Phonology

Sound inventory and phonological rules

22 consonants
8 vowels

Consonant Inventory

MannerBilabialLabiodentalDentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal
Plosive
pb
·
·
td
·
·
kɡ
·
·
Nasal
m
·
·
n
·
·
ŋ
·
·
Fricative
·
fv
θ
sz
ʃʒ
·
·
χʁ
h
Approximant
·
·
·
·
·
j
w
·
·
Lateral approximant
·
·
·
l
·
·
·
·
·

Vowel Inventory

HeightFrontCentralBack
Close
i
·
u
Near-close
ɪ
··
Close-mid
e
·
o
Mid·
ə
·
Open
a
·
ɑ

Syllable Structure

(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

Phonological Rules

f -> v / V_V
æ -> ɑ / _
y,y: -> i,i:
g -> j / V_{i,i:,e,ɛ}
g -> χ / V_{a,a:,ɑ,o,u,u:}
ea -> a
eo -> a / _r[+consonant] (default)
eo -> o / w_r[+consonant] (w-initial exception)
eo -> e / _
ea:, eo: -> e:
V -> V: / _ [l,r,n,m][+voice,-continuant]
a: -> a: / _ (blocked from rounding)
i -> i / [unstressed prefix]_ (blocked from rounding)
e:, ae: -> i: / _
o: -> u: / _
i: -> ɪ / _j
riC -> irC / #b_ (optional/dialectal, produces doublets)
a -> o / _[m,n][+consonant]?
þ -> t / [nasal]_
[p, t, k] -> [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] / #_V[+stress] (blocked after s)

Phoneme Frequency

Distribution of phonemes across 296 transcribed dictionary entries (1,264 total tokens)

/n/
114 (9%)
/iː/
109 (8.6%)
/ʁ/
97 (7.7%)
/e/
88 (7%)
/l/
88 (7%)
/ɑ/
88 (7%)
/d/
82 (6.5%)
/k/
70 (5.5%)
/t/
52 (4.1%)
/h/
41 (3.2%)
/b/
41 (3.2%)
/ɪ/
35 (2.8%)
/s/
34 (2.7%)
/m/
33 (2.6%)
/o/
32 (2.5%)
/aː/
31 (2.5%)
/θ/
26 (2.1%)
/uː/
26 (2.1%)
/ɡ/
25 (2%)
/w/
22 (1.7%)
/f/
21 (1.7%)
/p/
20 (1.6%)
/u/
18 (1.4%)
/χ/
17 (1.3%)
/ʃ/
12 (0.9%)
/v/
10 (0.8%)
/ɑj/
8 (0.6%)
/ej/
6 (0.5%)
/j/
4 (0.3%)
/ij/
3 (0.2%)