Nasal Consonants

Nasal consonants are letters produced with air going through the nasal passage. There are voiced nasals which involve vibration of the vocal cords, and voiceless nasals, which do not use the vocal cords.

M in Alutiiq is equivalent to the English m sound.

N in Alutiiq is equivalent to the English n sound.

Ng is considered one letter in Alutiiq. It sounds like the ng in English “sing.”

When single letters n and g appear together in a word, they are separated by an apostrophe to show they are not the one-letter ng.

Hm,hn, and hng are variations of the letters m, n, and ng. Linguists call them voiceless or unvoiced nasal consonants. They begin with a nasal h sound just like a puff of air, then the m, n, or ng as described above. The puff of air should come from the nose, not from the mouth. You should be able to say hm with your mouth completely closed.

The voiceless nasals, especially hng, are quite rare in Alutiiq words.