60 2.3.2. Notes
Vowels Front
Central Back
unrd unrd
rd
Close h
[ X] t
Near-close [
H] [
T]
Close-mid
[ d]
n, [n:]
Mid
=
Open-mid D
B, [B:]
Near-open Open
`, `:
Tones Category
1 2 3 4 5 6 7, 9
8, 10
Pitch value 24 31 53 42 45 44 45 44
2.3.2. Notes
•
[w] only occurs on two items. In this lect, the [w] and [v] phones are quite close together, sometimes falling somewhere in between. Different utterances of the same word with these
phones often have some beginning with [w] and some with [v]. Therefore, [w] is considered an allophonic variation of [v], which is taken to be the phoneme.
•
[f] only occurs on words with even tones. [v] mainly occurs on words with odd tones with three exceptions. They are viewed as dif-
ferent phonemes, however, since the voicing distinction is quite clear. See minimal pairs
.
•
[ G] only occurs on three morphemes and there is no occurrence of [F]. There are only two
occurrences of [h], but [x] occurs many times. [h] is, therefore, considered a variation of [x].
It is difficult to know whether [ G] should be considered phonemic, or a variation of [x]. It
seems that the voiced velarglottal fricatives are becoming voiceless. [
G] could arguably be considered phonemic, but because there are only three occurrences, it is considered an allophonic variation of [x]. Also, there is only one occurrence of [xw] and no
occurrences of [xu] or [ wT].
[xw] will be considered to have the UR underlying representation [xu].
•
[ ¯] occurs on nine items and is distinct from [n].
[ ¯] occurs not only before high vowels, but others as well. See
minimal pairs .
•
[ fi] occurs on four morphemes and a [fh] + V combination occurs on one item. The palatal-
ization is fairly easy to distinguish on three of the morphemes, so is considered phonemic. [j] occurs on 10 morphemes and is clearly separate from [
fi]. However, one exception is 259 ‘to blink’ [
io6]. This morpheme also occurs in 2 ‘lightning’ [fio6 oi`2], which is glottalized. It is possible that the [
fi] initial is being lost.
•
[pj] occurs on seven morphemes and the palatalization is distinct. A [pi] + V combination occurs on one lexical item.
2. Phonology of data points 61
•
[kw] occurs several times and the labialization is quite distinct. There is one occurrence of a [ku] + V combination.
•
There is only one occurrence of [ Mv] and no occurrences of [MtT] + V. The labialization is
quite easily distinguished, so is considered phonemic.
•
[ fv] occurs once and [ft] + V occurs on two morphemes. The item transcribed [fv] sounds
labialized, but not strongly. For this reason, [ fv] is not considered phonemic.
•
[a:], [ ], and [a] are all phonemically distinct. However, there is only one exact minimal pair
and very few near minimal pairs between [a:] and [a]. See minimal pair
sets.
•
There are six items with [ H], all in the environment C__C with one exception.
[i] also occurs in this environment, so the sound change from [i] to [ H] in that environment is
inconsistent.
•
[e] occurs on four lexical items and [ D] occurs numerous times. The vowel quality difference
between these two sounds in this lect are slight, so [e] is not considered phonemic, but a variation of [
D].
•
[o:] occurs on three items and [ B:] only occurs on one item. They are not considered phonemic.
•
[ B] only occurs on four different morphemes. The vowel quality on those four morphemes is
fairly distinct from [o], but it is difficult to know whether to include [ B] in the phonology of
this lect. [o] occurs numerous times. For now, [
B] is included in the phonology. See minimal pairs
.
•
The situation with [ T] and [u] is the same as with [H] and [i]. See
rule .
•
Whether [ =] and [X] are distinct phonemes or allophones for this lect is a difficult question.
[ X] occurs several times and [=] occurs a bit more frequently.
[ X] generally occurs in the environment C__ or C__= and [=] generally occurs in the
environment C__VC or C__
σ
. Exceptions to these are 204 ‘ghost’ [ st1 eX`:M1],
213 ‘direction’ [ oXM0],
3
and 266 ‘to hear’ [ ¯HD=0]. Since the occurrence of these two
phones is in complementary distribution with only the above exceptions, [ X] is taken as an
allophone of [ =]. For some of the items with the [X] sound, the vowel quality sounds distinct
from [ =], while for others it sounds rather close to [=].
2.3.3. Minimal pairs
