Kī́rtako phonology

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Main article: Kī́rtako

This page gives an extensive description of Kī́rtako phonological features.

Consonants

The consonant system distinguishes 20 phonemes, traditionally arranged in the following scheme:

IPA
Transcription
plosive voiceless
[p]
[k]
[t]
p
k
t
voiced
[g]
g
aspirated
[pʰ]
[kʰ]
[tʰ]
ph
kh
th
nasal
[m]
[n]
[ɲ]
m
n
ñ
liquid
[r]
[l]
r
l
fricative velar
[ɣ]
ɣ
sibilant
[s]
s
alveolar
[ʃ]
š
alveolar
[ʔ]
[h]
ʔ
h
approximant
[j]
[w]
j
w
affricate
[ʦ]
ts

The group of the plosive consonants distinguishes three sub-groups: voiceless, voiced, and aspirated, even though the voiced sub-group includes only the phoneme [g].

The group of the fricative consonants is overall well developed, although less rich, like the group of the nasal and of the liquid consonants. The glottal consonant, [ʔ], while formally a plosive, is traditionally included in the fricative group. The phonemes [j] and [w] have a full consonantal value and they are never regarded as semivowels.

Vowels

There are 6 vocalic phonemes, which exhibit other forms of distinction:

IPA
Transcription
[i]
[iː˩˧]
[iː˧˩]
[u]
[uː˩˧]
[uː˧˩]
i
ī́
ī̀
u
ū́
ū̀
[e]
[eː˩˧]
[eː˧˩]
[o]
[oː˩˧]
[oː˧˩]
e

o

[ɑ]
ɑ
[a]
[aː˩˧]
[aː˧˩]
a
ā́
ā̀

5 vowels have a short form and a long form. Each long form distinguishes two types: one with a rising tone and one with a falling tone.

The open-back phoneme, [ɑ], makes no distinction, neither in length nor in tone.

Stress

The stress is firmly on the first syllable of the word root.

[ˈkɑ.wo.kow]

Monosyllabic words, often with a grammatical meaning, are meant to be unstressed and cliticized to the word which they are grammatically bound to.

Polysyllabic words, which are generally composed by more than a word root, usually turn one of the stresses in a secondary one. The stress on the first root is the most likely to become secondary, while also the second stress may become the secondary, albeit in very rare cases.

[ˌpi.ke.ˈmeː˩˧.ʔi]

Tones

The long vowels make a distinction in tone, between a rising [Vː˩˧] tone and a falling [Vː˧˩] tone. Every long vowel has a tonal feature, which is always marked in the script.

pikemḗʔi [ˌpi.ke.ˈmeː˩˧.ʔi]

The vowels with the falling tone are found mostly at the end of words, due to the loss of a previous final consonant. They can be found, quite infrequently, in a medial position inside of a word, mostly in loanwords.

ʔimḗɣɑme - ʔimḕ [ˌʔi.meː˩˧.ɣɑ.me] - [ˌʔi.meː˧˩]

Syllabic structure

The basic syllable structure in Kī́rtako is (C)V(C). There are, however, some constraints:

  1. A word cannot consist of an exclusively vowel syllable, V, but such a syllable, V, can be found at the beginning of a multisyllabic word:
*[a]
[u.ˈma.tsoː˩˧.ta]
  1. A word can consist of only one syllable of type VC, and a polysyllabic word can begin with such a syllable:
[om]
[ˈer.tu]
  1. A CVC-type syllable is usually found at the end of a word, while is quite infrequent within the word or at its beginning. Monosyllabic words with such a syllabic structure are known to exist.
[ˈkɑ.wo.kow]
[ˈkiː˩˧r.ta.ko]
[ˈkoː˩˧w]
  1. CV-type syllables are allowed in every position within a polysyllabic word. Monosyllabic words with this structure are limited in number, but relevantly used.
[ˈko.wɑ.ka.ka]
[ˈnɑ]

Clusters of more than two consonants are prohibited, both in syllabic onset and in coda.

Diphthongs

There are no diphthongs of any kind; the phonemes [j] and [w] have always full consonantal value.