Phonetics

[Ros' Haruo]

This is a good question, and I haven't noticed anybody responding to it. I'm
certainly not an expert on CJ pronunciation, but it seems to me that the
answer is "yes and no":

There are several orthographical systems in use both in the older print
literature and in recent literature including this list. Here are what I
suppose are the five major types:

1. The early literature (say, pre-1880) was written somewhat haphazardly (or
at least idiosyncratically), usually according to what the writer felt would
come closest to conveying the sound to an English-speaking reader. Thus,
spellings like conaway. Where "Indian guttural sounds" (which might mean
velar or uvular fricatives or stops, or glottalized stops and liquids of
various sorts) were prominent enough to be written, they might be given as
"gh" or "h" or "x" or who knows what.

2. In the latter part of the 19th century, there came to be a certain amount
of normalization in the spelling, so that a "serious" CJ writer would write,
say, "saghalie" and avoid "sockalee". If you are familiar with English
orthographic/phonetic conventions *and have a CJ speaker to listen to* this
normalized "classical" CJ spelling is of some use in figuring out how to
pronounce things, but if you don't have a CJ speaker around, for many words
you will just have to guess. This kind of spelling is used by some on this
list.

3. Beginning towards the end of the century, with its first major
representative in Franz Boas, anthropological linguists began writing CJ
texts (or transcribed utterances) in some variant of the current scientific
linguistic orthography (generally a variant of "IPA" or "API"). If you know
some version of IPA, it's usually possible to get a pretty good idea of what
the transcriber was driving at, though transcribers vary in their
reliability, and speakers do too. ASCII adaptations of this "North
Americanist" alphabet are often found here and elsewhere in email and Usenet
contexts (for example in sci.lang)

4. A cousin of this anthropological-linguistic orthographic dynasty,
modified by present-day users of CJ, is in use at Grand Ronde and, with
minor changes to accommodate ASCII limitations, is used by some on this
list.

5. There was/is also the Duployan shorthand associated with the periodical
Kamloops Wawa, which is of great historical interest and may often throw
light on pronunciation puzzles where the "classical" spellings are
ambiguous.

lilEnd

PS: I invite critiques of my typology and refinements of my types from those
who know the material better than I.

        ROS' Haruo / 204 N 39th / Seattle WA 98103 / Usono
    lilandbr at scn.org / lilandbr at hotmail.com / tel 206-633-2434
TTT-Himnaro Cigneta : http://www.geocities.com/cigneto/pretaj.html
Nove en La Lilandejo : http://www.geocities.com/lilandr/novaj.html
      ("la Esperantisto antauxe nomata Liland Brajant Ros'")


>From: Adriana Gómez Naranjo <Adrygona3 at MIXMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: Adriana Gómez Naranjo <Adrygona3 at MIXMAIL.COM>
>To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>Subject: Phonetics
>Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 12:42:00 -0500
>
>I would like to know if there are some rules in order to pronounce the
>words correctly.


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