Reference: Letters to sounds

This quick reference provides a short reminder of how each letter of the Nuu-chah-nulth alphabet is pronounced. This is useful for people who are still learning to pronounce Nuu-chah-nulth. To remind yourself how a letter is pronounced, find the letter below, and read the short description that follows it.

Letter	Name	How it is pronounced
a	short a	uh
aa	long a	long ah
c	plain c	ts
c̓	hard c	explosive ts
č	c wedge	ch
č̓	hard c wedge	explosive ch
e	short e	as in get
ee	long e	as in eh, and long
h	h	h
ḥ	back h	like breathing on glass
i	short i	as in bit
ii	long i	as in ski, and long
k	k	k
kʷ	round k	k with rounded lips
k̓	hard k	explosive k
k̓ʷ	hard round k	explosive k with rounded lips
ł	barred l	a hissed l, like lth
ƛ	barred lambda	tl
ƛ̓	hard barred lambda	explosive tl
m	m	m
m̓	hard m	m with a catch before it
n	n	n
n̓	hard n	n with a catch before it
o	short o	oh
oo	long o	long oh
p	p	p
p̓	hard p	explosive p
q	q	back k
qʷ	round q	back k with rounded lips
s	s	s
š	s wedge	sh
t	t	t
t̓	hard t	explosive t
u	short u	as in put
uu	long u	as in due, and long
w	w	w
w̓	hard w	w with a catch before it
x	front x	like a cat’s hiss
xʷ	round front x	cat’s hiss with rounded lips
x̣	back x	a back x, like hissing to spit
x̣ʷ	round back x	like hissing to spit with rounded lips
y	y	y
y̓	hard y	y with a catch before it
ʔ	glottal stop	a catch in the throat, as in uh-oh
ʕ	pharyngeal stop	a catch in the throat plus an r sound