The characters used in this work, in spelling Navaho words, are given below, with the value assigned to each character.
a has the sound of English a in father.
ä has the sound of English a in hat. has the sound of English a in what.
a has the sound of English e in they. In some connections it varies to the sound of English e in their.
ë has the sound of English e in then.
i has the sound of English i in marine.
ï has the sound of English i in tin.
o has the sound of English o in bone.
u has the sound of English u in rude.
ai unmarked, or accented on the i (aí), is a diphthong having the sound of English i in bind. When it is accented on the a (ái), or has a diaeresis (aï), it is pronounced as two vowels.
ow has the sound of English ow in how. It is heard mostly in meaningless syllables.
A vowel followed by an inverted comma (`) is aspirated, or pronounced with a peculiar force which cannot be well represented by adding the letter h.
b has the sound of English b in bat.
d has the sound of English d in day.
d represents a strongly aspirated dental sonant. It is often interchanged with d.
g has the sound of English g in go, or, in some connections, the sound of English g in gay.
g has a sound unknown in English. It is the velar g, like the Arabic ghain, or the Dakota g.
h has the sound of English h in hat.
h has the sound of German ch in machen. It is sometimes interchanged with h.
k has usually the sound of English k in koran; but sometimes the sound of English k in king.
l has the sound of English l in lay.
l has a sound unknown in English. It is an aspirated surd l, made with the side rather than with the tip of the tongue. It is often interchanged with l.
m has the sound. of English m in man.
n has the sound of English n in name.
n has the effect of French n in bon. It has no equivalent in English.
s has the sound of English s in sand.
s has the sound of English sh in shad. It is often interchanged with s.
t has the sound of English t in tan.
t represents a strongly aspirated dental surd. It is often interchanged with t.
w has the sound of English w in war.
y has the sound of English y in yarn.
z has the sound of English z in zone.
z has the sound of English z in azure. It is often interchanged with z.
c, f, j, p, q, v, and x are not used. The sound of English ch in chance is represented by ts; that of English j in jug by dz.