Alphabet and Pronunciation Guide
Sort Order
The sort order that we have used in this dictionary is: aa, a, ii, i, k, l, rl, ly, m, n, rn, ng, ny, p, r, rr, t, rt, tj, u, uu, w, y.
There are a number of letters that don’t occur at the beginning of words. Therefore the main listing occurs under the following letters: k, l, m, n, ng, ny, p, r, t, tj, w, y.
Pronunciation Guide
Sounds Having English Equivalents
| a | as in ‘about’ | w | as in ‘wet’ |
| i | as in ‘radio’ | y | as in ‘yet’ |
| u | as in ‘put’ | p | as in ‘spike’ not ‘pike’ |
| m | as in ‘mat’ | t | as in ‘stake’ not ‘take’ |
| n | as in ‘nut’ | k | as in ‘skate’ not ‘Kate’ |
| l | as in ‘let’ | ng | as in ‘singer’ |
| r | as in ‘rake’ | rr | as in Scottish ‘run’ (alveolar) |
| aa | as ‘ar’ in ‘cart’ | ii | as ‘ee’ in ‘seen’ |
| uu | as ‘or’ in ‘corner’ |
Sounds not Having English Equivalents
Dentals (Tongue between or against teeth)
| tj | as in katja ‘son’ |
| ny | as in nyangu ‘saw’ |
| ly | as in palya ‘all right’ |
Retroflex (Tongue turned up to roof of mouth)
| rt | as in warta ‘tree’ |
| rn | as in parna ‘ground’ |
| rl | as in marlu ‘kangaroo’ |
The stress falls on the first syllable of each word.
Spelling and Pronunciation
The Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra spelling system uses a selection of letters from the English alphabet. Sometimes a combination of two letters (a digraph) is used to write a single sound: just as in English ‘sh’, ‘th’ and ‘ph’, each represent a single sound.
Consonants
Consonants can be set out as follows, grouped according to the position of the tongue as they are pronounced.
stops p tj t rt k
nasals m ny n rn ng
l-sounds ly l rl
other w y rr r
The sounds spelt p, t and k often sound like English ‘b’, ‘d’ and ‘g’. Usually the pronunciation of p in Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra is half-way between English ‘p’ and ‘b’, the t is half-way between English ‘t’ and ‘d’, and the k is half-way between English ‘k’ and ‘g’. The distinction made in English between ‘p’ and ‘b’, ‘t’ and ‘d’ , and ‘k’ and ‘g’ is irrelevant in Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra. The Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra p, t and k do not have the little puff of air (aspiration) that accompanies English ‘p’, ‘t’ and ‘k’. Therefore, to approximate the correct pronunciation, aim for the ‘p’, ‘t’ and ‘k’ as in English ‘spin’, ‘still’ and ‘skin’ or opt for ‘b’, ‘d’ and ‘g’ sounds.
The dental sounds tj, ny, and ly are generally pronounced with the tongue between or against the teeth. This means that these sounds don’t include a ‘j’ or ‘y’ sound. It is simply a convenient letter to combine with the t, n and l. The tj usually sounds something like English ‘th’ in ‘father’. However when the tj follows an l, n or rr it is palatalised and sounds like the English ‘j’ in ‘judge’. Listen to a Ngaanyatjarra or Ngaatjatjarra speaker say the words: katja, ‘son’, wiltja, ‘shade’ and kantja, ‘chin’, to hear the difference in the way tj is pronounced.
The retroflex sounds rt, rn and rl are pronounced with the tongue turned up towards the roof of the mouth. These sounds are found in the words warta, ‘tree’, parna, ‘ground’, and marlu, ‘kangaroo’. They have an r-like quality, something like the way most Americans pronounce the middle sounds in the words ‘warder’, ‘corner’ and ‘surely’.
There are two r sounds. The r is like the Australian English ‘r’ in ‘rake’ or ‘around’. It is sometimes called a ‘retroflex r’. The rr is pronounced flapped or trilled, as in Scottish English.
The rr is never pronounced before tj in words such as lurrtju, ‘together’, or mungarrtji, ‘afternoon’, although it is pronounced in the closely related languages of Pitjantjatjara and Pintupi. Because the sound of tj is different following l, n or rr, we write rr to indicate that tj is pronounced differently in purrtju, ‘itch’, from how it is pronounced in putjurrpa, ‘numb’.
Vowels
There are six vowels in Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra. The most common are the short vowels a, i and u. An a usually sounds like the ‘a’ in ‘about’. An i usually sounds like the ‘i’ in ‘radio’, and a u usually sounds like the ‘u’ in ‘put’.
The sound of these vowels can vary quite a bit depending on the neighbouring sounds in a word. For instance, in words like wangka, ‘talk’, and wakala, ‘spear it’, the a often sounds like an ‘o’ as in ‘song’. Also when an i comes before a rr it may sound more like the ‘e’ in ‘pet’.
The long vowels are aa, ii and uu. The aa is pronounced like ‘ar’ in ‘cart’, ii as ‘ee’ in ‘seen’, and uu like the ‘or’ in ‘corner’. The long vowels usually occur in the first syllable of a word.
In Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra, words do not usually begin with vowels. However, the user of this dictionary may sometimes hear words beginning with vowels and wonder where to find them. These will be Pitjantjatjara words, since many of their words do begin with vowels. The equivalent Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra words can usually be found under y in this dictionary. The short list below shows some examples.
| English | Pitjantjatjara | Ngaanyatjarra/Ngaatjatjarra |
| went | anu | yanu |
| name | ini | yini |
| yes | uwa | yuwa |
Hyphens
Hyphens are used in Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra for several purposes:
Firstly, they are used to separate the pronoun endings (enclitics) from the words to which they are attached, e.g. Yanu-rna. ‘I went.’, and Pungku-pulanyarnanta. ‘I’ll hit the two of you.’ This convention has been adopted for ease of reading. Therefore, -n, meaning ‘you singular’, is not separated by a hyphen because it would not contribute to ease of reading, e.g. Marlun ngurlura. ‘You’re frightening the kangaroo.’ Similarly, –nta ‘you singular (object)’, and –nku, ‘your’, are not hypenated.
Secondly, hyphens are used in words with a reduplicated (i.e. repeated) structure, e.g. tjulpun-tjulpunpa ,‘wild flowers’, marlukuru-kuru, ‘Sturt’s desert pea’, and nyii-nyi, ‘zebra finch’. However, words where only one syllable with a short vowel is repeated are not hyphenated, e.g. kunkunpa, ‘asleep’. A further type of reduplication is where a whole verb is repeated, indicating that the action was done a number of times, e.g. the word pungu-pungu in the sentence, Wati ngaalu kurrinku pungu-pungu. ‘This man hit his wife a number of times.’
Thirdly, hyphens are used to separate certain other endings (enclitics) from the words to which they are attached. These enclitics are phonologically part of the word, but have been hyphenated for ease of reading, e.g. Pitjaku-muntan? ‘Will you come?’, Wantiku-tjinguru-rni. ‘Maybe he’ll take no notice of me.’, Yartakarriku-kurlu-yan. ‘Mind you don’t show yourselves.’
Fourthly, hyphens are used for extensions to verbs, indicating how long the action went on. These extensions are formed from the verbs warniku, ‘throw’, and wanalku, ‘follow’, e.g. Pitjangu-ya kutjupatjarra tiltirrmara nyinarra-warninytja. (came-they others shivering were sitting-around everywhere), ‘Others came and were sitting around everywhere shivering.’, Kutjulurtun watjara-wanarayirni. (alone-you talking-on and on), ‘You’re the only one keeping on talking.’[1]
[1] For further details about these extensions, see the entries in the main part of the dictionary.
