Kashaya language speakers, also called Southwestern Pomo, are members of the Pomoan language family, a group of seven languages that has an a real spread in North-Central California and the adjacent strip of Pacific coast.

 

This Kashaya vocabulary is intended primarily for use by the Kashaya people. In it, the Kashaya words are written in a form that relates directly to the pronunciation of the words as spoken in isolation; the words can be pronounced correctly by giving each letter its single, proper kashaya sound—not by giving the letter any of several different sounds in may have in English. Thus a is always pronounced as in father, never as in fat or fate.

The correct pronunciation of each letter is illustrated on the following pages by one or more Kashaya words; when there is a similar sound in English, and English example is given. Kashaya has many more distinct consonants than English; consequently, it is necessary to add certain marks to letters of the English alphabet to create new Kashaya letters. Such combinations as t and c^h and q́ are single consonants significantly different in pronunciation from t and c and q.

The Vocabulary contains most of the nouns, adjectives and adverbs of Kashaya, but very few verbs. Some fairly common English nouns and adjectives are not included; the usual reason is that the most closely corresponding kashaya word is a verb. Kashaya verbs seldom coincide at all closely in meaning with a single English verb and are especially difficult to define in one line. Verbs always contain at least one suffix and are usually a combination of a verb root and several affixes; on Kashaya verb often corresponds to a phrase or whole sentence in English. A companion article “Kashaya Verb Prefixes” (Working Paper 13 of the Kashaya Pomo Language in Culture Project) illustrates in detail one part of this complex and rich resources of the language. The unabridged Kashaya Dictionary will define all the verb roots and give examples of their use in combinations with various affixes. Many common Kashaya verbs for going and for being in a position are presented in an appendix to this Vocabulary.

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KEY TO THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE KASHAYA ALPHABET

Letter	Kashaya Example	Definition	English example or phonetic description
a	ha?a	horn	father
b	ba•ban?	father’s father	baby
c	caha	bitter	church (without the aspiration) or judge (without the voicing)
ch	chil?	to hang	church
ć	ćal	together	glottalized palatal affricate
d	ha?da	sun	daddy
e	he?e	hair	they ( without the offglide)
f	stú•fa	stove (onlyj in loanwords)	fire
h	?aha ?ahca	mouth house	house
i	hi?i	feather	ski (without the offglide)
k	ki•kin?	older brother	scold
kh	kh e	my	cold
ḱ	ḱili	black	glottalized velar stop
l	lala	goose	lip
m	ma•man?	father’s mother	mama
n	nata	child	niece
o	ho?o	teeth	no (without the offglide)
p	paši•	poison	span
ph	phala	again	pan
ṕ	ṕa?la	slug (snail)	glottalized labial stop
q	qawi	small	like scum but further back in the mouth
qh	qho•	two	Like come but further back in the mouth
q́	q́ala•ša	moon	glottalized uvular stop
r	re•y	king (only in loanwords)	ray
s	sine•	easy	see
š	šahya	fast, quick	she
ś	śimun	living	glottalized alveolar affricate or spirant
t	ta•tan?	mother’s father	plain dental stop (Spanish tu)
th	thawil	left (hand)	aspirated dental stop
t́	t́unuw	to be tired	glottalized dental stop
t	ta?qo	salt	stick
th	tho?o	acorn mush	tick
t́	t́e?ye	intelligent	glottalized alveolar stop
u	hu?uy	eye	blue (with the offglide)
w	weya dimaw	power to hold	we, down
y	ya we balay	blood	you, boy
z	mohzi	peppy (rare, only in loans from So.Pomo)	tsetse, bits
?	še?e? man?	basket she	glottal stop, uh-uh
•	?íya•	bone	vowel length
́́	cumá? li	by the squirrel, of cuma? li where he sat	raised tone, pitch accent (mainly distinctive in phrases)
=	Not a sound but a symbol marking enclitics, words which must always follow some other word in a phrase or sentence.