Tałtan Dah-S̱ake

CHAPTER ONE: Lesson 2

Task One: Tahltan Consonants

The second task of lesson one will contribute to:

Building a vocabulary by studying the Tałtan consonants in conjunction with an example Tałtan word and it’s meaning.

There are approximately thirty-six consonants in the Tałtan alphabet. Following are examples of each, along with the English equivalent / description, an example word and the meaning. For pronunciation reference click the example Tahltan word.

Letter English equivalent / description Example Meaning

b     Same as b in big      bede         food

ch   Same as ch in church   chime    son

ch’      Same as ch but done with glottal   ch’iyōne        wolf

d Same as d in did de’e give it here

dl No English equivalent dlū’ān flu, he caught

dz Same as ds in pads dzā ‘at’ē bad, it is

dz No English equivalent dzeł mountain

g Same as g in good gah beside

gh Same as g but a softer sound ghah because

h Same as h in head hodedē she/he talks

j Same as j or dg in judge ja’at’e this is

k Same as k in keep kadīnya you go get

k’ Same as k but done with a glottal k’aji again

kh Similar to k but softer in sound khadi hurry

l Same as l in large la’ hand

ł No English equivalent łagu stop it / quit

m Same as m in mother meneslīn I like

n Same as n in not nin’ān you put it

nh No English equivalent ninh’īn look!

p Same as p in pup espāne my friend

s Same as s in see soga well

s Same as th in thin or s in sin sindah sit down!

sh Same as sh in shoot deshyā (s)he went

t Same as t in tell tū water

t’ Same as t but done with a glottal ast’e I am feeling

tl No English equivalent tli’ dog

tl’ No English equivalent tl’ā after

ts Same as ts in cats tsīni be quiet

ts’ Same as ts but done with a glottal ts’ots blow fly

ts No English equivalent tsē rock

ts’ Same as ts but done with a glottal ts’adi sweetheart

w Same as w in wash wāshmān police

y Same as y in yes yēda what/how

yh No English equivalent tleyh grease

z Same as z in zoo in-zike ost’ini let me help you

z Same as th in then zuł empty

Learn the thirty-six consonants and then move on to the next lesson.

The example word ‘espāne’ for the letter ‘p’ is not truly a Tałtan word. Rather, it is modified/adapted version of the English word ‘partner’. The adaptation of this word is the result of apllying Tałtan linguistical rules to English. In the Tałtan language clusters of three consonant are not tolerated in the middle of Tałtan words. Therefore, in the word 'partner' our ancestors removed the 't' from the middle of the word resulting in the the word 'parner'. Secondly, the letter 'r' is non-existant in our language so they removed the 'r' from the middle and the end of the word and they lengthened the first vowel resulting in the adapted version ‘pāne’ which means friend. Then they added first person possessive prefix ‘es’ meaning ‘my’ to the word ’pāne’ and they got the word ‘es-pāne’ meaning ‘my friend’. Adapting words from a foreign language as this example demonstrate is called a ’cognate’ - es-pāne is a cognate derived from English.

Understanding, speaking and eventually teaching Tałtan is depended on a number of important factors which include;

learning the newly developed writing system and using the ‘language on a day-to-day basis. Thus, it must be stressed that it is of utmost importance to fully understand the Tałtan Alphabet and writing system (to aid in visualization of new words);
use the words and phrases learned on a regular basis;
and work with the speakers of the language in the community as much as possible.

In my experience the speakers of our Indigenous language are always willing to teach a lesson or word when approached.
Good luck and practice hard.