Lesson 1 - Introduction/Alphabet

Samoan vowels - A, E, I, O, U

A is pronounced as in "father"

  example: la, a, ala, apa, tama, lata

E is pronounced as in "they"

  example: le, se, sese, ene, tele, pese

I is pronounced as in "ski"

  example: ni, si, isi, ili, pili, lisi

O is pronounced as in "hope"

  example: po, to, olo, oso, polo, loto

U is pronounced as in "flu"

  example: pu, mu, umu, ulu, fusu, sulu

When a macron (-)(a line) is placed over a vowel, that vowel is held twice as long, or as if there were two consecutive identical vowels together.

Ā ā Ē ē Ī ī Ō ō Ū ū

A diphthongs is when one vowel sound glides into another within a single syllable. For example when you say "ah" (as in father) and "ee" (as in sleep) and put them together you get a diphthong that sounds like the English word "eye". In Samoan the equivalent would be A and I into "ai" (which coincidentally can be a verb to eat, among other uses.)

There are 12 Samoan consonants, most are pronounced in Samoan the same as they are in English.

F, H, L, M, N, R, S, V

H and R are found in words that have been adopted into Samoan from foreign words.

K, P, and T - In English when these consonants are pronounced they are accompanied by a small puff of air known as aspiration. You can feel this puff of air by putting your hand in front of your mouth and saying the following words:

kim, pit, tick, kill, pat, top

No aspiration occurs, however, when these letters follow an s. For example, hold your hand to your mouth again and say the following words:

skim, spit, stick, skill, spat, stop

English speakers do not normally notice any difference, but because none of these letters are aspirated in Samoan, the Samoans notice it as being distinctively non-native. Furthermore, this difference makes the Samoan version of these consonants sound a little different to an English speaker:

To an English speaker, the Samoan K sounds like a cross between a G and a K.
To an English speaker, the Samoan P sounds like a cross between a B and a P.
To an English speaker, the Samoan T sounds like a cross between a D and a T.

The consonants K, P, and T are not aspirated in Samoan. In formal Samoan the letter K occurs mainly in words of foreign origin.

The consonant G is pronounced like the NG in "singer". Unlike in the English sound, however, the "NG" sound occurs at the beginning of syllables in Samoan.

The apostrophe ( ' ) in Samoan writing represents the glottal stop, performed by momentarily stopping the flow of breath through the throat. English speakers do this in the words "button" and "oh-oh". Try putting your hand on your throat while saying "oh-oh". You should feel the tissues of your voice box close momentarily.

  examples: a'a, pa'a, nu'u, fe'e, va'a, va'ai, la'au

As you can see it often (though not always) separates two of the same vowels.
The glottal stop is crucial in Samoan pronunciation. See the difference in the following words:

  nei       ne'i
  tau       ta'u
  sao       sa'o
  paepae    pa'epa'e

The term "accent" refers to the particular stress given to a syllable in a word. Accent is very easy to determine in Samoan. To determine where to place the accent in a Samoan word, follow these steps:

1. Find the second-to-last vowel in the word. Vowels with a macron over them count as two vowels. For example:

tala - T A L A     talai - T A L A I     talā - T A L Ā
         ^   ^               ^   ^ ^              ^   ^
         2   1               3   2 1              3  2 1

2. The stress falls on the syllable of which this vowel is a part. (Sometimes the vowel will be the whole syllable, as in ulu). For example, the accented syllable (Shown in capitals) for the above words would be:

  TAla      taLAI       taLA

When a Samoan word has more than one syllable, the accent falls on the syllable of which the second-to-last vowel is a part.

Samoan syllables may be: as in:
1. One vowel (v) tusi, tala
2. A diphthong (v + v) talai, talā,
3. One consonant followed by one vowel (c + v) 'upu, tofu, agaga
4. One consonant followed by a diphthong (c + v + v) mae'a, moega



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Faafetai, lau uō

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