Naduta Phonology
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A description of the phonology of Naduta
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 22 Sep 2017, 04:43.
[comments] ndtphonology
1. Applicative
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2. Grammar temp
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3. Modals in Naduta
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11. Naduta Phonology
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13. Naduta Pronouns
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14. Naduta Verb Root Forms
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15. Naduta Verbal Aspect
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18. Transitivity
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The following is a brief description of Naduta phonology.Naduta has a simple four-vowel inventory, comprising the vowels /i æ u ɑ/. There are no diphthongs, no length or phonation or other such distinctions, and any vowels which appear in sequence are not merged, and are pronounced distinctly.
There is in fact a fifth vowel, [ɛː~eː]. Under a purely phonological analysis, this vowel may clearly be analyzed as the sequence /æj/, but morphologically, it behaves as a single vowel, as evidenced by the formation of the passive voice, which reduplicates only CV sequences and not CVC sequences, yet reduplicates the sequence /Cæj/ fully. Compare the following reduplications:
mer- → memer-
muy- → mumuy-
tey- → teytey-
The vowel /i/ undergoes allophonic diphthongization to [iə] when followed by /x/, e.g. gerih [gæɾiəx].
Naduta has a number of stops and continuants, but among them, only two fricatives. All stops and several continuants have breathy and non-breathy counterparts. Certain morphophonological processes result in the addition or loss of breathiness in these consonants.
| breathy | /pʰ tʰ kʰ m̥ n̪̥ j̥ w̥/ |
|---|---|
| non-breathy | /p t k m n j w/ |
| other | /b d g ɾ t͡ɾ s x/ |
The somewhat unusual consonant /t͡ɾ/ is in fact the result of fortification of a consonant that used to be /ɾ/. As the old consonant /l/ began to shift to /ɾ/, the existing /ɾ/ dissimilated through the addition of an initial stop. As earlier /ɾ/ only occurred syllable-initially, /t͡ɾ/ also only appears syllable-initially.
Adjacent to the stop consonants /tʰ t d n̪̥ t͡ɾ s/, /ɾ/ retains its pronunciation [l]. This is not indicated in the Romanization.
Additionally, the sequence /ɾɾ/ always results in [t͡ɾ]. This is explicitly indicated in the Romanization.
Allophonic voicing also occurs in the two fricatives. When followed by a voiced consonant, /s/ and /x/ are realized as [z] and [ʁ̞] respectively. This is not indicated in the Romanization.
The syllable structure of Naduta is (C)V(C). Any consonant may occur in onset position, however, the consonants which may occur in the coda are phonologically limited to the following five consonants: /n s h r j/. However, certain consonants which are phonologically prohibited from occurring in the coda may nevertheless appear as the coda of lexical roots. How these are treated will be explained below.
The stops /p t k/ may occur lexically in coda position. In most instances, these consonants are simply elided; however, in the rare instances that the presence of these consonant does not violate phonological rules, they are retained. They appear before vowel-initial suffixes, and with the modal suffix for verbs, these consonants not only reappear but are converted to their breathy counterparts.
The approximant /w/ also appears lexically in coda position, but unlike stop consonants, it is not elided, but rather is realized phonologically as the vowel /u/. However, this consonant behaves identically to stop consonants in the environments outlined above.
Examples:
da(t)-:
da + rey → da-rey
da + ey → dat-ey
sa(p)-:
sa + mu → sa-mu
sa + hi-mu → sa-phi-mu
meu-:
meu + rey → meu-rey
meu + ey → mew-ey
pemuu-:
pemuu + mu → pemuu-mu
pemuu + hi-mu → pemu-whi-mu
Naduta is pronounced with a simple two-tone pitch accent, evolved from a previously more complex tone system. The pitch accent is entirely lexical, and serves no grammatical function. Each root has a single pattern which determines the pitch of the affixes added to it. This pattern is determined by a core syllable that determines the pitch pattern of all neutral syllables that follow it. The core syllable is in most cases the first syllable, but when it is not, syllables before, including prefixes will take high pitch (however, the past tense affix takes low pitch). There are four patterns:
1. high: the core syllable and all that follow it are high.
Examples:
bir- "to arrive": (H)
birmu "he arrives" (HH)
birutra-buru "you will not arrive" (HHHHH)
2. low: the core syllable and all that follow it are all low.
phah- "to write" (L)
phahra "you write" (LL)
phahurmu-buru "they do not write" (LLLLL)
3. high-low: the core syllable is high, and all that follow it are low.
beyneyen "difficulty (NOM.SG)" (HLL)
beyneyerna "difficulty (NOM.PL)" (HLLL)
4. low-high: the core syllable is low, and all that follow it are high.
asay- "to acknowledge" (LH)
asaygu "I acknowledge" (LHH)
asayri-buru "We do not acknowledge" (LHHHH)
When stems are compounded, the stems retain their accent patterns, resulting in a more complex pattern:
anu- "to speak" (HH-H)
par- "tongue" (L-H)
anupar- "language" (HHL-H)
biti- "to wrap; to cover" (HL-L)
gir- "to finish; to complete" (HL-L)
bitigir- "complete (adj)" (HLH-L)
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