The orthography used here is a transliteration of the native writing system (?). The 32 letters used are a ā b c d e ē f g h i ī j k l m n o ō p q r s t u ū v w x y z '.
The 1st table shows the 33 consonant phones (22 phonemes) that can appear while the 2nd table shows the 4 short and 6 long vowels (8 phones); the corresponding orthography is also given. Letters marked with an asterisk * appear in more than one place in the tables.
The consonant phones are assigned to phonemes according to the following:
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Guttural | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | Eject. | p | p' | - | - | t | t' | - | - | k | k' | - | - | ||||||||
| V'less | p | - | - | t | - | - | k | q | kʷ | - | ' | ʔ | |||||||||
| Voiced | b | b | - | - | d | d | - | - | g | g | w | gʷ | - | - | |||||||
| Nasals | Voiced | m | m | - | - | n* | n | - | n* | ɲ | n* | ŋ | - | - | |||||||
| Affricates | V'less | - | z* | t͡ɬ | s | t͡s | c* | t͡ɕ | - | - | |||||||||||
| Voiced | - | - | d͡z | j | d͡ʑ | - | - | ||||||||||||||
| Fricatives | V'less | - | f | f | z* | ɬ | s | c* | ɕ | - | x | χ | h* | h | |||||||
| Voiced | - | v | v | - | y* | ʝ | h* | ɣ | - | - | |||||||||||
| Trills | Voiced | - | - | r | r | - | - | - | |||||||||||||
| Approximants | - | l | l | - | y* | j | - | - | |||||||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | i ī | i i: | - | - | - | ū | u: | |||||||||
| High-Mid | - | ē | e: | - | - | - | o ō | o o: | - | |||||||
| Low-Mid | - | e æ | ɛ ɛ: | - | - | - | ||||||||||
| Low | - | a | a | - | ā | ɑ: | - | |||||||||
Coda m and n may assimilate to the following onset's point of articulation; this is normal within words.
Syllables are (C)(y)V(V|L|N)(C), where N is homorganic to the following consonant. Any single consonant may appear as an onset; only the labial consonants plus /k/, /g/, and /n/ may appear before /y/.
There are a number of rules for accent placement, both phonological and morphological:
A vowel will combine with a following vowel or with certain consonants forming a long vowel or a diphthong. The rows are labeled with the original 1st vowel and the columns are labeled with the original 2nd vowel/historical coda consonant.
| + i/*j | + o/*b | + e/*h | + a/*g | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | ī | i: | (y)ū iu | (j)u: iu | ī | i: | ē | e: |
| e | ē | e: | (y)ō eu | (j)o: ɛu | æ | ɛ: | ā | ɑ: |
| a | ai | ai | au | au | ā | ɑ: | ā | ɑ: |
| o | oi | ɔi | ū | u: | ō | o: | ō | o: |
The 2nd value in an entry occurs after [kʷ] or [gʷ].
The resulting [j] may combine with the preceding consonant:
The 18 historical consonants underwent conditional changes, depending on vowel adjacency. As a result, phoneme alternation or mutation appears, mostly as lenition. The consonants that don't alternate phonemically are /f/, /m/, /n/, /s/, and /x/; the others are shown in the following table:
| Historical | Original | Coda | Mutated | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *p | p | p | p | p' | b | b |
| *b | b | b | * | v | v | |
| *z | z | t͡ɬ | z | ɬ | l | l |
| *l | l | l | r | r | r | r |
| *t | t | t | t | t' | d | d |
| *d | d | d | l | l | h | ɣ |
| *c | c | t͡ɕ | c | ɕ | j | d͡ʑ |
| *j | j | d͡ʑ | * | y | ʝ | |
| *k | k | k | k | k' | g | g |
| *g | g | g | * | h | ɣ | |
| *h | h | h | * | 0 | 0 | |
| *' | ' | ʔ | ' | ʔ | 0 | 0 |
| *q | q | kʷ | - | w | gʷ | |
The phonetic alternations of /s/ parallel those of /c/. One thing that should be noted is that /s/, /c/, and /z/ appear with their original phones in coda position if immediately preceded by a nasal or liquid.
page started: 2014.Jul.30 Wed
current date: 2014.Aug.04 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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