1. Only use the 14 letters of the Cheyenne alphabet: a, e, h, k, ', m, n, o, p, s, š, t, v, x. The letter "š" has the same sound as the English letters "sh". The glottal stop (written with the apostrophe, ') is frequent in Cheyenne; it separates the syllables of the English expression "uh-oh".
2. a. Every word must end in a consonant plus one of the three vowels ("a", "e", or "o").
b. If you cannot hear a vowel at the end of a word, the word may simply end with the two letters "he".
Navoomo I see him.
estse'he shirt (or, coat)
Navooma He sees me.
Etoneto It's cold.
hohpe soup (or, broth)
nahkohe bear
emesehe He ate
he'ama up
3. A dot over a vowel means that the vowel is whispered (voiceless) (unless that vowel is the first vowel of a complex syllable, see Rule 7). The last syllable (consonant plus vowel) of anything you say, including a single word pronounced by itself, is always be whispered. Since this is automatic, you don't need to mark this end-of-word vowel with a dot.
4. Any vowel you mark with a dot needs to be followed by either "h", "s", "š", or "x", or also a "tse" at the end of a word. You can actually hear the "s", "š", "x", or "tse". You cannot hear "h" which follows a vowel with a dot if the "h" comes before another consonant, but be sure to write it:
namėšeme my grandfather
amėške grease
kȧsovaahe young man
vo'ėstane person
menȯtse berries
mȧhpeva in the water
notȧxeo'o warriors
Etomȯhtana He erected it.
5. If you hear "s" before a "t", there must be an "e" before the "s":
Estsehnėstse! Come in!
ve'keemahpėstse candy
hestahke twin
6. If you hear "š" before a "k", there must be an "e" before the "š":
heške his (or, her) mother
ka'ėškone child
amėške grease
7. a. If you have this sequence of letters in a word: consonant, a dotted vowel, "h", then a regular vowel, then something else, the "h" will make the consonant have a "hard" (aspirated) sound [regular Cheyenne consonants have a "soft" (unaspirated) sound]. All four letters are pronounced as a single syllable, so they are called a "complex syllable." Dotted vowels of complex syllables are not whispered, but dotted vowels of regular Cheyenne syllables are whispered.
b. If you have "a" or "o" on either side of the "h" and "e" on the other side, the "a" and "o" give their own sound to the entire complex syllable. The "e" is not pronounced as part of the complex syllable. But if the "e" is the second vowel of a complex syllable and an "a" or "o" follows that "e", a "y" sound is heard, as noted in Rule 9. Because "a" and "o" overpower "e" in complex syllables, we can say that "a" and "o" are stronger than "e".
c. The "h" of a complex syllable causes the preceding consonant to have a puff of air (aspiration) with it. Cheyenne consonants can be aspirated anywhere in a word (except for the last syllable), not just at the beginning of a word as in English.
Complex syllables are underlined in these examples:
mȧheo'o house
pȧhoešestȯtse cradleboard
tȯhohko hammer
Nanȧha'ena I caught it.
vȯhe'so nest
natȧhoo'ohtse I'm going home.
mȧhtamȧhaahe old woman
kȧhamaxe stick
8. a. If you hear "š", there must be the vowel "e" after it.
b. If there is a vowel before "š", it must also be "e".
9. a. You can hear the English sound "w" between the vowels "o" and "a".
b. You can hear the English sound "y" between the vowels "e" and "a", and also between "e" and "o".
These "w" or "y" sounds are printed as (phonetic) superscripts in the following examples, but they are not part of the Cheyenne sound system, so we do not need to write them in the official spelling (but if you find it helpful to write the "w" and "y" sounds, go ahead and do that):
Ehotowanato
It's difficult.
meyaneva in the summer
meyo'o road
hotowa'e buffalo
heyama on the side
nahkȯheyo'o bears
10. The Cheyenne letter "v" often sounds like English "w" when it is next to "a" or "o", but it is still the same letter "v" of the Cheyenne sound system. The following examples show this English "w" sound (boldfaced), but do not write "w" in your own spelling:
Evo'komo [ewo'komo]
It's white.
vaotseva [waotseva] deer
hovahne [howahne] animals
Naoveše [naoweše] I went to bed.
Naovaxe [naowaxe] I dreamed.
voaxaa'e [woaxaa'e] bald eagle
11. a. If you hear "st" an "e" must come before them.
b. If you hear "ts" an "e" must come after it.
c. If you hear "šk" an "e" must come before them.
12. a. If you hear a whispered (voiceless) vowel, it must be followed by h, s, š, or x.
b. We cannot hear an "h" after a whispered vowel but it is really there. Compare these two words: mahpe 'water' and mȧhpēva 'in the water'. We can hear the "h" in mahpe but we cannot hear it in mȧhpeva.
13. If a word ends with two or more vowels, stretch out those vowels and insert a glottal. This is called Vowel Stretching (VS). VS was discovered by linguist Ives Goddard so it is also called Goddard's Law.
hetaneo => hetaneo'o 'men'