Mohawk Diacritical Marks

Q: On your website you give the Mohawk word for "bear" as Ohkwa:ri. On another website it says the word is spelled Ohkwá:ri with an accent mark. Which is the right way for me to spell it and why?

A: Some Mohawk/Kanien'keha people use diacritical marks (accents over the vowels), and others do not. The accent mark doesn't indicate a difference in pronunciation, it just shows which syllable is stressed (usually the next to last syllable, as in this word.) The stressed syllable is normally pronounced with a rising tone in Mohawk--if it is pronounced with a falling tone the accent mark is written in reverse, like à.

Fluent Kanen'kehaka speakers don't need accent marks to know how to pronounce a word-- after all, there are no accent marks in English to show where the stress is for each word, even though syllable stress in English is much more irregular than in Mohawk. However, the accent marks can be a useful tool for language learners--perhaps we should add them to our site!

The colon, by the way, indicates that the vowel before it is long. Some older Mohawk people leave that off as well, so you should keep your eye out for vowel length when reading Mohawk.

Further reading:
Mohawk language
Mohawk orthography standardization project

Guajajara last names

Q:  I was looking up an article about an indigenous activist who was killed last year, Paulo Guajajara. On the website I saw two other people, a politician (Sonia Guajajara) and an artist (Jahy Guajajara), who also have the same last name. But when I went to the links, I could not find any information to tell me if they are relatives or it's just a common last name for indigenous people in Brazil to have, can you explain?

A: Last names are not traditional in most indigenous tribes of South America. Many Native people have adopted Spanish or Portuguese last names, and some continue to use single names with no last name at all, but in some communities, indigenous people simply began using their tribal name as a surname. Guajajara is actually a tribe in Brazil, with almost 15,000 members, and most of them have the same last name. This is confusing to outsiders, but represents a strong sense of tribal identity to the people.

As far as I know, Paulo Guajajara was not a literal relative of Sonia Guajajara, but they are members of the same tribe.

Hope that helps!

Further reading:
Guajajara language
Indigenous people of Brazil
Native American names