Phonology

Sound inventory and phonological rules

20 consonants
6 vowels

Consonant Inventory

MannerBilabialLabiodentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Plosive
pb
·
td
·
·
k
ʔ
Nasal
m
·
n
·
·
·
·
Tap/Flap
·
·
ɾ
·
·
·
·
Fricative
·
fv
sz
·
·
ɣ
h
Affricate
·
·
·
tʃdʒ
·
·
·
Approximant
·
·
·
·
j
w
·
Lateral approximant
·
·
l
·
·
·
·

Vowel Inventory

HeightFrontCentralBack
Close
i
ɨ
u
Close-mid
e
·
o
Open
a
··

Syllable Structure

(C)V(C)(C)

Phonological Rules

/i/ → [ɨ] / C _ C
/i/ → [i] / elsewhere

/t/ → [tʰ] / # _ V
/k/ → [kʰ] / # _ V
/p/ → [pʰ] / # _ V

/n/ → [ŋ] / _ k
/n/ → [ɲ] / _ j

/s/ → [z] / V _ V
/ts/ → [dz] / V _ V

/r/ → [ɾ] / V _ V
/r/ → [r] / elsewhere

/h/ → [ç] / _ i
/ɣ/ → [ʝ] / _ i

Phoneme Frequency

Distribution of phonemes across 584 transcribed dictionary entries (3,377 total tokens)

/a/
339 (10%)
/o/
304 (9%)
/u/
243 (7.2%)
/d/
242 (7.2%)
/e/
233 (6.9%)
/t/
230 (6.8%)
/k/
210 (6.2%)
/i/
186 (5.5%)
/ɾ/
160 (4.7%)
/s/
147 (4.4%)
/m/
141 (4.2%)
/l/
129 (3.8%)
/n/
114 (3.4%)
/z/
104 (3.1%)
/p/
98 (2.9%)
/ɨ/
84 (2.5%)
/v/
76 (2.3%)
/j/
73 (2.2%)
/h/
70 (2.1%)
/b/
63 (1.9%)
/w/
43 (1.3%)
/ɣ/
42 (1.2%)
/f/
38 (1.1%)
/ʔ/
8 (0.2%)