However, despite the pronunciation, one does not write the nasal vowel. However, the word is still spelled with the Lakhota nasal vowel. Nasal vowels are absent in English. In fact, gh before i is pronounced almost as the French r , but with more aspiration. These are the consonants p , t , c , and k plus aspiration .
Aspiration is always soft after c .
There are many words in Lakhota whose meaning depends on the aspiration and accent. You may hear the difference between c and ch in this example , and between p and ph here and here . This is called sound symbolism . All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced or transferred to another web site without our express permission.