Phonology
Sound inventory and phonological rules
28 consonants
8 vowels
Consonant Inventory
| Manner | Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pb | · | · | td | · | · | kg | · | · | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | · | · | n | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||||
| Trill | · | · | · | r | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||||
| Tap/Flap | · | · | · | ɾ | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||||
| Fricative | · | fv | θð | sz | ʃʒ | · | xɣ | ʁ | h | |||||||||
| Affricate | · | · | · | ts | tʃdʒ | · | · | · | · | |||||||||
| Approximant | · | · | · | · | · | j | w | · | · | |||||||||
| Lateral approximant | · | · | · | l | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||||
Vowel Inventory
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iy | · | u |
| Near-close | ɪ | · | · |
| Close-mid | · | · | o |
| Open-mid | œ | · | · |
| Near-open | æ | · | · |
| Open | a | · | · |
Syllable Structure
(C)(C)V(C)(C)Phonological Rules
/r/ → [ɾ] / V_V (intervocalic flap/tap between vowels)
/r/ → [r] / #_ (rolled trill word-initially)
/r/ → [r] / _# (rolled trill word-finally)
/n/ + /g/ → [ŋg] / V_V
/n/ + /g/ → [ŋ] / #_
/n/ + /g/ → [ŋ] / _#
/n/ → [ŋ] / _k
/x/ + /ʁ/ → [χ] (unvoiced uvular fricative fusion)
/ɣ/ + /j/ → [ʝ] (hardened voiced palatal fricative)
/t/ + /d/ → [t̪] (dentalized soft voiceless stop / Spanish t)
/k/ + /g/ → [k] (unaspirated soft velar stop / Spanish k)
/p/ + /b/ → [p] (unaspirated soft bilabial stop / Spanish p)
/tʃ/ + /dʒ/ → [tʃ] (unaspirated soft postalveolar affricate / Spanish ch)
/t/ + /dʒ/ → [tʃ] (palatalized soft postalveolar affricate / Spanish ch)
/x/ + /j/ → [ç] (voiceless palatal fricative assimilation / German ich)
/ks/ + /ʃ/ → [kʃ] (standard s sound is removed)
/ɣ/ + /w/ → [ɣʷ] (labialized voiced velar fricative / ghw sound)
/j/ → [iː] / V_ (glide vocalization following a vowel nucleus)
/dʒ/ + /j/ → [dʒ] (y-glide elision after voiced affricate)
/tʃ/ + /j/ → [tʃ] (y-glide elision after voiceless affricate)
/ʒ/ + /j/ → [ʒ] (y-glide elision after voiced postalveolar fricative)
/ɡ/ → [k] / _ {t, p, s, tʃ}
/b/ → [p] / _ {k, s, t, tʃ}
/d/ → [t] / _ {k, s, p}
/d/ → ∅ / _ {tʃ, t}
/dʒ/ → [tʃ] / _ {k, s, t, p}
/z/ → [s] / _ {k, t, tʃ, s, p}
/v/ → [f] / _ {k, s, p, tʃ, t}
/ʒ/ → [ʃ] / _ {k, t, s, p, tʃ}
/ɣ/ → [x] / _ C[-voice]
/ʁ/ → [χ] / _ C[-voice]
/s/ + /ʃ/ → [ʃ] (s before sh assimilates to long or geminate sh)
/z/ + /ʒ/ → [ʒ] (z before zh assimilates to long or geminate zh)
/w/ → [u] / V_{#, C} (labio-velar glide vocalizes to high back vowel [u])Phoneme Frequency
Distribution of phonemes across 84 transcribed dictionary entries (269 total tokens)
/a/
66 (24.5%)
/n/
48 (17.8%)
/o/
31 (11.5%)
/m/
21 (7.8%)
/k/
13 (4.8%)
/ʃ/
9 (3.3%)
/d/
7 (2.6%)
/b/
7 (2.6%)
/s/
7 (2.6%)
/tʃ/
6 (2.2%)
/t/
5 (1.9%)
/ε/
5 (1.9%)
/ks/
4 (1.5%)
/ʒ/
4 (1.5%)
/l/
4 (1.5%)
/j/
4 (1.5%)
/dʒ/
3 (1.1%)
/v/
3 (1.1%)
/h/
3 (1.1%)
/æ/
3 (1.1%)
/g/
3 (1.1%)
/ɪ/
2 (0.7%)
/θ/
2 (0.7%)
/w/
2 (0.7%)
/z/
2 (0.7%)
/p/
1 (0.4%)
/x/
1 (0.4%)
/y/
1 (0.4%)
/ts/
1 (0.4%)
/f/
1 (0.4%)