Itlkaan phonology and orthography: view article

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Itlkaan phonology and orthography

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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 10 Dec 2017, 09:00.

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1. Itlkaan phonology and orthography

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Menu 1. Inventory 2. Allophony 3. Morphophonology

[top]Inventory

Consonants
Itlkaan has a relatively large phoneme inventory, including both ejectives and uvular consonants, but it noticeably lacks phonemic nasal consonants.

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		Bilabial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Plain	Labialized	Plain	Labialized	Glottal
Stops	Tenuis	p ⟨b⟩	t ⟨d⟩		k ⟨g⟩	kʷ ⟨kw⟩			ʔ ⟨Ø⟩*
	Aspirated	pʰ ⟨p⟩	tʰ ⟨t⟩		kʰ ⟨k⟩	kʰʷ ⟨kw⟩	qʰ ⟨ḵ⟩	qʰʷ ⟨ḵw⟩
	Ejective		tʼ ⟨t'⟩		kʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kw'⟩	qʼ ⟨ḵ'⟩	qʷʼ ⟨ḵw'⟩
Affricatives	Tenuis		t͡s ⟨z⟩	t͡ʃ ⟨j⟩
	Aspirated		t͡sʰ ⟨ts⟩	t͡ʃʰ ⟨ch⟩
	Ejective		t͡sʼ ⟨ts'⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨ch'⟩
Fricatives	Central		s ⟨s⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩	x ⟨x⟩	xʷ ⟨xw⟩	χ ⟨x̱⟩	χʷ ⟨x̱w⟩	h
Fricatives	Lateral		ɬ ⟨tl⟩
Liquids			ɫ ⟨l⟩	j ⟨j⟩	[ɰ] ⟨r⟩**	w ⟨w⟩

* The glottal stop is not written, but it predictably appears between vowels. This allows insane words like ⟨k'oooo⟩ [kʼu:ʔu:].
**The phoneme /ɰ/ does no longer appear in the spoken language, and is realized as [w] in contact with labiovelars or rounded vowels, and [j] elsewhere. The ⟨r⟩ is used to specify morphemes that contain this alternating phoneme.

Vowels
Itlkaan has three base vowels that distinguish tenseness/length, nasality and tone.

		Oral		Nasal
		Low	High	Low	High
Short/Lax	ʌ ⟨a⟩	ʌ	ʌ́	ʌ̃	ʌ̃́
	ɪ ⟨i⟩	ɪ	ɪ́	ɪ̃	ɪ̃́
	ʊ ⟨u⟩	ʊ	ʊ́	ʊ̃	ʊ̃́
Long/Tense	ɑ: ⟨aa⟩	ɑ:	ɑ́:	ɑ̃:	ɑ̃́:
	i: ⟨ee⟩	i:	í:	ĩ:	ĩ́:
	u: ⟨oo⟩	u:	ú:	ũ:	ṹ:

Orthography

To mark high tone, put an acute accent on the first letter, i.e. /í:/ ⟨ée⟩
To make a vowel nasal, place an ⟨n⟩ after it, i.e. /ʌ̃/ ⟨an⟩
To mark both nasality and high tone, use both an acute accent and ⟨n⟩, i.e. /ṹ:/ ⟨óon⟩

[top]Allophony

The tenuis non-fricative obstruents /p t t͡s t͡ʃ k kʷ/ voice to [b d z ʒ g gʷ] between vowels or between a vowel and a semivowel. eejwán [ʔi:ʒwʌ̃́]
Before [a:], the non-dorsal aspirated stops /pʰ tʰ t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ/ are uvularized to [pʰʶ tʰʶ t͡sʰʶ t͡ʃʰʶ] and the dorsal aspirated stops /kʰ kʰʷ qʰ qʰʷ/ are affricated to [k͡x k͡xʷ q͡χ q͡χʷ]. The uvularized consonants may be realized as [pχ tχ t͡sχ t͡ʃχ]. cháanḵa [t͡ʃʰʶã́:qʰʌ ~ t͡ʃχã́:qʰʌ]
/ɪ/ becomes [ɛ] word-finally, or in contact with [j]. k'ooyí [kʼu:jɛ́]

[top]Morphophonology

Reduction of ⟨r⟩:
- Between to ⟨a⟩s, it is deleted. x̱aat'a + -ra -> x̱aat'aa
- In contact with rounded vowels or labiovelars, it becoms ⟨w⟩. ingóo + -ra -> ingóowa
- Elsewhere, it becomes ⟨y⟩. tlabí + -ra -> tlabíya
⟨u⟩ is deleted between a (labio)velar consonant and a ⟨w⟩. ptaawú + -ra -> ptaawwá
Tone movement:
- Some clitics require that the last syllable of the word takes a high tone, and the penultimate syllable loses its tone. This causes the antepenultimate syllable to become long. tlabí + -ra + =pi > tlaabiyá pi
- If a syllable with high tone is deleted, the high tone moves to the following syllable. tlíkoon + =di > tlkóon di
⟨iy⟩ and ⟨y⟩ become ⟨l⟩ after tenuis stops and affricatives. sháabi + -ra > sháabla
Stem shortening: Some affixes and clitics require that the stem is shortend.
- If the stem has a long vowel, it is shortened. zéeyi + =di > zíyi di > zlí di
- If the stem is short, the vowel deletes. If a rounded vowel is deleted, it makes adjacent velar consonants labiovelar. k'utáa + =di > kw'táa di
⟨h⟩ is deleted between two equal short vowels. The vowels combine and become long, and tone and nasality are brought over to the new vowel. glan + -ha > glaan

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