| Lesson 2 — Sibilants and sibilant harmony | |
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| Sibilant consonants |
| Sibilants: This class of sounds involves friction or air turbulence with a high pitch. | |||||||||
The sibilants of Samala are s, 
plus c and  . |
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| There are two kinds of sibilants in Samala. The phonetic symbols help to make the difference between these two classes of sounds clearer. | |||||||||
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c and s — hissing sounds of "ts" and "s" |
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| or |
and — hushing sounds
of "ch" and "sh" |
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| Words with c and s: |  |
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 paka s |
"one" |  |
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| sa |
"tooth" | ||||||||
| icumu |
"to point" | sa | icumu |
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| Words with
and : |
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| oyin |
"to be black" | ||||||||
| ikom |
"two" | ||||||||
ant k |
"friend" | oyin |
ikom |
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| "Sibilant harmony" |
| A special feature of the Chumash languages is that all of the sibilants in a word match: they're in harmony. They're all either: | ||||
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c and s — hissing sounds of "ts" and "s" | |||
| or |
or :— hushing sounds
of "ch" and "sh" |
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| Words with c and s: |  |
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| icis |
"younger sibling" | |||
| osos |
"heel" | |||
| cc |
"to be sharp" | osos |
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| ciwis |
"rattle" | ciwis |
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| Words with
and : |
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| ii |
"child" |  |
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| eple |
"lip" | |||
| aan |
"to yawn" | eple |
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| aya |
"path, trail" | aya |
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