Tlingit Alphabet - Comparison Table

Comparison Table

The table below gives side-by-side comparisons of the three major orthographies (e-mail, American, and Canadian) along with their IPA equivalents. Note that certain unaspirated consonants are pronounced as voiced by some younger and second language speakers, the IPA equivalents for these voiced consonants are given in parentheses. In addition, there are a few phonemes which are geographically or historically restricted in modern Tlingit. For example, Canadian speakers often make use of m where most other speakers would have w. The character usually given as ÿ has died out within the last generation of speakers, becoming one of y or w depending on position. The three major orthographies optionally allow for the representation of all of these phonemes in Tlingit writing.

e-mail	Am.	Can.	IPA
a	a	a	ʌ
á	á	á	ʌ́
aa	aa	à	a
áa	áa	â	á
ch	ch	ch	tʃʰ (tʃ)
ch'	ch'	ch'	tʃʼ
d	d	d	t (d)
dl	dl	dł	tɬ (dl)
dz	dz	dz	ts (dz)
e	e	e	ɛ
é	é	é	ɛ́
ee	ee	ì	i
ée	ée	î	í
ei	ei	è	e
éi	éi	ê	é
g	g	g	k (ɡ)
gw	gw	gw	kʷ (ɡʷ)
gh	g̲	gh	q (ɢ)
ghw	g̲w	ghw	qʷ (ɢʷ)
h	h	h	h
i	i	i	ɪ
í	í	í	ɪ́
j	j	j	tʃ (dʒ)
k	k	k	kʰ
kw	kw	kw	kʷʰ
k'	k'	k'	kʼ
k'w	k'w	k'w	kʷʼ
kh	k̲	kh	qʰ
khw	k̲w	khw	qʷʰ
kh'	k̲'	kh'	qʼ
kh'w	k̲'w	kh'w	qʷʼ
l	l	ł	ɬ
l'	l'	ł'	ɬʼ
(ll)	(l̲)	l	l
(m)	(m)	m	m
n	n	n	n
(o)	(o)	(o)	o
oo	oo	ù	u
óo	óo	û	ú
s	s	s	s
s'	s'	s'	sʼ
sh	sh	sh	ʃ
t	t	t	tʰ
t'	t'	t'	tʼ
tl	tl	tl	tɬʰ
tl'	tl'	tl'	tɬʼ
ts	ts	ts	tsʰ
ts'	ts'	ts'	tsʼ
u	u	u	ʊ
ú	ú	ú	ʊ́
w	w	w	w
x	x	x	x
xw	xw	xw	xʷ
x'	x'	x'	xʼ
x'w	x'w	x'w	xʷʼ
xh	x̲	xh	χ
xhw	x̲w	xhw	χʷ
xh'	x̲'	xh'	χʼ
xh'w	x̲'w	xh'w	χʷʼ
y	y	y	j
(ÿ)	(ÿ/y̲)	(ÿ)	ɰ
.	.	.	ʔ