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