- The vowels may be short or long. When a vowel is long, it is lengthened as in aapa (father). If the vowel were to be short we would spell ‘apa’ and pronounce it without lengthening it.
- The consonant ‘g’ is pronounced further back in the mouth than the English ‘g’. There is no English equivalent for this sound. Iga (to cook).
- The ‘ġ’ sound also has no English equivalent and is pronounced even further back in the throat as if gargling without water. Niġi (to eat).
- The sound of the ‘h’ depends upon what precedes it. Preceded by ‘k’ it is pronounced with a soft ‘kh’ sound. When ‘qh’ occurs, the sound is made further back in the throat as in aaqhaaliq (old sqaw duck).
- The ‘ł’ sound can be heard by attempting to pronounce ‘h’ and ‘l’ simultaneously as in akl ̣aq (brown bear).
- The ‘l ̣’ sound is easy because it is ‘l’ and ‘y’ pronounced together as in sil ̣a (weather outside).
- When you put ‘ł’ and ‘l ̣’ together, you get ‘ł ̣’. Prounced ‘hly’ and the sound will be quite accurate as in sikl ̣aq (pick axe).
- The ‘q’ is pronounced further back in the throat than the regular ‘k’ as in qaniq (mouth).
- The “sr” sound involves puffing air out of the mouth as if pronouncing
Siksrik (ground squirrel).
- When two like consonants occur together for instance, in the noun tutu (caribou), there are two distinct “t’s” in pronunciation. Double consonants lengthen the sound.
- Unlike English, Iñupiaq has a dual form; iglu, igluk, iglut, (house, houses2, houses3).
- Iñupiaq has no gender except for words like aġnaq (woman) or aŋun (man).
- Another very important point to remember is inflection. Inflection can change a statement to a question or vice versa. Listen closely to the CD that accompany this book and especially listen to native speakers to learn where inflection is placed.
- Iñupiaq has singular, dual, and plural forms for verb and noun forms. English in contrast has only the singular and plural forms. In English you can say chair, both chairs, and three more chairs. If you see a word or phrase in Iñupiaq with a 2 behind it, the 2 indicates it is in dual form. A 3 behind a word or phrase tells you it is plural.
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