Notes on Pronunciation
►2 Unstressed schwa deletion: For most speakers of Klallam, schwa (ə) vowels become silent in rapid, fluent speech if they are unstressed. For some speakers, unstressed schwas are almost always silent. For example, nətán ‘my mother’ is frequently pronounced ntán. This never happens to stressed schwas, so nə́c̓uʔ ‘one’ always has the schwa pronounced.
►3 Unstressed schwa pronunciation: When unstressed schwa is pronounced, it always takes on some of the features of neighboring consonants. Before ʔ it sounds like a; around č or č̓ it sounds like the vowel in American English ‘hit’; and before kʷ, xʷ, x̣ʷ, or qʷ it sounds like the vowel in American English ‘book.’
►4 Long consonant instead of unstressed schwa: For most speakers, the deletion in casual speech of an unstressed schwa causes a preceding m, n, or ŋ following a stressed vowel to be pronounced long. So, for example, ʔínət ‘what did you say’ becomes ʔínnt. For some speakers this happens even in very careful speech.
►5 Doubled consonants: There are some Klallam words that are spelled with two identical consonants in a row. It is important to know how these doubled consonants are to be pronounced. There are two rules:
1. If the doubled consonant is from the first two rows of the consonant chart on page 3 (except for ʔ), then both consonants are pronounced separately. For example, in ʔítt ‘sleep’ the first t is pronounced (with the tip of the tongue up behind the front teeth), then released (the tip of the tongue moves down quickly). The second t is then immediately pronounced.
2. If the doubled consonant is ʔ or from the last three rows of the consonant chart on page 3, then the two are pronounced as one sound. It is acceptable to spell these with two consonants or with one. For example, k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ ‘see it’ is composed of k̓ʷən and the suffix ‑nəxʷ. The two n sounds are often pronounced as one n, so this word can also be spelled k̓ʷə́nəxʷ. For some speakers, double consonants like this are pronounced as one slightly longish consonant.
►6 c is not the same as ts: Although the consonant c was described above as like the ts in English ‘hats,’ c in Klallam is not pronounced the same as ts in Klallam. c starts with the tongue in the same position as for t, then the tongue slides directly into an s sound. Another way of saying this is that the t is released into s. They are pronounced as one sound. The sequence ts, however, is pronounced as two distinct sounds. The t is pronounced, then released (as described above for the first t of ʔítt). The tongue then goes back up to produce the s. For example, click to listen to the two words kʷənáŋəc ‘help me’ and kʷənáŋəts ‘he/she helps him/her’ spoken by the late Klallam elder Ed Sampson. They sound similar to ears used to English, but they are pronounced distinctly in Klallam.
►7 Final ʔ: In fluent rapid speech, final ʔ is often dropped.
►8 Stressed u before ʔ: The vowel ú is always pronounced with a sound closer to o when it comes before a glottal stop. For example, the word húʔpt ‘deer’ is pronounced very much like the English word ‘hoped.’
►9 Stressed u before y or y̓: The vowel ú is pronounced by some speakers to sound like o when it comes before y and especially before y̓. For example, húy̓ often sounds like it would rhyme with English ‘boy,’ though the final y̓ is produced with a much tenser throat.
►10 Stressed i before y, y̓, ŋ, or ŋ̓: The vowel í is pronounced by some speakers as é when it comes before y, y̓, ŋ, or ŋ̓. For example, some speakers pronounce híyəŋ ‘fall’ as héyəŋ.
►11 The vowel written é: The vowel é occurs only before ʔ and sometimes elsewhere, as noted in feather 10, above. So the occurrence of this sound is predictable, just as is the occurrence of the sound [o], as noted in feather 9, above. The symbol é is used in the writing system, but not ó. This systematic inconsistency has been established at the request of elders, who, when learning to write the language, disliked spellings like ʔíʔɬx̣ʷaʔ for ʔéʔɬx̣ʷaʔ ‘Elwha.’
