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Alphabet used by S. A. Barrett

From S. A. Barrett "The Ethno-Geography of the Pomo Indians," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology (UCPAAE) 6:1 (February 1908), pp,. 51-54. Used for S. A. Barrett "Myths of the Southern Sierra Miwok," UCPAAE 16:1 (March 27, 1919), and probably other papers.


ALPHABET.

The characters used to represent the various sounds found in the languages under consideration are as follows17a:

    Vowels:

aas in father.
ār;of the same quality, but of longer duration.
The macron is here used purely as a matter
of convenience to distinguish a few words.
aias in aisle.
ēr; as in obey.
eas in met.
Ī as in machine.
i as in pin.
ō as in note.
oEnglish aw.
as in rule.
uas in put.
û as in but.
an ain, ōn, ūn, Īnnasalized vowels.
A, I, U obscure vowels.

The macron (¯), except in the case of a, has been employed entirely as a means of designating the quality of vowels and is no indication of quantity.

The apostrophe (') following a vowel or consonant indicates a pronounced aspiration.

    Consonants:18

p, b, w, m, n, y, h as in English.
k is the symbol which has been used to represent two different sounds: the post-palatal and medio-palatal voiceless stops. It has a post-palatal position when it precedes ū, u, ō, o, û, or a; and is medio-palatal before Ī, i, ē, or e.
g is the sonant of k and its position is varied by the accompanying vowels in the same manner as that of k.
t, d alveolar stops, voiceless and voiced respectively.
t voiceless dental stop. In this sound the tongue very nearly approaches the interdental position and may with certain speakers even do so.
d the voiced sound corresponding to t. This is one of the most rarely occurring sounds in Pomo. It does not occur in any of the words in the accompanying vocabularies, but is found in two or three of the names of village sites.
an alveolar stop the position of which is a little farther back than t. It approximates the sound of ty, and is often distinguishable from tc only with difficulty.
is the sonant of t·.
ñ nasalized post-palatal sonant; like English ng.
x has the sound of the Spanish jota.
g' is the sonant of x.
c open pre-palatal surd. The sound is similar to the English sh. The corresponding sonant, j, is never found as an individual sound, but appears frequently in the combination dj.
s, z open alveolar consonants, voiceltss and voiced respectively.
s This peculiar voiceless continuant is made by protruding the lower jaw to a very considerable extent and retracting the edges of the tongue to an almost pre-palatal position. Among the languages here treated it is only found in Moquelumnan and Wintun, and is only rarely used in either of these, particularly the latter.
f This is the ordinary labio-dental voiceless continuant, and is one of the rarest sounds in native American languages. It is found only in two dialects of the Pomo, the South-eastern and the Northeastern, and is not much used in either. The corresponding voiced sound is not found.
l as in English let.
LThis is a voiceless stop made with the tip of the tongue on the alveolar arch. The closure is followed by only a slight explosion, the air beinfr allowed to escape laterally. It may have a short or long duration, depending upon the surrounding sounds. This is a comparatively rare sound in the languages under consideration and has so far been found only in Pomo, Wintun, and Moqueluninan.
l is the sonant of L, and approximates the sound of dl. It occurs more rarely than L.
L resembles L, except that the tongue is somewhat more retracted, and more relaxed so that there is almost no explosion as the air escapes over the sides of the tongue. The sound approximates that of hl. It is more rare in Wintun and Moquelumnan than L, and has been found also in a very few cases in Pomo.
r pre-palatal inverted sonant.
r r with a pronounced tongue-tip trill.
tc as in church.
ts as in sits.
dj as j in jury. dz, as z in adz, though not found in the vocabularies here given, does occur in Pomo.
hw the voiceless w, as in who.
t!, t!, p!, k!, tc!, ts!, s! stressed.

17a In order to facilitate reference to them the Indian names of villages appear in italics. In such names the letters which appear in this alphabet as Roman are italicised and vice versa.

18 In describing the consonants used, the following approximate positions of the tongue upon the roof of the mouth are mentioned; velar, on the rear half of the soft palate, post-palatal, on the forward half of the soft palate, medio-palatal, on the rear half of the hard palate, pre-palatal, on the forward half of the hard palate, and alveolar, on the alveolar or gingival arch. The positions of the sounds used in the various languages under consideration have, of course, thus far been determined only by observation and it is probable that when they are determined exactly by mechanical means some will be found to differ somewhat from the positions here given, depending much upon the individual speakng them.


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