User:Masako/pataka

Pronunciation

consonants

Where ~ appears, it indicates free variation between phonemes.

This means that a word like pala can be pronounced any one of several ways; [pala], [bala], [para], or [bara] without confusion.

Nasals: m – /m/, n – /n/, ny – /ɲ/
Plosives: p – /p~b/, t – /t~d/, k – /k~g/, ‘ /ʔ/
Affricates: ts – /t͡s~t͡ʃ/, tl – /t͡l~ t͡ɬ/
Continuants: s – /s~ʃ/, h – /h~ɦ/, l – /l~r/
Semivowels: u – /w/, y – /j/

Labialized consonants: /pʷ/, /kʷ/, /mʷ/, /nʷ/, /sʷ/, /hʷ/, /t͡ʃʷ/
Palatalized consonants: /pʲ/, /kʲ/, /mʲ/, /hʲ/

vowels

Kala has five vowels /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and /u/.

diphthongs

Both of the falling diphthongs, ai [aɪ] and ao [aʊ], as well as uai [waɪ] and yao [jaʊ] only occur word finally.

allophony

/h/ becomes /ɦ/ when preceded or followed by a front vowel

The glottal stop is not phonemic but is included in the chart above. It is pronounced between two vowels and/or diphthongs that are not connected.

The continuant s is [ʃ] in most positions but is [s] when adjacent to ts. However, one could pronounce them either way (e.g. always [s] & [t͡s]) and still be understood.

Example:
sitsa – /’si:.tʃa/ – be warm; hot
tsasu – /’tʃa:.su/ – cursive or flowing writing