Kipin/Phonology

Kipin Phonology

Historical Development

Kikun

Kipin's ancestor, Kikun, is reconstructed to have the following consonant phonemes

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless Stops	p	t		k
Voiced Stops	b	d		g
Nasals	m	n		ŋ
Fricatives		s			h
Approximants	w	r	j
Lateral		l

and the following vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Low		a

Syllable structure was CV[C], where the allowable codas were alveolar sonorants, ie any of /n/, /r/ or /l/.

Stress was allocated according to the following rules, in order of precedence

1. Stress could not fall on the final syllable.
2. Stress fell on a heavy syllable whenever possible.
3. Stress fell as late in the word as possible, given the first two rules.

There was a vowel harmony system whereby a feature of the stressed vowel spread to all other vowels in the word

		Underlying Vowel
		i	a	u
Stressed Vowel	i	i	e	y
	a	e	a	o
	u	y	o	u

The phoneme /h/ had an allophone [ɸ] before rounded vowels

Sound changes

The following sound changes are thought to have occurred between Kikun and Kipin

Breaking of [y]

y ⇒ wi

Labialisation of velars

kw ⇒ p

gw ⇒ b

ŋw ⇒ m

Loss of w after ɸ

w ⇒ ∅ / ɸ_

Assimilation of [h] to preceding alveolar sonorant

h ⇒ z / [+sonorant]_

r ⇒ ∅ / _z

Loss of remaining [h]

h ⇒ ∅

Diphthongs

ii ⇒ ji

ie ⇒ je

ei ⇒ ej

ee ⇒ eː

aa ⇒ aː

Vocalisation of trapped semivowels

j ⇒ i / {C,#}_C

w ⇒ u {C,#}_C

Palatalisation and velarisiation of laterals

lj ⇒ ʎ

lw ⇒ ɫ

Palatalisation of alveolars

tj ⇒ t͡ʃ

dj ⇒ d͡ʒ

nj ⇒ ɲ

sj ⇒ ʃ

zj ⇒ ʒ

Assimilation of coda nasal

n ⇒ m / _{p,b,n,ɸ,w}

n ⇒ ŋ / _{k,g,ŋ,ɫ}

n ⇒ ɲ / _{ʎ,ɲ}

Epenthesis between long vowels

∅ ⇒ ɸ / {eː_eː,e_eː,eː_e aː_aː a_aː aː_a}

Regularisation of stress

Stress falls regularly on the penultimate syllable

Current Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
Voiceless stops	p	t			k
Voiced stops	b	d			g
Voiceless affricate			t͡ʃ
Voiced affricate			d͡ʒ
Voiceless fricatives	ɸ	s	ʃ
Voiced fricatives		z	ʒ
Nasals	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Approximants	w	r		j
Laterals		l		ʎ	ɫ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e, eː		o
Low		a, aː

Syllable Structure

[C][{w,j}]V[{V,j}][C]

subject to the following restrictions

• w may not follow a velar, ɸ, n or l, and may not follow w or j word initally
• j may not follow an alveolar (except r), and may not follow w or j word initially
• Voiced fricatives may not occur word initally or after r
• ɸ may not preceed w, and may only preceded e or a if preceded by another vowel of the same quality, and at least one of the surrounding vowels is long.
• Coda consonants may be r, l, a nasal (n if word final, else homoorganic with the following consonant) or a glide if the following syllable also begins with a glide

Stress

Falls regularly on the penultimate syllable