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Amahuaca Pronunciation and Spelling Guide

The following charts show the pronunciation for the Amahuaca spellings we have used on our site, as well as some alternate spellings that you may find in other books and websites.

˜Vowels

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
a		a	Like the a in father.
aa	a:	a	Like a only held longer.
i		i ~ y	Like the i in police. Often it is pronounced with rounded lips, like German ü.
ii	i:	i~y	Like i only held longer.
o		o ~ u	Like the o in note or u in flute.
oo	o:	o~u	Like o only held longer.
u	y, i, ï	i	This sound does not exist in English. It sounds like the i in police only pronounced further back in the mouth. If you've ever heard a Slavic language like Russian or Polish being spoken, it is the same "dark i" sound from those languages.
uu	u:, ii, yy, ïï	i	Like u only held longer.

˜Consonants

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
c	k, qu	k ~ g	As in the Spanish alphabet (from which the Amahuaca alphabet was adapted), both qu and c can represent the k sound in English key.
ch	č	t	Like ch in chair.
h	’		A pause sound, like the one in the middle of the word "uh-oh."
j	h	h	Like h in hay.
m	mb	m ~ m^b	Like m in moon. Sometimes it sounds more like the mb in ember.
n		n ~ n^d	Like n in night. Sometimes it sounds more like the nd in under.
p		p	Like the p in pie.
qu	k, c	k	As in the Spanish alphabet (from which the Amahuaca alphabet was adapted), both qu and c can represent the k sound in English key.
r			Like the r in Spanish pero, somewhat like the tt in American English butter.
sh	x, š		Like sh in shell.
t		t	Like t in tie.
tz	ts	ts ~ tθ	Like ts in cats. Sometimes it is pronounced more like a combination of English t and th.
v	hu, w	w ~ β	Like w in way. Sometimes if is pronounced more like the bilabial v sound in Spanish navidad.
x	j	x	Raspy sound like the ch in German ach.
y		j	Like y in yes.
z	s, th	s ~ θ	Like s in sing or th in thing.

˜Tones

Amahuaca is a tone language. Some syllables are pronounced with higher pitch than others. In English, the last syllable of a question is pronounced with high pitch, so you can hear the difference between sentences like "You see a man." and "You see a man?" In Amahuaca, such high and low tones are used in nearly every word, giving the language a lively sound.

There are two tones in Amahuaca, high tone and low tone. High tones are usually marked with an acute accent, like this:

a	low tone
á	high tone

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