Siye Phonology

Consonants	Labial	Coronal	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasals	m [m]	n [n]
Plosives	p [p] [pʰ]	t [t] [tʰ]			k [k] [kʰ]
Fricatives	p [ɸ]	s [s]	s [ʃ]	p [ç]	k [x]
Affricates		t [ts] [tsʰ]	k [ʧ] [ʧʰ]	p [tçʰ]	k [x]
Liquids	w [ʋ]	l [l]		y [j]
Miscellaneous	m [◌̃]	◌̃u

Outside the City, [ç] merges with [ʃ], even in Standard Siye.

Plosives and affricates are aspirated word-initially and verb-root-initially. Initial aspiration of plosives and affricates is far less common outside the City. m word-finally or before a consonant (including h) indicates a nasal vowel. h [0] is a placeholder after /m/ [ⁿ] and (in Early Siye and dialects) intervocalically.

Affrication	Place of Articulation	Before [u]	Before [i]	Notes
Labial	[p]	[ɸ]	[ç]
Initial Labial	[p]	[ɸ]	[tçʰ]
Dental	[t]	[ts]	[ʃ]	[ʃ] from [t] is an etymological spelling
Initial Dental	[tʰ]	[tsʰ]	[ʃ]	[ʃ] from [t] is an etymological spelling
Velar	[k]	[x]	[tʃ]
Initial Velar	[kʰ]	[x]	[tʃʰ]
Velar	[k]	[x]	[tʃ]
Initial Velar	[kʰ]	[x]	[tʃʰ]
Sibilant	[s]	[s]	[ʃ]
Initial Sibilant	[s]	[s]	[ʃ]

Oral Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close	i [i]			u [u]
High Mid	e [e]			o [o]
Low Mid		a [ə]
Open		a [a]

Nasal Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close-Mid	im [◌̃ɪ]			um [◌̃ʊ]
High Mid
Low Mid	em [ɛⁿ]		um [ʌⁿ]	om [ɔⁿ]
Open	am [æⁿ]

[ə] and [a], [ʊⁿ] and [ʌⁿ] are in free variation;

Update

As of 2246, unvoiced consonants are officially voiced before nasal vowels. In the City, this does not affect initial aspirated consonants, but in those dialects in which initial consonants are not aspirated, this voicing rule applies.

Nasalization and Advanced Tongue Root

In Standard Siye, the nasal vowels share the feature retracted tongue root (RTR), while the oral vowels share the feature advanced tongue root (ATR). In studies of Siye, the feature is defined as +ATR and -ATR. Standard Siye has the typologically rare 10-vowel ATR. The Near and Mid Provinces reduce the ATR system by removing [ə] in favor of a generalized [a].

Oral Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close	i [i]			u [u]
High Mid	e [e]			o [o]
Low Mid
Open		a [a]

Nasal Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close-Mid	im [ɪⁿ]			um [ʊⁿ]
High Mid
Low Mid	em [ɛⁿ]			om [ɔⁿ]
Open	am [aⁿ]

The Far Western Province uses a seven-vowel system:

Oral Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close	i [i]			u [u]
High Mid
Low Mid	ɛ [ɛ]			ɔ [ɔ]
Open		a [a]

Nasal Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close-Mid	im [ɪⁿ]			um [ʊⁿ]
High Mid
Low Mid	em [ɛⁿ]			om [ɔⁿ]
Open	am [aⁿ]

The Far Eastern Province and the Lake have a slightly different seven-vowel system:

Oral Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close	i [i]			u [u]
High Mid
Low Mid	ɛ [ɛ]			ɔ [ɔ]
Open		a [a]

Nasal Vowels	Front	Center	Back Unrounded	Back Rounds
Close	im [iⁿ]
Close-Mid				um [ʊⁿ]
High Mid
Low Mid	em [ɛⁿ]			om [ɔⁿ]
Open	am [aⁿ]

Vowel Dominance

Standard Siye vowels have a dominance system whereby one vowel eliminates an adjacent vowel rather than creating a long vowel or diphthong. Early Siye lacked this feature. The impact of vowel dominance in Siye is extensive, but many exceptions exist to avoid ambiguity. The dominance pattern follows a V-shape, starting in the high back, descending to low central, and ascending to high front. Thus the dominance hierarchy is as follows: /u/ > /o/ > /a/ > /e/ > /i/.

Stress Placement

Stress in Siye is is trochaic-dactylic. Polysyllabic affixes can only receive stress on the initial syllable. The combination of the following rules creates a complex primary-secondary stress pattern. Some regularly trisyllabic suffixes have bisyllabic allomorphs to conform to this pattern.

A Siye verb receives primary stress on the first syllable of the verb root; thus the verb /pelekopuyammu/[pe.le.kʰo.ɸu.jæⁿ.mu] and /lekunasonima/ [le.xu.so.ni.ma] receive primary stresses on /ko/ and /ku/.

The secondary stresses are distributed according to the following rules:

1) There is a minimum of one and maximum of two unstressed syllables between stressed syllable

2) Only the first syllable of a root or suffix can be stressed.

3) The sequence of preferred placements of secondary stresses are as follows: directional suffix; causative suffix; converbal suffix; number suffix; PAM (polarity-aspect-mood suffix.