The Alutiiq Alphabet

The Sounds of Alutiiq

Compiled from Dr. Jeff Leer's Classroom Grammar of Koniag Alutiiq, Kodiak Island Dialect and A Conversational Dictionary of Kodiak Alutiiq, P.H. Knecht's Alutiiq Hypercard Lesson and Alutiiq Language (Sugtestun) Lessons, with input from various Native speakers and Jeff Leer.

Before European attempts to create an Alutiiq alphabet with Cyrillic or English letters, the Alutiiq Language was completely oral, passed along to children only through speaking. The Alutiiq alphabet is an interpretation of the sounds of the Alutiiq Language. The Alutiiq alphabet we use today is designed to be able to be typed with any keypad on any computer - special symbols such as underlines and accent marks have been eliminated.

Although the Alutiiq alphabet uses our English letters, and some of the Alutiiq letters sound the same as English ones, it is important to see the Alutiiq alphabet as its own set of sounds. To read Alutiiq, you must stop trying to sound it out in English!

The Vowels: a, i, u, e

There are four vowels in the Alutiiq language: a, i, u, and e. There is no o in Alutiiq, and y is treated as a consonant only. A, i, and u are considered prime vowels. They can be doubled or combined for emphasis. The shorter sound e is known as a reduced vowel (see below).

Doubled Vowels & Dipthongs: aa, ii, uu, ai, au, ia, iu, ua, ui

Doubled Vowels: A, i, and u can be doubled for emphasis. When an aa, ii, or uu appears in a word, that syllable is accented. If there is a consonant before a double vowel, there is a slight pause before pronouncing that consonant. The reduced vowel e is never doubled.

The Stop Consonants: q, k, kw, c, t, p

Stop consonants get their name becaue the sounds are formed by stopping air for a split second as it moves out of the mouth. The air can be stopped in a number of places, in your throat, the back or middle of your mouth, at your teeth or even on your lips. For example, try making a k sound. Without stopping the air in your mouth, it would sound like an h. The letters below are listed in order of where the air is stopped, beginning in the back of the throat and moving forward.

Nasal Consonants: m, n, ng, hm, hn, hng

M in Alutiiq is equivalent to the English m sound.

Example word: minq'uq (sewing)

Sounds We Already Know f, R, l, s, w, y

The Alutiiq letter f is equivalent to the English f, as in food. It appears in words borrowed from Russian and English.

Example word: faRanaq (lantern; Southern Kodiak sub-dialect)

The Other Letters - r, g, gw, ll

?There are only a few other letters in the Alutiiq language.
They are: r, g, gw, and ll.

R is pronounced in the back of the mouth in the area where the uvula hangs down (in the same place as the q). Unlike the q, which is produced with a short puff of air, the r is a drawn out sound. To produce this sound simply make a gravelly h sound out of your throat.

Example word: ruuwaq (arrow)

When Letters Sound Different

When certain consonants (k, c, t, p, g, s) are surrounded by single prime vowels, (a, i, u) they are pronounced more softly, often sounding like letters that do not even appear in the Alutiiq alphabet! This can cause confusion, but luckily the sound changes follow a recognizable pattern.