In Gwich’in there are some unique symbols and sounds that English speakers may not be familiar with. We will cover two of those features this week. The “Bar L’ which is represented by this symbol: Å, and the “Glottal Stop’ which is represented by an apostrophe like in the word “Gwich’in’. The Å sound is made by putting the tip of one’s tongue to the roof of the mouth and pushing the air out of both sides of the mouth to make an air rushing sound like in this video:
Å VIDEO on symbols and letters INSERT HERE
The glottal stop is another sound that will be unfamiliar to English speakers, but is very prevalent in Gwich’in, so much so it is even in the word Gwich’in! The glottal stop is basically a pause initiated in the back of the throat, basically cutting the syllable off by stopping the air. It almost sounds like Gwich/in. There is a very brief pause there. To get a better understanding of how the glottal stop sounds listen to the following video and try to repeat the sounds made
GLOTTAL STOP VIDEO INSERT HERE