Tsang'hi Language

Tsang’hi (/tsaŋˈhi/) is the largest surviving Oayi language and the best-described member of the Oayi branch, preserving the family’s tonal-harmonic system in its most productive form. It has a compact segmental inventory centred on /m n ŋ ʙ ħ ʘ/ and a six-vowel system /a e i ɨ o u/, with a strong preference for closed roots such as VC, CVC and CVCC. Each vowel-bearing syllable carries one of three tonal readings: falling citation, central linked/topical, or rising affected/processual, producing larger tone grids in compounds. Its phonology is shaped by vowel harmony, consonantal drift, and final nasal whistle releases, with /ŋ n m/ giving high, middle, and low offglides respectively. Morphosyntactically, Tsang’hi is analytic to lightly compounding, with freer clause order than its lexical layout suggests, tone doing much of the grammatical work normally handled by inflection.