Pronunciation —
Combinations of vowel plus y and w
— Part 1: Shared combinations
You've seen many words that have some vowel
followed by y or w:
ayatulutul
"butterfly"
ayatulutul
aya
"path, trail"
oyin
"to be dark, black"
oyin
woyo
"to be crooked, twisted"
malawa
"eight"
nowon
"to stand"
woyo
nowon
Youve
also seen a few words that end with a vowel followed by y
or w:
asay
"to dry [something]"
asay
iyaw
"ten"
tuhuy
"to rain"
tuhuy
All of the vowels of Samala can combine
with y and w at
the end of a word.
Here are the combinations that are familiar.
The sequences oy
and uy are easy because they more or less match
English spelling.
oy
tokoy
"circle, disc, hoop; wheel"
tokoy
olkoy
"to go around"
uy
tuhuy
"to rain"
tuhuy
ukuy
"to discard, throw away"
The y and w
have a slightly whispered sound at the end of a word, unless the next word
starts with a vowel — which could be the article ha
with the h silent because it follows a consonant.
Listen to the difference between
kukuy
"I throw [something] away"
kukuy
ha o
"I throw the water out"
Just as y can
be glottalized in the middle of a word like otoyin
"to lie down," it can also be glottalized at the end of a word:
toy
"hoof"
toy
kukuy
"pillow"
kukuy
The whispered quality of y
and w at the end of a word is more noticeable
when they follow glottal stop in words like kukuy
"pillow."
The sequences ay
and aw
can be confusing because English spelling uses different letters for these
sound combinations. Actually, English uses several different spellings:
the ay sound is spelled in English as "kite,"
"tie," "high,"
"Meyer," "Taiwan,"
"kayak."
If you're OK with the sequence in the middle of a word —
for example in aya
or malawa — think of clipping off the
last part of the word to leave only ay and aw:
full word
clipped
example
aya
ay
asay
"to dry"
malawa
malaw
iyaw
"ten"
Here are some other words that end with
ay and aw.
ay
akay
"bed"
quntaw
tamay
"to forget"
aw
quntaw
"lightning to flash"
akay
iaw
"to be hot (said of weather)"
tamay
Combinations of ay
and aw can also be glottalized at the end of
a word. Notice how the end of the word sounds chopped off and how the
y and w have a whispered quality after
glottal stop.