaptin], that has altogether a different meaning. [Sahaptin] means \u2018late\u2019. Making your accents is very important, [Sahaptin], means \u2018jackrabbit\u2019. If you say [Sahaptin], it means something else in another dialect, it means \u2018left behind\u2019. [Sahaptin] means \u2018jackrabbit\u2019 in our area here. Then we have the \u201cfront X\u201d. The \u201cfront X\u201d is a soft sounding hissing sound, you tighten the way back of your throat when you make this sound and I always imagine a cat, you know, when a cat gets mad and they hump their back and they make this sound [Sahaptin]. See? [Sahaptin]. Of course you don\u2019t say it as loud as a cat, you kind of soften it. [Sahaptin]. See it\u2019s a voiced word where the air is coming out of your throat, there\u2019s hardly any obstructions except when you tighten a little bit to make that \u201cX\u201d come through. Don\u2019t say [Sahaptin], say [Sahaptin]. It has a different definition. \u201cBack X\u201d is way back in your throat and it\u2019s a guttural sound. [Sahaptin], there\u2019s supposed to be an underline here on the first \u201cX\u201d and the typist did not put this in. [Sahaptin]. Both of them are \u201cback X\u2019\u201ds. [Sahaptin]. Then we have the \u201cfront XW\u201d, [Sahaptin]. Again, it\u2019s a soft sound, [Sahaptin]. Then we have the \u201cback XW\u201d, [Sahaptin]. <\/span><\/p>\n8:49 – Then there\u2019s the \u201cY\u201d, [Sahaptin]. The thirty ninth letter in our alphabet is the glottal stop. It\u2019s a very important letter as you have noticed in our hard and soft sounds. It identifies the soft sounds like the \u201chard TS\u201d and the \u201cTL\u201d, so here we have two vowels,\u00a0 <\/span>and it has a glottal in the center. If we had just two vowels together that would be a \u201clong A\u201d sound, aaah. But we have a glottal between the two \u201cshort A\u2019\u201ds that separates the sound, [Sahaptin]. That means \u2018crow\u2019. Then we have the \u201cAY diphthong glottal AY diphthong\u201d. [Sahaptin]. Two different sounds. If it was together without the glottal, [Sahaptin], that would define a \u2018small fish\u2019 in another dialect, but when it\u2019s separated by a glottal stop it has two separate sounds, [Sahaptin], \u2018magpie\u2019 . [Sahaptin], if it didn\u2019t have a glottal it wouldn\u2019t mean anything. Because we don\u2019t spell with three \u201cU\u201d\u2019s. So there that [Sahaptin] is a separate sound from the [Sahaptin] is separated by the \u201cbarred L\u201d, that means \u2018the state of being blind\u2019. So that\u2019s why the glottal stop in our alphabet is very important. <\/span><\/p>\n11:07 – Now we have the \u201cAY diphthongs\u201d. You know I\u2019ll explain what diphthongs are. There are eight diphthongs in our language. A diphthong is a combination with a \u201cY\u201d or a \u201cW\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>The \u201cshort AY\u201d diphthong has an ay sound [Sahaptin], maybe. The \u201clong AY diphthong\u201d has a long sound, [Sahaptin]. The \u201cshort UI\u201d [Sahaptin], just like \u201cOI\u201d in English. [Sahaptin], and then we have the \u201clong UI\u201d, [Sahaptin], The \u201cshort AW diphthong\u201d, [Sahaptin], it has an OW sound in English. [Sahaptin]. The \u201clong AW diphthong\u201d, [Sahaptin]. See the difference between [Sahaptin] and [Sahaptin]? They mean two different things so It\u2019s very important that you pronounce your diphthongs correctly. [Sahaptin], [Sahaptin] means \u2018mountain goat\u2019. The \u201cshort IW diphthong\u201d has a short sound, [Sahaptin]. The \u201clong IW diphthong\u201d has a long sound, [Sahaptin]. So that concludes the introduction to the Yakama Practical Alphabet. And I would like to say a few words about the spelling of Yakama. I don\u2019t know who started this Yakama stuff. That\u2019s not the correct way to say this tribes title. Originally we were called Yakima. Then the Indians, when they said it, white people couldn\u2019t spell it so they came up with [Sahaptin], it\u2019s pretty close to the original Yakima word. It depends on you if you want to spell it Yakama it\u2019s up to you. But I\u2019m spelling it with an I, and that\u2019s my own choice. So it\u2019s up to you if you want to write it Yakama, I just wanted to explain this on this tape. I hope that it well help you. In reviewing my recording, I find that I have passed up one letter, and this is a pretty important, it\u2019s right after the soft back K – (tape cuts off) <\/span><\/p>\n