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Mohegan Pronunciation and Spelling Guide

The Mohegan orthography we have used is the one developed by the language revival program of the Mohegan tribe.The following charts show the pronunciation for these spellings, as well as some alternate spellings that you may find in other books and websites. You may also like to visit our Algonquian languages homepage to see how Mohegan relates to other languages from the Algonquian family.

˜Vowels

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
a		a	Like the a in father.
á	aa, a:, o	a	Like the a in father, only held longer.
i	ii, ee	i	Like the i in police.
o	u, ou, oo	u	Like the u in flute.
ô	8, oⁿ, o, ou		This vowel does not exist in English. It sounds a little like aw in dawn, nasalized like the end of the French words bon and Jean.
u	e		Like the u in cut.

˜Diphthongs

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
áw	aw, ow, au	aw	Like ow in English cow.
áy	ay, ai	aj	Like English eye.

˜Consonants

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
c	ch, č, j	t	Like the soft ch in mischief.
h		h	Like h in English hay.
k	g	k	Like the soft k in skate.
l		l	Like l in English light.
m		m	Like m in English moon.
n		n	Like n in English night.
p	b	p	Like the soft p in spill.
q	kw	kw~k^w	Usually it is pronounced like the soft qu in square. At the end of a word, it is pronounced more like k with a puff of air after it.
s	z	s ~ z	Like s in Sue or z in zoo.
sh	š, sch, ch		Like sh in shy.
t	d	t	Like the soft t in star.
w		w	Like w in English way.
y		j	Like y in English yes.

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