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Crow Pronunciation and Spelling Guide

The following charts show the pronunciation for the Crow Indian 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		ə	Like the a in above.
aa	a:, a·	a	Like the a in father, only held longer.
e		e ~ æ	Like the e sound in Spanish, similar to the a in English gate. Sometimes it is pronounced more like the a in cat.
ee	e:, e·	e	Like the a in gate, only held longer.
i		i	Like the i in police.
ii	i:, i·	i	Like the i in police, only held longer.
o		o	Like the o in note.
oo	o:, o·	o	Like the o in note, only held longer.
u		u	Like the u in flute.
oo	u:, u·	u	Like the u in flute, only held longer.

˜Diphthongs

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
ia	I	iə	Like the ia in Indian.
ua	U	uə	Like the ui in English ruin.

˜Consonants

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
b	m, w	b ~ ^mb	Like b in bill. At the beginning of some words, it is pronounced more nasally.
ch	č, c	t	Like ch in chair.
d	n, r	d ~ ⁿd	Like d in day. At the beginning of some words, it is pronounced more nasally.
h		h	Like h in hay.
k		k~k^h~k^y	Like the c in core or score. Before a front vowel like i, it is palatalized.
l	r	l ~ r	Like l in light or the tapped "r" sound in a Spanish word like pero.
m		m	Like m in English moon.
n		n	Like n in English night.
p		p ~ p^h	Like the p in pin or spin.
s		s	Like s in sing.
sh	š		Like sh in show.
t	d	t ~ t^h	Like the t in tar or star.
w		w	Like w in English way.
x		x	Guttural sound that doesn't exist in English. Like ch in German ach.
’			A pause sound, like the one in the middle of the word "uh-oh."

˜Tone

Crow is a tone language. Some Crow 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 Crow, such high and low tones are used in nearly every word, giving the language a lively sound.

There are three Crow tones: high, low, and falling (starts high and becomes low.) The tones are usually written like this:

a or aa	low tone
á or áá	high tone
áa	falling tone

˜Double Consonants

When a Crow word is spelled with double letters, like íaxassee (snake) or búattee (coyote), the consonant must be pronounced with double length. For an English speaker, the easiest way to pronounce a consonant with double length is to imagine a word break between the two consonants. The s sounds in "dress suit" are pronounced like the ones in íaxassee, and the t sounds in "night-time" are pronounced like the ones in búattee.

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