Tip-of-the-tongue sounds

Many Nuu-chah-nulth consonants are made with the tip or blade of the tongue, including c c̓ č č̓ ł ƛ ƛ̓ n n̓ s š t t̓ y y̓. Most of these are discussed in other sections of this tutorial.

Here, we will be interested in the letters c č š, which represent sounds that are familiar from English, but are written differently in Nuu-chah-nulth. These are their names, and how they are pronounced:

Letter	Name	How it is pronounced
c	c	like ts, as in its
č	c wedge	like ch, as in church
š	s wedge	like sh, as in shush

Here are some examples:

By contrast, the letters q and x look familiar, but represent different sounds in Nuu-chah-nulth and English. See the following sections.

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