The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Navajo pronunciations in Wikipedia articles, based on the pronunciation guide at "Native Languages."
Oral vowels
IPA
Orthography
English approximation
a ˩
a
somewhat like bra with low tone
a ˥
á
somewhat like bra with high tone
a ː ˩
aa
long "a" in bra with low tone
a ː ˥
áá
long "a" in bra with high tone
e ˩
e
me t with low tone
e ˥
é
me t with high tone
e ː ˩
ee
long "e" in me t with low tone
e ː ˥
éé
long "e" in me t with high tone
i ˩
i [5]
see with low tone
i ˥
í
see with high tone
i ː ˩
ii
long "ee" in see with low tone
i ː ˥
íí
long "ee" in see t with high tone
o ˩
o
somewhat like go [6] with low tone
o ˥
ó
somewhat like go with high tone
o ː ˩
oo
long "o" with low tone
o ː ˥
óó
long "o" with high tone
Nasal vowels
IPA
Orthography
English approximation
ã ˩
ą
nasal "a" for bra with low tone
ã ˥
ą́
nasal "a" for bra with high tone
ã ː ˩
ąą
long nasal "a" for bra with low tone
ã ː ˥
ą́ą́
long nasal "a" for bra with high tone
ẽ ˩
ę
nasal "e" for me t with low tone
ẽ ˥
ę́
nasal "e" for me t with high tone
ẽ ː ˩
ęę
long nasal "e" for me t with low tone
ẽ ː ˥
ę́ę́
long nasal "e" for me t with high tone
ĩ ˩
į
nasal "ee" for see with low tone
ĩ ˥
į́
nasal "ee" for see with high tone
ĩ ː ˩
įį
long nasal "ee" for see with low tone
ĩ ː ˥
į́į́
long nasal "ee" for see with high tone
õ ˩
ǫ
nasal "oa" for coa t with low tone
õ ˥
ǫ́
nasal "oa" for coa t with high tone
õ ː ˩
ǫǫ
long nasal "oa" for coa t with low tone
õ ː ˥
ǫ́ǫ́
long nasal "oa" for coa t with high tone
Notes
^ "Native Languages" website
^ "Native Languages" website
^ "Native Languages" website
^ "Native Languages" says it can be realized also as the raspy x , somewhat like the "h" in h e.
^ "Native Languages" says it can be realized also as the "i" in si t (ɪ .
^ The Navajo /o/ is identical to no English vowel, but the nearest equivalents are the vowel of coa t (for most English dialects) and the vowel of saw .
References