Surface Phonemes

Consonants

Manner	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Glottal
Plain Stop	p <b>	t <d>	k <g>
Aspirate	ph <p>	th <t>	kh <k>	h
Ejective	p' <p'>	t' <t'>	k' <k'>	? <'>
Fricative		s <s>
Nasal	m <m>	n <n>	N <ñ>
Liquid		l r <l r>
Syllabic Liquid		5= r\= <l r>
Approximant			j w <y w>

Vowels

Manner	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i <i>	1 <v>	u <u>
Mid	e <e>		o <o>
Low		a <a>
Nasal		a~ <ã>	o~ <õ>

Phonemes:

• Obstruent: /p p^h p' t t^h t' k k^h k' s/
• Sonorant: /m n N l r i u/
  
  • Consonant Allophones [m n N l r j w]
  • Vowel Allophones [o~ a~ o~ 5= r\= i u]
• Vowel: /e a o/

[h ? 1] are epenthetic

Sonority and Syllabification

• Obstruents can only be in syllable margins
• Vowels can only be in syllable nuclei
• Sonorants can be in either margins or nuclei

Sonorant	Margin	Nucleus
/m/	m	o~(m)
/n/	n	a~(n)
/n/	n	o~(N)
/l/	l	5=
/r/	r	r\=
/i/	j	i
/u/	w	u

Sonority Profile: Obstruent << {m,n,N} << {l,r} << {i,u} << {e,a,o}

In a sequence /XY/:

• if X < Y or X = Y : [XY] = [CV]
• if X > Y : [XY] = [VC]

Thus, in a sequence /XYZ/:

• if X < Y < Z: [XYZ] = [CV.CV]; /tri/ -> [tr\=.ri]
• if X < Y > Z: [XYZ] = [CVC]; /tir/ -> [tir]
• if X > Y < Z: [XYZ] = [V.CV]; /rti/ -> [r\=.ti]
• if X < Y < Z: [XYZ] = {V.CVC]; /irt/ -> [i.?r\=t]

Note that if /XY/ results in a [V1.CV2] sequence, [C] cannot be from /Y/ because a [CV] sequence cannot be homoorganic. If /X/ is less sonorant than /Y/, then [C] is from /X/.


If /X/ is more sonorant than /Y/, then [C] is epenthetic, because an onset cannot be more sonorant than a nucleus.


Note also that all syllables are CV or CVC. Thus [...VCV...] is syllabified as [V.CV], never [VC.V]

If two vowels are adjacent, a glottal stop is inserted between them, unless there is already another glottal stop or ejective to its left, in which case an <h> is inserted instead. If more vowel hiatuses occur, <h> and <'> alternate.


Only one consonant is allowed in a syllable onset, and one in a coda. If a sequence of consonants is not syllabifiable, <v> is epenthesized before the first unsyllabifiable consonant.


Note that intervocalic plain stops are voiced.