Help:IPA/Nahuatl

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Nahuatl pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. This pronunciation guide is based on the phonology of Classical Nahuatl, which is different from contemporary Nahuatl dialects.

Phoneme Spelling English approximation Consonants ʔ h the catch in "oh-oh" j y yellow k qu, c scan kʷ cu, uc squall l l leave (not dark L as in "dull") ɬ l (before a voiceless consonant) play; Welsh ll m m man n n nose p p span s c, z sack ʃ x shoe t t stand t͡ɬ tl somewhat cheer t͡ʃ ch choo t͡s tz cats w hu, uh witch ʍ hu, uh which (as "hwich")

Phoneme Spelling English approximation Vowels a a bra aː ā (long a) e e met eː ē mate i i city iː ī see o o go oː ō go Stress ˈ Primary stress nearly always occurs on the penultimate (second to last) syllable. In any case, the IPA stress symbol is always placed immediately before the stressed syllable. ´ The stressed vowel is pronounced with raised pitch, which is optionally indicated by an acute accent on the vowel of the stressed syllable. Nahuatl has four possible syllable clusters CVC, CV, VC and V example: CVC-CVC-CV tlal-huac-tli Modern & Variant Orthography Modern Variant Huītzilopōchtli, xiuhpōhualli Vītzilopōchtli, xiuhpōvalli huīpīlli, huei teocalli uīpīlli, uei teocalli aztecah, azo, zaoc, za açtecah, aço, çaoc, ça iyo, in, ipan, itzcuīntli yyo, yn, ypan, ytzcuīntli cuahuitl, macuahuitl quahuitl, maquahuitl tlahtohqueh tlàtòquê

Sources

• Andrews, J. Richard (2003). Introduction to classical Nahuatl (rev. ed.). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 24–38. ISBN 0-8061-3452-6. 
• Karttunen, Frances (1992). An analytical dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2421-0. 
• Launey, Michel (2011). Mackay, Christopher, ed. An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl. Cambridge University Press. pp. 4–5. 
• Lockhart, James (2001). Nahuatl as written: lessons in older written Nahuatl, with copious examples and texts (Orig. print ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press [u.a.] ISBN 0-8047-4282-0.