Kī́rtako phonology
- Main article: Kī́rtako
This page gives an extensive description of Kī́rtako phonological features.
Consonants
The consonant system distinguishes 20 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:
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plosive | voiceless | |
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voiced | |
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aspirated | |
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nasal | |
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liquid | |
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fricative | velar | |
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sibilant | |
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alveolar | |
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alveolar | |
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approximant | |
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affricate | |
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The group of the plosive consonants distinguishes three sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, and aspirated, even though the voiced sub-group includes only the phoneme [g].
The group of the fricative consonants is overall well developed, although less rich, like the group of the nasal and of the liquid consonants. The glottal consonant, [ʔ], while formally a plosive, is traditionally included in the fricative group. The phonemes [j] and [w] have a full consonantal value and they are never regarded as semivowels.
Vowels
There are 6 vocalic phonemes, which exhibit other forms of distinction:
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[iː˧˩] |
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[uː˧˩] |
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ī̀ |
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ū̀ | ||||
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[eː˧˩] |
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[oː˧˩] |
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ḕ |
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ṑ | ||||
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[aː˧˩] |
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ā̀ |
5 vowels have a short form and a long form. Each long form distinguishes two types: one with a rising tone and one with a falling tone.
The open-back phoneme, [ɑ], makes no distinction, neither in length nor in tone.
Stress
The stress is firmly on the first syllable of the word root.
[ˈkɑ.wo.kow]
Monosyllabic words, often with a grammatical meaning, are meant to be unstressed and cliticized to the word which they are grammatically bound to.
Polysyllabic words, which are generally composed by more than a word root, usually turn one of the stresses in a secondary one. The stress on the first root is the most likely to become secondary, while also the second stress may become the secondary, albeit in very rare cases.
[ˌpi.ke.ˈmeː˩˧.ʔi]
Tones
The long vowels make a distinction in tone, between a rising [Vː˩˧] tone and a falling [Vː˧˩] tone. Every long vowel has a tonal feature, which is always marked in the script.
pikemḗʔi [ˌpi.ke.ˈmeː˩˧.ʔi]
The vowels with the falling tone are found mostly at the end of words, due to the loss of a previous final consonant. They can be found, quite infrequently, in a medial position inside of a word, mostly in loanwords.
ʔimḗɣɑme - ʔimḕ [ˌʔi.meː˩˧.ɣɑ.me] - [ˌʔi.meː˧˩]
Syllabic structure
The basic syllable structure in Kī́rtako is (C)V(C). There are, however, some constraints:
- A word cannot consist of an exclusively vowel syllable, V, but such a syllable, V, can be found at the beginning of a multisyllabic word:
*[a] [u.ˈma.tsoː˩˧.ta]
- A word can consist of only one syllable of type VC, and a polysyllabic word can begin with such a syllable:
[om] [ˈer.tu]
- A CVC-type syllable is usually found at the end of a word, while is quite infrequent within the word or at its beginning. Monosyllabic words with such a syllabic structure are known to exist.
[ˈkɑ.wo.kow] [ˈkiː˩˧r.ta.ko] [ˈkoː˩˧w]
- CV-type syllables are allowed in every position within a polysyllabic word. Monosyllabic words with this structure are limited in number, but relevantly used.
[ˈko.wɑ.ka.ka] [ˈnɑ]
Clusters of more than two consonants are prohibited, both in syllabic onset and in coda.
Diphthongs
There are no diphthongs of any kind; the phonemes [j] and [w] have always full consonantal value.