Akachenti Phonology
Contents
Phonology
Orthography
The phonemic inventory of Pre-Modern Akachenti was somewhat captured at the adoption of the Tongchan writing system, a series of glyphs for the perceived phonemes of the language. In particular, the current ae diphthong was considered a vowel, length was distinguished for five of the six vowels, and several current consonantal phonemes were and are considered consonant clusters.
- Vowels: a, a:, o, o:, u, u:, ae, e, e:, i, i:
- Consonant "Clusters": nl, hl, tl, dl, ngl, khl, kl, gl
The above are all clicks with pre-glottalized allophones in glottalic tone syllables.
Vowels
The phonemic vowel inventory contrasts five qualities, three heights, and length.
Short Vowels | Long Vowels | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
front | central | back | front | central | back | |
close | i | u | i: | u: | ||
mid | e | o | e: | o: | ||
open | a | a: | ||||
PHONEMIC DIPHTHONG | aɛ - aɪ |
Long vowels are pronounced with a low tone. The phonemic diphthong in the bottom row is the only one treated as a phonemic vowel in Akachenti's orthography and is romanized as ae. Other diphthongs are treated orthographically as vowel clusters.
Front | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
close | iɪ - ij | ui | |
mid | ie | ue | |
open | ia | ua |
The close diphthongs in the top row are typically falling diphthongs, with the first vowel more prominent, though iɪ can realize as rising "diphthong" jɪ. The remaining four diphthongs are typically rising, with e and a being prominent.
Consonants
Updated Phonology Table
Labial | Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
pulmonic | click | pulmonic | click | ||||||
Resonant | m | n | ᵑǃ | ɾ~ɹ | ŋ | ᵑǁ | |||
Stop | fortis | b~p | t | ǃ | ǁ | k | ʔ | ||
lenis | d | ǃs | ᶢǁ | g |
Click Consonants
Front (apical/alveolar) | Back (lateral/palatal) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
affricate | tenuis | voiced | nasal | affricate | tenuis | voiced | nasal | |
sharp | ǃ (tl) | ᵑǃ (nl) | ||||||
soft | ǁ (kl) | ᶢǁ (gl) | ᵑǁ | |||||
fricated | ǃx (hl) | ǃs (l) | ǁx (khl) |
Draft Table
Labial | Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Palato-Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
voiced | voiceless | murmured | voiced | voiceless | murmured | voiced | voiceless | murmured | voiceless | murmured | |||
nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||||||||
click | nasal | ᵑǃ | ᵑǁ | ||||||||||
simple | gǃ | ǃ | gǁ | ǁ | |||||||||
fricated release | (sgǃˡ) | sǃʱˡ | sǁʱˡ | ||||||||||
stop/affricate | b | d | t | dʒ | tʃ | g | k | ʔ | |||||
fricative | f-v | s | ʃ | ç | x | (ɦ) | |||||||
tap/approximant | ɺ | ɹ - ɾ |
Consonants in parentheses are allophones. The only true consonantal approximant in Akachenti is an allophone of the rhotic tap. The lateral tap has the allophone of a voiced fricated alveolar click.
Akachenti disallows clicks in coda positions or multiple clicks appearing in a single lexical root.
Clusters
n | ŋ | ɹ | ɦ | x | d | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
nonlabial click/stop/affr. | n(C) | ŋ(C) | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ |
labial (m, b, v) + g | ∅ | ∅ | (C)ɹ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ |
v | ∅ | ∅ | (C)ɹ | (C)ɦ | (C)x | ∅ |
ʃ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | (C)d |
Regional dialect variations may allow sɹ, ʃɹ, dɹ, or ɹɦ and ɹx, but this is disfavored in most Akachenti dialect regions.
Allophones
Syllable | Midtone (default) | Glottalic Tone | Low Tone | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Onset | Intervocalic | Coda | Word-Final | Onset | Intervocalic | Coda | Onset | Intervocalic | Coda | |
Q Dialect | k | k | k̚ | kʼ | kʼ | k | k | |||
S Dialect | k | k | k̚ | q | q | k̬ | k̬x̆ | k̬ |