1.2 - Consonants
Two orders of consonats are generally recognized: strong and weak. This distinction, however, has phonemic status only in word-medial intervocalic position, while it is neutralised in all other positions. Only strong consonants occur word-intially, and only weak consonants occur word-finally. In clusters, the first element is weak, the second one is strong.
As a partial exception, the sonorants m, n and l (but not r) do not distinguish between strong and weak variations, but they can be either plain or geminated. Geminated sonorants only occur in word-medial intervocalic position.
In the orthography, phonemic strong consonants are written as geminated (doubled); phonemic weak consonants are written as plain consonants. Plain consonants are also employed for both strong and weak phones in the environments where the distinction is neutralised.
Here's a chart of the consonants. In parentheses, are given the palatalised allophones occurring before lax i.
| Weak | Strong | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | p | f | p |
| b | v | b | |
| m | m | ||
| Apical | t | t, s (S) | t (tS) |
| d | d (3) | d (d3) | |
| n | n (N) | ||
| l | l (L) | ||
| r | R | r | |
| Dorsal | c | x (ç) | k |
| g | [w] (J) | g | |
The values of ASCII-IPA symbols are as usual. [S] and [3] represent the voiceless and voiced alveopalatal fricatives, and [tS] and [d3] the corresponding affricates; [L] is the voiced palatal lateral; [R] is the voiced postalveolar approximant; [r] is the voiced alveolar trill; [ç] and [J] represent the voiceless and voiced palatal fricative.
Weak t has two allophones: [s] occurs as the first consonant in a cluster inside a word; [T] occurs elsewhere.
:: Anawanda TOC :: Previous :: Up :: Next ::