Hocąk Syllabary, Transliteration, and Pronunciation

Key to Numbered Columns:

1. orthography used by the Hocąk Encyclopedia
2. transliteration used for the syllabary of Chuck Kingswan by Valdis Zeps in the Zepsicon
3. orthography used by Reverend James Owen Dorsey
4. orthographies used by Paul Radin
5. orthography used by W. C. McKern (see also, 1)
6. orthography used by the Hocąk Wazijaci Language and Culture Program = Kenneth Miner = Johannes Helmbrecht and Christian Lehmann

The examples of syllabary letters are taken from Sam Blowsnake's transcription of Radin's Notebook entry, Winnebago V, #7: 1-27.

1	Pronunciation	Syllabary	2	3	4	5	6	Notes
’	glottal stop (hiyuša jikere) /’/ as in "’uh’oh"		'	’	’	’ or ‘	’	in the syllabic script, there is no independent letter for /’/ — it is represented contextually by the doubling of the vowel after the consonant having the glottal stop
a, ă	/u/ as in "but"		a	a	a	a	a
a, ā	/a/ as in "father"		a	a	a, ā	a, ā	aa
’a			'a	’a	’a	’a	’a	when this syllabic letter follows a consonant, it has the value /’a/
ą	nasalized /ă/		an	aⁿ	ăⁿ, ăñ, ą̆	ã	ą
ą	nasalized /ā/		an	aⁿ	añ, ą	ã	ąą
-	neutral /u/ as in "but"		a	a	ʌ, a	ʌ	-	not recognized as a phoneme – rare in Radin, but common in McKern
-	nasalized /ʌ/		an	-	ʌ̃	ʌ̃	-	not recognized as a phoneme – rare in Radin, but common in McKern
b	/b/ as in "boy"		l	b	b	b	b	in the syllabic script, frequently used for /p/ as well
c	/ch/ as in "church"	,	ttA	tc	tc	tc	c	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
c’	glottalized /ch/	,	-	tc’	tc’	tc’	-	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
e, ĕ	/e/ as in "bet"		e	e	e, ĕ	e, ĕ	e
e, ē	/e/ as in "née"		e	e	e, ē	e, ē	ee
’e			'e	’e	’e	’e, ‘e	’e
ᵋ	varies from a schwa to an e as in "bet"	()	(e)	(e)	(e)	(e)	(e)	in compounds, when two consonants not normally conjoined are ajacent to one another, the first is softened with an ᵋ inserted after it. The ᵋ may be lengthened to an ĕ.
-	nasalized /e/		-	eⁿ	eⁿ, eñ, ę	-	-	not recognized as either a phoneme or an allophone; later dropped by Radin
g	/g/ as in "go"	,	K	g	g	g	g	in the syllabic script, the first form is typical of initial letters
ǧ	palatal /g/ as in /gh/ of the Scottish "Edinburgh"		H	gh	γ	ġ, ƙ	ǧ	in practice, McKern does not usually make this distinction
h	/h/ as in "hotel"	,	A	h	h	h, ‘	h	the second syllabic /h/ reflects the form that it takes when it elides with the previous or succeeding letter
i, ĭ	/i/ as in "hit"	,	i	i	i, ĭ	i, ĭ	i	in the syllabic script, the first form, an elevated dot following the letter, is almost universal
i, ī	/i/ as in "elite"	,	i	i	i, ī	i, ī	ii
’i			'i	’i	’i	’i, ‘i	’i
į	nasalized /ĭ/	,	in	iⁿ	ĭⁿ, ĭñ, į̆	ĩ	į
į	nasalized /ī/	,	in	iⁿ	īⁿ, īñ, į̄	ĩ	įį
j	/j/ as in "jet"		tt	dj	dj	dj	j	in the syllabic script, frequently used for /c/ (/c/) as well
k	/k/ as in "kill"	, ,	KA	k	k	k	k	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
k’	glottalized /k/	, ,	KA'	k’	k‘, k’	k‘, k’	k’	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
m	/m/ as in "man"		m	m	m	m	m
n	/n/ as in "no"		n	n	n	n	n
n, r	/n/ as in "number"	,	n	-	ṇ	n, r	ň	an /n/ produced by the assimilation of an /r/ to the preceding nasal vowel
-	/ng/ as in "sing"		-	()ⁿ, ŋ, ñ	()ⁿ, ŋ, ñ	ŋ	-	the use of ñ is still found in some texts of this encyclopedia; later dropped by Radin
o, ŏ	/o/ as in Spanish favor		o	o	ŏ	ŏ	o	in the syllabary, the same letter stands for both /o/ and /u/
o, ō	/o/ as in "go," but often confused with /u/		o	o	ō	ō	oo
’o	glottalized /o/		'o	’o	’o	’o	’o
ǫ	nasalized /o/		on	oⁿ	oⁿ, oñ, ǫ	õ	-	this is not a phoneme in Hocąk, but it does occur as an allophone
p	/p/ as in "pen"	,	lA	p	p	p	p	in the syllabic script, the second form is frequently used for /b/ as well
p’	glottalized /p/	,	lA'	p’	p‘, p’	p‘, p’	p’	in the syllabic script, the second form is frequently used for /b/ as well
r	a laterally flapped /r/ that sounds similar to an /l/		L	l, r	r	lr	r
s	/s/ as in "grass"	,	rr	s	s	s	s	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
s’	glottalized /s/	,	rr'	s’	s’	s’	s	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
š	/sh/ as in "should"	,	dA	c	c	c	š	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
š’	glottalized /š/	,	dA'	c’	c’	c’	š’	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
t	/d/ as in "dog" (but unvoiced)		t	d	d	d	t	said to be unaspirated, voiceless rather like the t in "stop" by Helmbrecht-Lehmann; this would be the Sanskrit ṭ (ट)
t’	glottalized /t/		t'	t’	t’	t’	t’
u, ŭ	/u/ as in "put," but often confused with /o/		oo	u	ŭ	ŭ	u	in the syllabary, the same letter stands for both /o/ and /u/
u, ū	/u/ as in "rude," but often confused with /o/		oo	u	ū	ū	uu
’u			'oo	’u	’u	’u	’u
ų	nasalized /ŭ/		oon	uⁿ	ŭⁿ, ŭñ, ų̆	ũ	ų	in the syllabary, the same letter stands for both /o/ and /u/
ų	nasalized /ū/		oon	uⁿ	ūⁿ, ūñ, ų̄	ũ	ųų	in the syllabary, the same letter stands for both /o/ and /u/
w	/w/ as in "wood"		w	w	w	w	w
x	palatal /k/ (as in the German "ch")	,	HA	q, x	x	ƙ	x	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
x’	glottalized /x/ (palatal /k/)	,	HA'	x’	x’	-	x’	in the syllabic script, the first form is used where disambiguation seems important
y	/y/ as in "young"	,	j	y	y	y	y	the second syllabic /y/ reflects the form that it takes when it elides with the succeeding letter
z	/z/ as in "zebra"		r	z	z	z	z	in the syllabic script, this form is frequently used for /s/ as well
ž	/z/ as in "azure" - the Middle English /ʒ/		d	j	j	j	ž	in the syllabic script, this form is frequently used for /š/ as well

A sample text from "Įcorúšika and His Brothers," from Paul Radin, "Intcohorúcika," Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) Notebook #14: 1-67: