Syllables patterns Consonant clusters

Discourse genre is also marked by speed and cadence. In a storytelling situation as the speaker gets to an important or exciting part of the story he or she will start talking faster, higher, and with more intensity. Instead of occurring separately, grammatical words bind together to form single rhythm units. This is explained in greater detail in §2.4below. Different genres also take on different intonational patterns. For example, procedural texts tend to have a “sing songy” up and down type rhythm i.e., first we do this, then we do this, then we do this, etc.. Hortatory genre includes long pauses between phrases. These phrases usually start off with a rapid rhythm with high intensity and pitch which gradually slows down so that by the end of the sentence the speaker becomes soft spoken.

2.2 Syllables and phoneme distribution

2.2.1 Syllables patterns

There are eight syllable patterns which occur in Luang. The phonological word is composed of different combinations of the following: V, VC, CV, CVC, CCV, CCVC, CCCV and CCCVC. 20 The syllable pattern CV occurs in every position of the word while VC, CVC, CCV and CCVC occur word initially and medially. V occurs only word medially and finally. CCCV and CCCVC only occur word initially. 21 Table 5. Luang syllable patterns Initial Medial Final V - - - - - ʔa.ti.a.ru ‘except’ pwo.u ‘sailboat’ VC ot.na ‘rain’ ri.al.ma ‘inside’ - - - - - CV ru.ri ‘thorn’ mer.me.ra ‘red’ ni.ki ‘bat’ CVC ker.na ‘dry’ mot.mot.ni ‘green’ - - - - - CCV pre.yi ‘sleepy’ na.plo.la ‘it is true’ - - - - - CCVC tlin.ni ‘his ear’ na.plok.ra ‘it is sharp’ - - - - - CCCV hnya.ri ‘door’ - - - - - - - - - - CCCVC Tnyam.ni ‘grave’ - - - - - - - - - -

2.2.2 Consonant clusters

2.2.2.1 Distribution within syllables There are eight unambiguous consonant clusters that occur within the syllable patterns CCV and CCVC: pl, pr, tl, tr, kl, kr, wl and wr. As with all the other consonant clusters within a syllable, these occur only in the onset position. [pley.ni] pley.ni ‘before’ [pra.i] pra.i ‘k.o. drum’ [tli.wu] tli.wu ‘calm’ [tre ʔeni] tre.eni ‘number of sequences’ [klok ə̆.rә] klok.ra ‘one who takes an oath’ 20 Periods are used in the examples below to represent syllable breaks. 21 The syllable patterns in which three consonants occur simultaneously, such as CCCV and CCCVC do not occur within morphemes. They occur only across morpheme boundaries as a result of morphophonemic processes. The infixation of ny which derives a noun from a verb is one example of this, e.g., hari ‘open’ becomes hnyari ‘door’. [kri.t ә] kri.ta ‘octopus’ [ ʋlari] wla.ri ‘run’ [ ʋraʔu] wra. ʔu ‘plate’ All of the other syllable onset clusters listed in table 6 occur as a result of morphophonemic processes or between morpheme boundaries. However, a number of these also occur within a morpheme. In the following table, the row shows the first consonant and the column shows the second consonant in the cluster. Table 6. Syllable onset clusters p t d k g ʔ f s h m n l r w y p pn pl pr pw t tg tn tl tr ty d dy k kn kl kr ky g ʔ f s sn sy h hg hm hn hl hr hy m mn mw n nn ny l lg ly r ry w wn wl wr wy y From table 6 we can see that syllable onset clusters are quite limited. The absence of certain clusters e.g., ml and mr are because morphophonemic processes occur when they come together see §2.4.1 below. 2.2.2.2 Distribution between syllables The following table lists the consonant clusters that occur across syllable boundaries. Table 7. Consonant clusters across syllable boundaries p t d k g ʔ f s h m n l r w y p pp pm pn pl pr pw t tp tt td tk tg ts tm tn tl tr tw d dd dg dm dn dl dw k kp kt kd kk kh km kn kl kr kw g ʔ ʔp ʔt ʔd ʔk ʔh ʔm ʔn ʔl ʔr ʔw f s st sk sr h hp hk hg h ʔ hm hn hl hr hw m mp mt md mk mh mm mn ml mr n np nt nd nk nh nm nn nr nw l lp lt ld lk lg lh lm ll lr lw r rp rt rd rk rg rh rm rn rl rr rw w wp wt wd wk wl wr y yt ys ym yn yl yr There are several features which stand out in table 7 above. Note the absence of f clustering with any other consonant. The limited distribution of s can also be noted from the chart. It is interesting to note that g never occurs in a consonant cluster initially, y never occurs initially before other consonants between syllables, and ʔ only follows h in the CC final position yet most everywhere initially. There are also several “holes” that appear in table 7. Some holes are the result of phonemes such as d which occur less frequently word medially. Other “holes” are valid because when those consonants cluster morphophonemic processes occur that eliminate these sequences e.g., nl, ln, mw and wm; see §2.4.2 below. 2.2.2.3 Consonant restrictions The consonant clusters allowable within a morpheme are more restricted than across morphemes as seen below. The consonant clusters within a morpheme which occur morpheme initial are even more restricted. They are bolded in the chart below. 22 Table 8. Allowable consonant clusters within a morpheme p t d k g ʔ f s h m n l r w y p pt pn pl pr pw t tm tn tl tr tw d dk dn dl dw k kp kt kd km kn kl kr kw g ʔ ʔp ʔt ʔn ʔl ʔr ʔw f s sk h hp ht hk hg h ʔ hm hn hl hr hw m mp mt mk mn ml mr mw n nt nd nn l lt lm ll lw r rt rk rm rn w wt wn wl wr y yn yr

2.2.3 Vowel clusters