Phonology

Sound inventory and phonological rules

28 consonants
12 vowels

Consonant Inventory

MannerBilabialLabiodentalDentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarUvularPharyngealGlottal
Plosive
pb
·
·
td
·
·
kg
q
·
ʔ
Nasal
m
·
·
n
·
ɲ
ŋ
·
·
·
Trill
·
·
·
r
·
·
·
·
·
·
Fricative
·
fv
θð
sz
ɕʑ
·
·
χʁ
ħʕ
·
Approximant
·
·
·
·
·
j
w
·
·
·
Lateral approximant
·
·
·
l
·
·
·
·
·
·

Vowel Inventory

HeightFrontCentralBack
Close
i
·
u
Near-close
ɪ
·
ʊ
Close-mid
e
·
o
Mid·
ə
·
Open-mid
ɛ
·
ɔ
Near-open
æ
··
Open
a
·
ɑ

Syllable Structure

(C)(C)V(C)(C)

Phonological Rules

/p, t, k, q/ → [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, qʰ] / #_
/mn/ → [m] or [n]
/f, θ, s, χ/ → [β, t, z, ħ] / V_V
C → Cʷ / _{w, u}
C → Cʲ / _{j, i, e}
/j, w/ → [i, u] / _#

Phoneme Frequency

Distribution of phonemes across 99 transcribed dictionary entries (441 total tokens)

//
80 (18.1%)
/ɪ/
44 (10%)
/r/
27 (6.1%)
/t/
24 (5.4%)
/l/
23 (5.2%)
/ʊ/
20 (4.5%)
/n/
20 (4.5%)
/w/
18 (4.1%)
/ɔ/
17 (3.9%)
/j/
17 (3.9%)
/e/
14 (3.2%)
/v/
13 (2.9%)
/m/
13 (2.9%)
/s/
12 (2.7%)
/d/
12 (2.7%)
/θ/
11 (2.5%)
/ħ/
10 (2.3%)
/ð/
8 (1.8%)
/z/
7 (1.6%)
/ɕ/
6 (1.4%)
/æ/
5 (1.1%)
/ʕ/
4 (0.9%)
/f/
4 (0.9%)
/χ/
4 (0.9%)
/g/
4 (0.9%)
/k/
3 (0.7%)
/ɑ/
3 (0.7%)
/b/
3 (0.7%)
//
2 (0.5%)
/ʑ/
2 (0.5%)