Sounds and Letters in Hiráaca
Hiráaca Sounds
Descriptions of Hiráaca speech sounds use International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols and includes all 20 consonants and 10 vowels in Hiráaca. Following the sound descriptions, a standardized Hiráaca spelling chart is provided to show the correspondence between sounds and their written forms:
Consonants: Speech sounds that are made by blocking airflow in the vocal tract.
The following are consonants in Hiráaca:
/p/ /pː/ /pʰ/ — plain p, long p, aspirated p
/t/ /tː/ /tʰ/ — plain t, long t, aspirated t
/k/ /kː/ /kʰ/ — plain k, long k, aspirated k
/t͡s/ /t͡sː/ /t͡sʰ/ — plain ts, long ts, aspirated ts
/ʃ/ /ʃː/ — plain sh, long sh
/x/ /xː/ — plain x, long x
/ʔ/ - glottal stop
/W/ - w sound (like English w)
/R/ - tap r (like Spanish pero)
/h/ - h sound (Like English h)
Vowels: Speech sounds made with open airflow through the vocal tract.
There are short and long vowels in Hiráaca that produce slightly different sounds depending on stress and pitch. Each are their own distinct sounds.
The following are vowels & diphthongs (vowel combinations) in Hiráaca:
/a/ /áa/ — short a, long a
/e/ /ée/ — short e, long e
/i/ /íi/ — short i, long i
/u/ /úu/ — short u, long u
/o/ /óo/ — short o, long o
Diphthongs:
/ie/ & /ue/
Hiráaca Standard Orthography
The spelling system in this section was developed by Linguist Wes Jones and MHA speakers in 1978. This orthography is referred to as "practical spelling" because it represents all of the Hiráaca speech sounds using the same latin script letters as English without needing any special fonts or characters other than the acute accent mark.
The speech sounds above are shown with IPA symbols, and the chart below uses practical spelling. IPA shows how the sounds are made, while practical spelling shows how they appear in Hiraaca writing. The chart is organized in the same order as above- consonants, vowels, and diphthongs, to easily connect pronunciation & spelling.
Writing for Hidatsa Speakers (1978) was created by linguist Wes Jones and fluent Hidatsa speakers to provide guidance on writing the language. Click the button on the right to view the full document
Hiráaca Alphabet Chart
The alphabet chart below was created by The Language Conservancy based on the 1978 spelling system. Note: this chart is incomplete and does not include long or aspirated consonant sounds.
Hiráaca Alphabet Chart
