COMANCHE SOUNDS

AND

THE COMANCHE ALPHABET

It is important to distinguish between the sounds in the Comanche language and the alphabet used to represent the sounds.

There are 6 vowel symbols and 12 consonant symbols (plus the two consonant combinations ts and kw). Underlining is used to indicate voiceless vowels, and doubled vowel symbols indicate long vowels.

VOWEL SYMBOLS FOR COMANCHE

Symbol                            Comanche word                    Comparable sound in English

a                                  sarii             dog                      o in pot a in father

e                                  ekapt3         red                       between a in gate and e in get

i                                   wa?ipv        woman                ea in neat ee in keep

o                                  pohya           walk                     Similar to o in hope

u                                  suniku           like that                oo in root or scoop

v                                  vnv               you                        similar to u in put or u in undo

Vowels written with double symbols are pronounced like the corresponding single symbol vowels, but held longer:

aa                                kaarv                         sit   

ee                                ktseena                     coyote

ii                                  sarii                            dog

oo                                wa?oo                       cat

uu                                huutsuu                       bird

vv                               nvvmv                        Comanche

 

Whispered vowels are indicated by underlining.  They are almost inaudible.

Whispered vowels         Examples

a                                  kawosa                      coyote

e                                  taabe                          sun

i                                   noobi                           hill

o                                  aawo                           cup

u                                  uhtu                             give

6                                  tsaat6                         good

Comanche also has combinations of two vowels, for example, ai, pronounced like the ie of pie, as in taibo, a “non Indian person”; and oi, pronounced like the oy of toy, as in the word hoitsbns, “how about yourself.”

Consonant symbols for Comanche

Symbol                            Comanche word                    Comparable sound in English

b                                  tvbitsi         really                    similar to v of having

h                                  haits3          friend                    h of horse

k                                  kee             no                          k of skip

kw                               kwasi          tail                         qu of queen

m                                 mia             go                          m of meat

n                                  nvvka         dance                    n of neat

p                                  puuku         horse                     p of speech

r                                   arvka         deer                       tt of better, or d of rider

s                                  sarii            dog                        s of same

t                                   tanv            we                          t of stop

ts                                 tsihtiawe     point                      ts of hits

w                                 wvvnv         stand                     w of weather

y                                  yahne          laugh                      y of yet

z                                  mozo          hand                      glottal stop, as in uh-oh

There are also a few sound /spelling variations you need to be aware of: 

·        the “t” is sometimes pronounced as an “r”,  and

·        the “p” is sometimes pronounced as a “b”.