Mohawk Language - Orthography

Orthography

The Mohawk alphabet consists of these letters: a e h i k n o r s t w y along with ’ and :. The orthography was standardized in 1993. The standard allows for some variation of how the language is represented, most notably:, and the clusters /ts(i)/, /tj/, and /ky/ are written as pronounced in each community. The orthography matches the phonological analysis as above except:

• The glottal stop /ʔ/ is written with an apostrophe ’, it is often omitted at the end of words, especially in Eastern dialect where it is typically not pronounced.
• /dʒ/
  • /dʒ/ is written ts in the Eastern dialect (reflecting pronunciation). Seven is tsá:ta .
  • /dʒ/ is written tsi in the Central dialect. Seven is tsiá:ta .
  • /dʒ/ is written tsy in the Western dialect. Seven is tsyá:ta .
• /j/
  • /j/ is typically written i in the Central and Eastern dialects. Six is ià:ia’k .
  • /j/ is usually written y in the Western dialect. Six is yà:ya’k .
• The vowel /ʌ̃/ is written en, as in one énska .
• The vowel /ũ/ is written on, as in eight sha’té:kon .
• In cases where the vowel /e/ or /o/ is followed by an /n/ in the same syllable, the /n/ is written with a low-macron accent: keṉhó:tons (I am closing a door). If the ṉ did not have the accent, the sequence ⟨en⟩ would be pronounced .

The low-macron accent is not apart of standard orthography and isn't used by the Central or Eastern dialects. In standard orthography, /h/ is written before /n/ to create the or : kehnhó:tons 'I am closing it'.