Mawng Spelling - Mawng Ngaralk

Spelling in Mawng

Mawng spelling is different to English spelling so may take a little getting used to. Each language has its own way of spelling, for example, Italian and German have their own spelling systems which are different to English. This is because in each language, different sounds are important. Mawng Elders worked with linguist Heather Hewett to decide how to spell Mawng. They wanted to make it easier for people to read and write Mawng.

The current Mawng spelling system was developed over many generations by Mawng speakers and linguists. Mawng letters match the sounds of Mawng much more than English letters match the sounds in English but like all spelling systems the Mawng spelling system is not perfect.

The letters used in Mawng are shown in the table below. This table also gives the order of chapters in the Mawng–English dictionary. Mawng words are sorted into chapters based on the Mawng sound they start with, but inside each chapter, words are sorted by the English alphabet.

Letters and sounds in Mawng

Mawng spelling	Phonetic spelling (IPA)	Examples of Mawng words with the sound
a	a ~ ɐ	naka ‘that’, larla ‘sister’, kapala ‘boat’
e	e ~ ɛ	kerra ‘he goes’, welep ‘butterfly’, kiwelkpin ‘he is hot’
g	ɣ	iyigi ‘his tooth’, igarnpa ‘his leg’, wugi ‘mangrove worm’
i	i ~ ɪ	iji ‘uncle’, mimi ‘rib’, ngili ‘mosquito’
j	c ~ ɟ	jarrang ‘horse’, ajput ‘beach’, wukej ‘inside’
k	k ~ g	kurrula ‘sea’, ngaralk ‘language’, karrkpin ‘big’
l	l	la ‘and’, luluj ‘dog’, kilangali ‘he stands’
rl	ɭ	murlu ‘nose’, warlk ‘stick’, kurlajuk ‘egg’
m	m	muka ‘this’, maminga ‘giant clam’, mamam ‘grandfather’
n	n	nankurta ‘mullet type’, nangartam ‘cheek’, inimi ‘his spine’
ng	ŋ	ngarlwak ‘knee cap’, nganangka ‘clapsticks’, nanung ‘husband’
ny	ɲ	anyak ‘a bit’, manya ‘ghost’, warnany ‘beeswax’
rn	ɳ	marnmarn ‘grandmother’, kernti ‘he climbs’, larnngalk ‘ear’
o	o ~ ɔ	mankole ‘bamboo’, montoltol ‘wild passionfruit’, moko ‘string belt’
p	p ~ b	kiyap ‘fish’, kapa ‘over there’, palanta ‘White person’
q	ʔ	qeqe ‘yes’, qe ‘yeah’
r	ɹ	arukaruk ‘afternoon’, aralpa ‘true’, nguran ‘I went’
rr	r	rrupiya ‘money’, arrarrkpi ‘man’, karr ‘spider’
rt	ʈ ~ ɖ	ngartu ‘mine’, angparti ‘expert’, ilurtpuj ‘he is short’
rd	ɖ	arda ‘oh dear’, manyardi ‘song’, wardwardang ‘red bush apple’
t	t ~ d	walmat ‘rain’, irratat ‘meat’, numatpa ‘another’
u	u ~ ʊ	yungku ‘fire’, nungmalal ‘good’, kamu ‘mother’
w	w	walij ‘food’, nawunawu ‘whale’, wupaj ‘water’
y	j	yagaru ‘stingray’, yurnu ‘hand’, kelyu ‘he hears’

If you want to understand the phonetic symbols found in the middle of this table, use this website, and click on the corresponding symbol to hear how it is pronounced.

Sometimes there are two ways of spelling the same sound. For example, rd is not really different to rt, and tj is not clearly different to j. But the conventional spellings of words with these sounds has been kept to stay consistent with existing Mawng resources.

The Mawng letter p covers the sounds represented by both p and b in English. The same is true for t, rt, j and k. The letter t can sound like English t or d. The letter k can sound English k or g.

Many Mawng sounds, such as — m, n, w, y and l — are pronounced in a similar way to English.

A number of Mawng sounds that are not found in English are written with two letters.

The sound ny is a single sound, pronounced a bit like the first n in onion.

The sound ng is pronounced like the ng in singer.

The retroflex sounds rn, rt, rd and rl are pronounced with the tongue curled back in the mouth, so rl is a bit like Karl in American English.

There are two different r sounds in Mawng. The single letter r is pronounced like an r in American English. The double rr is a short tap, a bit like the tt in butter when you say the word fast.

The letter g represents a sound that is not found in English or many Indigenous languages. It is made at the back of the throat and sounds like when you say ‘aah’ but have a sore throat.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n	rn	ny	ng
Stop	p	t	rt/rd	j	k
Approximants	w		r	y	g
Laterals		l	rl
Tap		rr

Mawng has five vowels: a, e, i, o and u.

They combine with approximants y and w as in: ngaw ‘hers’, kuywala ‘stingray type’ and kiw ‘he lies’.

Words that start with the letter i may sound like they begin with the sounds yi or i at different times. To be consistent they are always written with just i.

Words written wu at the start may sound like they begin with the sound wu or just u but are always written with wu.

The glottal stop q only occurs in two Mawng words: qeqe ‘yes’ and qe ‘yeah’ but it is common in Bininj Kunwok. This sounds like the tt in a Cockney English pronunciation of butter.

Some sounds in Mawng words can change. The same person can say a word one way sometimes and another way other times.

For example, the sounds written l and rl are often interchangable so a word such as kalagala ‘tail’ can also be pronounced karlagarla. If you are looking for a word with one of these sounds, make sure to check if it is listed under the other spelling.

The sound at the start of Mawng words can also often alternate between two different sounds. The alternative pronunciation part of a dictionary entry shows the other option. For example, we might hear kunak ‘home’ pronounced wunak sometimes.

The sound at the start of a coverb can often vary (e.g., between y or j) depending on whether the verb before it ends in a vowel or a consonant. There are also changes that happen at the boundary of verb prefixes and verb roots.

© Dictionary compliation, Ruth Singer and Warruwi Community 2021. Mawng speakers own the Mawng language. They also own their knowledge of plants, animals, kinship, Mawng country, customs and history which is compiled in this dictionary.