Hard resonants

The last consonants that we will discuss are the hard resonants:

LetterNameHow it is pronounced
hard mlike m with a catch before it
hard nlike n with a catch before it
hard wlike w with a catch before it
hard ylike y with a catch before it

Resonant consonants like m n w y are humming sounds, made with vibrating vocal cords. The glottalized, or hard resonants m̓ n̓ w̓ y̓ are pronounced like their plain counterparts, but are a little longer, and are preceded by a catch in the throat like a glottal stop (ʔ).

Here are some examples:

Nuu-chah-nulthEnglishNuu-chah-nulthEnglish
m̓aam̓iiqsolder siblingsiy̓aasmine
n̓aasdaysuw̓aasyours
nism̓alandw̓aaʔakshy
t̓an̓achildy̓aʔisbutter clam
Nuu-chah-nulthEnglishNuu-chah-nulthEnglish
m̓aam̓iiqsuolder siblingsiy̓aasmine
n̓aasdaysuw̓aasyours
nism̓alandw̓aaʔakshy
t̓an̓achildy̓aʔisibutter clam

Glottalization on resonants is not difficult to hear between vowels, as in suw̓aas, but it can be very difficult to hear at the beginnings of words, as in w̓aaʔak.

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