Short: The basic vowel length. In writing, this is the standard value of a given vowel, e.g. ⟨a⟩.
Long: The vowel is held twice as long but with no change in quality. In writing, a long vowel is often indicated by doubling it, e.g. ⟨aa⟩.
Overlong: The vowel is held three times as long but with no change in quality. In writing, an overlong vowel is indicated by tripling it, e.g. ⟨aaa⟩.
Overlong vowels are rare in Luiseño, typically reserved for absolutes, such as interjections, e.g. aaashisha, roughly "haha!" (more accurately an exclamation of praise, joy or laughter).
Variants
For some native speakers recorded in The Sparkman Grammar of Luiseño, the allophones[ə] and [ɨ] are free variants of [e] and [i] respectively. However, other speakers do not use these variants. Sparkman records fewer than 25 Luiseño words with either [ə] or [ɨ]. For one of these words (ixíla "a cough") the pronunciations [əxɨla] and [ɨxɨla] are both recorded.
Unstressed[u] freely varies with [o]. Likewise, unstressed [i] and [e] are free variants.
Vowel syncope
Vowels are often syncopated when attaching certain affixes, notably the possessive prefixes no- "my", cham- "our", etc. Hence polóv "good", but o-plovi "your goodness"; kichum "houses" (nominative case), but kichmi "houses" (accusative case).
A single consonant between a stressed and unstressed vowel is doubled. Most are geminate, such as w[wː] and xw[xːʷ]. However, some take a glottal stop instead: ch[ʔt͜ʃ], kw[ʔkʷ], qw[ʔqʷ], ng[ŋʔ], th[ðʔ], v[vʔ], x[xʔ] (Elliot 1999: 14–16.)
As a rule, the possessive prefixes are unstressed. The accent remains on the first syllable of the root word, e.g. nokaamay "my son" and never *nokaamay. One rare exception is the word pó-ha "alone" (< po- "his/her/its" + ha "self"), whose invariable prefix and fixed accent suggests that it is now considered a single lexical item (compare noha"myself", poha"him/herself", etc.).
/b/,/d/,/f/,/ɡ/ are found only in borrowed words, principally from Spanish and English.
Both [ʃ] and [tʃ] are found in word initial position. However, only [tʃ] occurs intervocalically, and only [ʃ] is found preconsonantally and at word final position. Examples of these allophones in complementary distribution abound, such as yaꞌásh ('man NOM') and yaꞌáchi ('man ACC').
/r/ is trilled at the beginning of a word and a tap between vowels.
The two sibilants have also been described as dental and retroflex [ʂ] (Elliot 1999: 14).
Orthography
Along with an extensive oral tradition, Luiseño has a written tradition that stretches back to the Spanish settlement of San Diego. Pablo Tac (1822–1841), a native Luiseño speaker and Mission Indian, was the first to develop an orthography for his native language while studying in Rome to be a Catholic priest.[11] His orthography leaned heavily on Spanish, which he learned in his youth. Although Luiseño has no standardized spelling, a commonly accepted orthography is implemented in reservation classrooms and college campuses in San Diego where the language is taught.
ꞌ ꞌa ch ꞌe h ꞌi k kw l m n ng ꞌo p q qw r s (s̸)[note 1] sh th t ꞌu v w x xw y
Current orthography marks stress with an acute accent on the stressed syllable's vowel, e.g. chilúy "speak Spanish", koyóowut "whale". Formerly, stress might be marked on both letters of a long vowel, e.g. koyóówut, or by underlining, e.g. koyoowut "whale"; stress was not marked when it fell on the first syllable, e.g. hiicha "what" (currently híicha). The marking of word-initial stress, like the marking of predictable glottal stop, is a response to language revitalization efforts.
The various orthographies that have been used for writing the language show influences from Spanish, English and Americanist phonetic notation.
^ abc⟨ ⟩ were added to Unicode in 2024. Previously ⟨s̸⟩ with a combining diacritic was used. When fonts did not support that, ⟨ş⟩ was used as a substitute.
^Glenn, James R. (1991), "The Sound Recordings of John P. Harrington: A Report on Their Disposition and State of Preservation", Anthropological Linguistics, 33 (4), Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 33, No. 4: 357–366, ISSN0003-5483, JSTOR30028216.
^Raymond Basquez Sr, Neal Ibanez & Myra Masiel-Zamora (2018) ꞌAtáaxum Alphabet. Great Oak Press
Sources
Chung, Sandra (1974), "Remarks on Pablo Tac's La lingua degli Indi Luiseños", International Journal of American Linguistics, 40 (4): 292–307, doi:10.1086/465326, S2CID143855734
Clifford, Christian (2017), Meet Pablo Tac: Indian from the Far Shores of California, CreateSpace
Hyde, Villiana Calac; Elliot, Eric (1994), Yumáyk Yumáyk: Long Ago, University of California Press
Hyde, Villiana (1971), An Introduction to the Luiseño Language, Malki Museum Press
Kroeber, A. L.; Grace, George William (1960), The Sparkman Grammar of Luiseño, Berkeley: UC Berkeley Press
Tagliavini, Carlo (1926), La lingua degli Indi Luisenos, Bologna: Cooperativa Tipografica Azzoguidi
