Amazing Grace is an international
Christian favorite. Most interesting to me, though, is that my mom's
Presbyterian hymnal includes
phonetic transcriptions for the first
verse in five different
Native American tongues. They are as follows:
Kiowa
Daw k'ee da ha dawtsahy he tsow'haw
Daw k'ee da ha dawtsahy hee
Bay dawtsahy taw, gaw aym ow thah t'aw,
Daw k'ee da ha dawtsahy h'ee
Creek
Po ya fek cha he thlat ah tet
Ah non ah cha pa kas
Cha fee kee o funnan la kus
Um e ha ta la yus
Choctaw
Shilombish holitopa ma!
Ishmminti pulla cha
Hatak ilbusha pia ha
Is pi yukpalashke
Cherokee
Ooh nay thla nah, hee oo way gee'.
E gha gwoo yah hay ee.
Naw gwoo joe sah, we you low say,
E gah gwoo yah ho nah.
Navajo*
Nizhóníígo jooba' diits' a'
Yisdáshíítinigíí,
Lah yóóiiyá, k'ad shénáhoosdzin,
Doo eesh'íí da ńt'éé.
*
The Navajo transcription is almost correct. However, in "eesh'íí," the two i's have acute accents under them as well. Apparently one can do this in Unicode, but either my computer isn't set up to see it or I've been lied to. I'm hoping it's just the former.
Bibliography:
The Presbyterian Hymnal. Westminster/John Knox Press. Louisville, KY: 1990.