Phonology

Sound inventory and phonological rules

25 consonants
8 vowels

Consonant Inventory

MannerBilabialLabiodentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal
Plosive
pb
·
td
·
·
kg
qɢ
ʔ
Nasal
m
·
n
·
·
ŋ
·
·
Trill
·
·
r
·
·
·
·
·
Fricative
·
fv
sz
ʃʒ
·
xɣ
·
h
Approximant
·
·
·
·
j
w
·
·
Lateral approximant
·
·
l
·
·
·
·
·

Vowel Inventory

HeightFrontCentralBack
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
---------------------------------------------------------------
Nasal place assimilation:
/n/ → [ŋ] / _{k,g}
/n/ → [m] / _{p,b}
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tap in regular speech, uvular trill in ritual:
/r/ → [ɾ] / V_V
/r/ → [ʀ] / __ (liturgical register)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Velar fricative weakens word-finally in rapid speech:
/x/ → [h] / _#
---------------------------------------------------------------
Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables:
/V/ → [ə] / unstressed
---------------------------------------------------------------
Gemination contrast in ritual or formal inscriptional speech:
/C/ → [Cː] / morphological emphasis
---------------------------------------------------------------
Voicing between vowels:
/s/ → [z] / V_V

Phoneme Frequency

Distribution of phonemes across 201 transcribed dictionary entries (691 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/
13 (1.9%)
/z/
11 (1.6%)
/p/
9 (1.3%)
/h/
4 (0.6%)
/ŋ/
3 (0.4%)
/ʒ/
3 (0.4%)
/b/
1 (0.1%)