Phonology
Sound inventory and phonological rules
21 consonants
3 vowels
Consonant Inventory
| Manner | Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | · | · | t | · | c | k | q | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | · | · | n | · | ɲ | ŋ | ɴ | ||||||||
| Fricative | · | f | θ | s | ʃ | ç | x | χ | ||||||||
| Approximant | · | ʋ | · | · | · | j | ɰ | · | ||||||||
| Lateral approximant | · | · | · | l | · | · | · | · | ||||||||
Vowel Inventory
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | · | · |
| Close-mid | · | · | o |
| Open | a | · | · |
Phonological Rules
The first syllable is always stressed. In a three syllable word, the third syllable is also stressed. In four syllable words and higher, the second to last syllable is stressed as well as the first. Consonants can geminate. Vowels can be lengthened.
Phoneme Frequency
Distribution of phonemes across 262 transcribed dictionary entries (1,042 total tokens)
/i/
231 (22.2%)
/o/
153 (14.7%)
/a/
140 (13.4%)
/l/
131 (12.6%)
/n̥/
91 (8.7%)
/s/
65 (6.2%)
/t/
61 (5.9%)
/p/
30 (2.9%)
/m̥/
29 (2.8%)
/f/
22 (2.1%)
/θ/
21 (2%)
/c/
19 (1.8%)
/ʃ/
16 (1.5%)
/k/
11 (1.1%)
/q/
11 (1.1%)
/χ/
6 (0.6%)
/x/
2 (0.2%)
/ɰ/
1 (0.1%)
/ç/
1 (0.1%)
/ʋ/
1 (0.1%)