Pronouncing Samoan Letters and Words (includes the Samoan Alphabet)

Le Pi Samoa or the Samoan Alphabet has 17 letters 3 of them borrowed and we arrange them beginning with our vowels:

A E I O U F G L M N P S T V H K R

where H K and R are borrowed.

Although it is not included anymore when we list our alphabet letters, the taofi – the glottal stop marked with an inverted comma (called a koma liliu) – is treated like another consonant in Samoan words.

Get all the details about Le Pi Samoa in our grammar section: The Samoan Alphabet and Pronunciation Guide. For now let’s focus on how to pronounce Samoan letters and words.

Pronouncing Samoan Vowels

Samoan vowels sound very similar to vowels in the Spanish language. For English speakers a is like the a in father e is like the e in egg i is like the i in machine (or the ee sound in bee) o is like the o in… let’s talk more about this one in a minute u is like the u in tuna (as long as you’re not saying tewna).

I don’t actually know of any English words that have the exact close-mid /o/ sound of the Samoan o. The closest is the o sound in words like go no and so but BEFORE you add the oo bit at the end of those words. Because you know how go in English is actually pronounced go-oo? So for a Samoan o just take the first part of that vowel sound.

Samoan vowels can either be short or long. Short just means the normal sound (as explained above) and long means you hold on to the vowel sound a bit longer. Two words that are spelled exactly the same can mean completely different things depending on whether the vowel sound is dragged (long) or not. For example: tama with two short sounds means boy. If you drag the second a then the word means father.

To indicate long vowels in writing we can add a macron over the vowel so father in Samoan would look like this: tama.

Other examples of Samoan words that look the same except for the length of their vowels include: fono = meeting fono = to call le = the le = not (negation) malo = hard (solid) malo = guest/visitors matua = old/parent matua = parents (plural) taua = war taua = important/valued.

So yes how we hold on to a vowel really matters. By the way you’ll see Samoan pronunciation marks (like the macron etc.) in text that is aimed at Samoan language learners but rarely ever in text for more advanced Samoan speakers who rely on the context to understand what the word is.

Pronouncing Samoan Consonants

As for our consonants they always represent just one sound. So our S is always going to be s (never sh or z) and our M is always going to sound like m but some of our consonant sounds are not exactly like the consonants in English.

The Samoan P has a bit of a harder sound than the English P which means it’s a little more voiced so it sounds somewhere between an English P and B. For example the Samoan word pese which means song or sing is pronounced almost like bese.

Likewise the Samoan K is a bit harder than the English K. It’s a bit more voiced so we pronounce it almost like the English G sound. So the Samoan word for cabbage kapisi sounds very similar to gabisi (using the English pronunciations of these letters).

The Samoan T however stays nice and light almost with a soft subtle s sound right after the T.

Our consonant that really doesn’t sound like it looks like it should is G. The Samoan G is pronounced like the ng in the middle of hanger or singer.

Quick Tips for Pronouncing Samoan Words

On this website every time we introduce a new Samoan word we’ll give you audio or a pronunciation guide or both so you’ll know how it’s meant to be pronounced. But here are a few tips to help you pronounce Samoan words you encounter in the written wild:

One Consonant at a Time

Samoan words never put two consonants together so you’ll never see a word like empty with mpt all squished together in the middle. We prefer our words to go like: consonant vowel consonant vowel… or: consonant vowel vowel vowel etc. and ALL our words end with vowels!

Get Used to Our Vowels

Samoan words love vowels. Sometimes our words will string 3 4 5 and even more vowels together and yes that can get very challenging for English speakers especially to pronounce.

For example: fa’aea means to exalt.

That’s one consonant with four vowels in a row. Perfectly normal.

Fa’aeaina is a variation of that word. How do you think that’s pronounced?

This next point might help.

Emphasis on the Second to Last Syllable

Unless otherwise indicated (usually by macrons) most Samoan words are emphasized on the second to last syllable. Kinda like in Italian. For example in that word fa’aea we would keep our tone neutral for the fa’a part then emphasize e before we drop back on the a. But then in the longer variation of that word fa’aeaiina the emphasis moves over a bit.

You get the idea.