Eenantowash!

"Speak same!"


Lesson 1

Let us start simply, with the names of a few objects. These are all in the grammatical class of nouns, you remember from school about nouns?

manwaskeetomp
bearmasq
womanusqua
houseweetu
treemahtug

When pronouncing the words, we are using the English alphabet to try to pronounce the sounds of the words. This is the way in which the early recorders of the language wrote them down. Here is a simple guide to pronunciation:-

a cat short a
á father long a
ay my rather like the English "I"
b between puddle and but
ch itchy a combination of ch+j
d dee long e
e me long e
g as a k
h hop
i a in about or eye. 'i' can be complicated.
k ka tending to g
m emphasis
n en energy
o a as short a
oo mood
ô vogue nasalised, like blánc (fr.)
p as b
q quack kw sound
s sun
t tee
u uh as a in about
w water
y you
z zee

There is also a special character which was used to represent a sound 'oo', like the 'oo' in 'mood'. The usual representation in the records is the infinity symbol '∞', but in most modern language revivals, the figure '8' is used. I do the same here.

Here is an additional guide to Narragansett pronunciation I found on Dr O'Brien's web site

There is also some useful information Here

Now for some exercise!

Here are some common everyday objects. How do you translate the names? How do you say the name?

poopohs  
anum
chaquog
may
appun
qussuk

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