Kī́rtako phonology

This chapter 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	ḗ ḕ			o	ṓ ṑ
				[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.