Sounds & Letters

This page contains resources to help you become familiar with the sounds and letters of Northern Pomo. You can hear each sound by clicking on the buttons in the table. Below the table are videos about some sounds.

The words of Northern Pomo are made using over 40 different sounds. Some are very different from English.

Click on a letter to listen to the corresponding sound. Each consonant is pronounced twice: once before a vowel, and once between two vowels.

Consonants

ʔ
b
ch
ch'
d
h
j
k
 k'
kʰ
l
m
n
 p
 p'
pʰ
s
 s'
 sh
 t
t'
 tʰ
 t̪

t̪'
t̪ʰ
ts
 ts'
w
 x
y

Vowels

a
 aa
a:
e ey e:
i
ii
i:
o ow o:
u uu u:

How can I type these letters on my computer or mobile?

Some of the characters in this Northern Pomo alphabet are not found on typical keyboards. There are a few ways to deal with this.

  1. Here are the Northern Pomo letters that don't occur in English. You can click on a button to copy a special character. To paste the special character, press command+v on a Mac or control+v on a PC.
    ʔ kʰ pʰ tʰ t̪ t̪ʰ
  2. The Type IPA website has an online keyboard that allows you to type the Northern Pomo alphabet. You can find the symbols on the IPA Full keyboard.
  3. There are apps that let you create your own keyboard, such as Ukelele for Mac.
  4. There are several apps for inputting letters on mobile depending on your device:

Videos about Sounds

Click on a button to see a video about particular sounds.

Introduction to Ejectives

Words with t'

Words with k'

Words with ch'

Can you tell the difference? #1

x and h