This guide will briefly discuss common pronunciations for each letter. This guide alone cannot contain the full scope of the Ute language as the pronunciation of some letters will depend on many factors, including where they are located in a word, what letters come before or after them, and the individual who is speaking. Individual variations in pronunciation are normal.
Each letter’s entry features the Southern Ute letter, an English equivalent or an explanation of how to produce the sound, and a series of words that contain the letter in context. Click on the speaker icon [ICON] next to each word in order to hear it spoken aloud.
Vowels that are written with doubled letters are long vowels (aa, ii, öö, etc.). Doubled letters are pronounced the same way as their single-letter counterparts, but they are held out longer.
| maav(i) | bush | (n.) |
| piiyay | to run | (v.) |
| töö'nap(ü) | chokecherry | (n.) |
| toovagay | sound | (n.) |
| kwiyuut(ü) | turkey | (n.) |
| wüükay | to work | (v.) |
Silent vowels are short, unstressed vowels that are produced without much sound. They are found anywhere in a word but are common in the first syllable and at the end of a word. Despite being nearly silent, they trigger the same sound changes for consonants as their full, voiced counterparts.
Voiceless vowels are generally represented in two different ways depending on the context of their use and placement.
When they occur in the middle of a word they are represented as the vowel followed by an -h-.
While this can be clunky, it is systematic and aids in determining things like stress patterns and sound changes. It is also written this way as the voicing, or lack thereof, will not change depending on the circumstances of its use when it is word-medial.
A different convention is used when the silent vowel occurs word-finally. A silent vowel is left unwritten when it occurs at the end of a word.
A word-final vowel is often alternated between being voiced and being unvoiced due to the grammar of Ute whereby a final vowel is unvoiced when it takes the role of the subject of a sentence and is voiced when it takes the role of an object of a sentence. It is also voiced when further suffixed, such as by the plural marker.
This matters because the vowel is re-inserted into the writing when it is voiced.
In order for the dictionary to cleanly illustrate the variability of the vowel pronunciation and thus spelling, a system of parentheses have been developed for dictionary entries. The parentheses around the vowel indicate that that specific vowel is the underlying vowel and is to be pronounced and written where necessary. So the above example appears in the dictionary as:
pawiich(i)
Voicing of final vowels plays a key role in the grammar of the Ute language. See the morphology section for more information.
Every word in Ute contains a single stressed, or accented, syllable. A stressed syllable is pronounced louder and at a higher pitch than the other syllables. Stress in Ute is most often found on the second syllable of a word. We’ve marked the stressed syllables with an accent in the following examples to visually represent where they occur. Note that stress is not actually written in Ute.
| agáva | where? | (int. pron.) |
| wichíkaan(i) | bird house; nest; bird cage | (n.) |
| karú'way | to ride | (v.) |
Long vowels in the first syllable are usually stressed and often have a rising pitch, though that can vary. Short vowels in the first syllable can also be stressed, but that’s less common.
| cháágar(ü) | thin; skinny | (adj.) |
| tííyav(ü) | deerskin; buckskin | (n.) |
| múúpüch(i) | owl | (n.) |