Phonology
Sound inventory and phonological rules
23 consonants
8 vowels
Consonant Inventory
| Manner | Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pb | · | td | · | · | kg | ʔ | |||||||
| Nasal | m | · | n | · | · | ŋ | · | |||||||
| Trill | · | · | r | · | · | · | · | |||||||
| Fricative | · | fv | sz | ʃʒ | · | xɣ | h | |||||||
| Approximant | · | · | · | · | j | w | · | |||||||
| Lateral approximant | · | · | l | · | · | · | · | |||||||
Vowel Inventory
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Close-mid | e | · | o |
| Mid | · | ə | · |
| Near-open | æ | · | · |
| Open | a | · | · |
Syllable Structure
(C)(C)(C)V(V)(C)(C)Phonological Rules
Intervocalic spirantisation:
/p/ → [ɸ] / V_V
/b/ → [β] / V_V
/t/ → [θ] / V_V
/d/ → [ð] / V_V
/k/ → [x] / V_V
/g/ → [ɣ] / V_V
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Nasal place assimilation:
/n/ → [ŋ] / _{k,g}
/n/ → [m] / _{p,b}
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Tap in regular speech, uvular trill in ritual:
/r/ → [ɾ] / V_V
/r/ → [ʀ] / __ (liturgical register)
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Velar fricative weakens word-finally in rapid speech:
/x/ → [h] / _#
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Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables:
/V/ → [ə] / unstressed
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Gemination contrast in ritual or formal inscriptional speech:
/C/ → [Cː] / morphological emphasis
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Voicing between vowels:
/s/ → [z] / V_VPhoneme Frequency
Distribution of phonemes across 201 transcribed dictionary entries (690 total tokens)
/e/
67 (9.7%)
/a/
66 (9.6%)
/r/
58 (8.4%)
/n/
46 (6.7%)
/u/
44 (6.4%)
/k/
40 (5.8%)
/t/
40 (5.8%)
/s/
37 (5.4%)
/m/
30 (4.3%)
/æ/
30 (4.3%)
/l/
28 (4.1%)
/i/
26 (3.8%)
/o/
24 (3.5%)
/ɨ/
21 (3%)
/x/
18 (2.6%)
/g/
17 (2.5%)
/ʃ/
15 (2.2%)
/ə/
14 (2%)
/w/
13 (1.9%)
/d/
13 (1.9%)
/ʔ/
12 (1.7%)
/z/
11 (1.6%)
/p/
9 (1.3%)
/h/
4 (0.6%)
/ŋ/
3 (0.4%)
/ʒ/
3 (0.4%)
/b/
1 (0.1%)