Tongan alphabet and pronunciation
From UniLang Wiki
The Tongan alphabet (motu‘alea faka-Tonga) is consisted of 17 letters. Five vowels, eleven consonants and the glottal stop. It’s the biggest Polynesian alphabet:
A a
E e
F f
H h
I i
K k
L l
M m
N n
Ng ng
O o
P p
S s
T t
U u
V v
‘
Last is the fakau‘a, the glottal stop. All letters are pronounced like in spanish except for: Ng is pronounced as in "singer" and never as in "finger." It’s a single sound written as G in other Polynesian languages like Sāmoan. L is pronounced somehow between L and R, especially when it precedes E and I. H is pronounced like in English.
All vowels can be lengthened. That means that their duration is doubled. Then they are written with a macron over them: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.
In Tongan there are no diphthongs. This means that every letter maintains its original sound no matter what letters are preceding or following.
All words are stressed on the penultimate except for those having a macron on the ultimate, which is then stressed. In some occasions the stress has to fall to the ultimate and then it is marked with an accent: á, é, í, ó, ú
