Sounds of Navajo

Here is an introduction to the phonemic sound system of Navajo, in the Navajo orthography and International Phonetic Alphabet (in backslashes).

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front				Back
	Oral		Nasal		Oral		Nasal
High	i /i/	ii /iː/	į /ɪ̃/	įį /ĩː/
Mid	e /e/	e /eː/	ę /ẽ/	ęę /ẽː/	o /o/	oo /oː/	ǫ /õ/	ǫǫ /õː/
Low					a /ɑ/	aa /ɑː/	ą /ɑ̃/	ąą /ɑ̃ː/

Diphthongs

	Front	Back
	Vɪ̯	Vɪ̯	Vo̯
High		oi /ʊɪ̯/
Mid	ei /eɪ̯/
Low		ai /ɑɪ̯/	ao /ɑo̯/

Consonants

Inventory

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			Plain	Lateral	Affricate		Plain	Labialized
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/
Stop	Unaspirated	b /p/	d /t/	dl /tɬ/	dz /ʦ/	j /ʧ/	g /k/		ʼ /ʔ/
	Aspirated		t /tˣ/	tł /tɬʰ/	ts /ʦʰ/	ch /ʧʰ/	k /kˣ/	kw /kʷˣ/
	Ejective		tʼ /tʼ/	tłʼ /tɬʼ/	tsʼ /ʦʼ/	chʼ /ʧʼ/	kʼ /kʼ/
Fricative	Voiceless		s /s/	ł /ɬ/		sh /ʃ/	h, x /x/	hw /xʷ/
	Voiced		z /z/	l /ɮ~l/		zh /ʒ/	gh /ɣ/	w /ɣʷ~w/
Approximant						y /j/

External Links

• http://www.sas.rochester.edu/lin/DeneSpeechAtlas/

References

- Dene Speech Atlas