Ithruruk phonology: view article

Ithruruk has a fairly average phonology overall—average-sized inventory, few 'exotic' sounds, moderately simple phonotactics, no tone, and predictable stress—but it also has a few unusual quirks, such as limited vowel harmony, and the labialized dental series (which it shares with its cousin language,

Raptharungi).

[edit] [top]Phoneme inventory

Consonants	Labial	Dental		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
Consonants	°	ʷ	°	ʷ	°	°	ʷ	°	ʷ	°
Nasal	m				n	ɲ
Stop	p b	t̪ʷ d̪ʷ			t d		kʷ gʷ	k g	ʔʷ	ʔ
Fricative		θʷ ðʷ	θ ð	sʷ	s z		xʷ	x
Liquid				ɾʷ	ɾ	j	w

Vowels	Front	Neutral	Back
Close	i	[ɪ] [ʊ̈]	u
Mid	e̞		o̞
Open	[æ]	ä	[ɑ]

The mid vowels will henceforth be rendered as /e o/ for simplicity.

[edit] [top]Harmony

Words are inherently front, back, or neutral, which is determined by the first front or back vowel (/i e u o/) to appear. The phonemes /ä/ is realized as [ä] when it is the only vowel quality in the word (these are the neutral words); otherwise it harmonizes front to [æ] or back to [ɑ].

/i/ partially harmonizes to [i~ɨ] in back words, while /u/ partially harmonizes to [ʊ̈] in front words. (These sounds can also centralize due to certain adjacent consonants, which does not influence the overall word harmony.) It is worth noting that /i/ (and [ɪ]) never appears between two labialized consonants (e.g. *θʷikʷ).

/e o/ harmonize fully; that is, /e/ → [o] in back words, and /o/ → [e] in front words.

[edit] [top]Allophony

Beyond the harmonizing, /i/ appears as [ɪ] in contact with ʔ(ʷ) and when checked (in a closed syllable). This does not occur when it is also adjacent to /j/. Similarly, /u/ is [ʊ̈] when adjacent to /ʔ° j ɾ°/, but not if in contact with /w/ or any labialized consonant.

[edit] [top]Phonotactics

CV(C).

Codan't: ʔ, ʔʷ, voiced obstruents

Cross-syllabic clusters must match in rounding (round: m p b w Cʷ). /w/ does not occur after Cʷ.

[edit] [top]Stress

Stress is predictable based on the number of syllables in a word.

Monosyllabic words carry stress if they are lexical, and are unstressed if they are grammatical.

Disyllabic words have final stress: sasá.

At larger word sizes, both the initial and final syllable are stressed.

If there is an odd number of syllables (three, five, seven, etc), primary stress is initial, secondary stress is final, and tertiary trochaic stress occurs throughout (with a final degenerate foot for secondary stress): sákasà ; sákatu̇rikà...

In larger words with an even number of syllables (four, six, eight, etc), primary stress is final, and secondary stress is initial. Tertiary trochaic stress carries throughout again, until the final iambic foot, resulting in two unstressed syllables in a row near the end: sàkaturá, sàkatu̇risaká...

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