Aleut Grammar

16 — Aleut Grammar — Phonology

1. Phonology
1.1. Phonemes

l.l.L Notation

The writing system used in this grammar, as also in Aleut Dictionary 1994,
is the practical orthography designed in 1972 for the bilingual program in the Aleut
region of what was then the Alaska State Operated School System, used in many
school books and other publications since 1973. It is a modified transliteration of
the Aleut Cyrillics developed by loann Veniaminov, for which see Aleut Dictionary,
General Introduction 2.7. It includes single roman letters, several digraphs and one
trigraph, to be explained in LI. 2. below. A hyphen is used in certain phrases (1.4.1.;
2.1.9.4.2.3.). In ttie syntax a hyphen is sometimes inserted to show the morpheme
border.

In the charts, items in parentheses are found only in Russian or English
loanwords, the one in italics only in Eastern Aleut and the underlined one only in
Atkan and in loanwords, while the Attuan consonants are tabulated separately.

Consonants

Labial

Prelingual

Postlingual

dental

alveolar

palatal

velar uvular

Stops

voiceless

(p)

t

ch

k

q

(voiced)

(b)

(d)

(g)

Fricatives

voiceless

(f)

hd

s

X

t

voiced

(V)

d

I.

g

§

Nasals

aspirated

hm

hn

hng

voiced

m

n

ng

ApiM'oximants

>

aspirated

hw

hi

hy

voiced

w

1

(r)

y

Attuan

Stops

(P)

t

t'

ch

k

q

Fricatives

V

s

g/x

§/i

Nasals
Approximants

m

>

n
1

(r) '

y

ng

Vowels, short and long

Rounded

Unrounded

front

back

High

uuu

iii

(Mid)

(ooo)

(eee)

Low

[ad]

aaa

Glottal

Bergsland, Knut. 1997. Aleut Grammar. Fairbanks, Alaska:
Alaska Native Languages Center.