Guarani only allows syllables consisting of a consonant plus a vowel or a vowel alone; syllables ending in a consonant or two or more consonants together are not possible. This is represented as (C)V(V).
- Vowels: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ correspond more or less to the Spanish and IPA equivalents, although sometimes the allophones [ɛ], [ɔ] are used more frequently; the grapheme ⟨y⟩ represents the vowel /ɨ/ (as in Polish).
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/, /ĩ/ | /ɨ/, /ɨ̃/ | /u/, /ũ/ |
| Mid | /e/, /ẽ/ | /o/, /õ/ | |
| Open | /a/, /ã/ |
Consonants:[1]
IPA value is shown. The orthography is shown in angle brackets below, if different.
| Labial | Alveolar | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | Lab. velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Voiceless | p | t | k | kʷ ⟨ku⟩ |
ʔ ⟨'⟩ | |
| Voiced | ᵐb~m ⟨mb~m⟩ |
ⁿd~n ⟨nd~n⟩ |
dʒ~ɲ ⟨j~ñ⟩ |
ᵑɡ~ŋ ⟨ng⟩ |
ᵑɡʷ~ŋʷ ⟨ngu⟩ |
||
| Fricative | v ⟨f⟩ |
s | ɕ ⟨ch⟩ |
x~h ⟨h⟩ | |||
| Approximant | ʋ ⟨v⟩ |
j ⟨c⟩ |
ɰ ~ ɰ̃ ⟨g⟩ ~ ⟨g̃⟩ |
w ~ w̃ ⟨gu⟩ ~ ⟨g̃u⟩ |
|||
| Flap | ⱱ ⟨y⟩ |
ɾ ⟨r⟩ |
|||||
The voiced consonants have oral allophones (left) before oral vowels, and nasal allophones (right) before nasal vowels. The oral allophones of the voiced stops are prenasalized.
There is also a sequence /ⁿt/ (written ⟨nt⟩). A trill /r/ (written ⟨rr⟩), and the consonants /l/, /f/, and /j/ (written ⟨ll⟩) are not native to Guarani, but come from Spanish.
Oral [ᵈj] is often pronounced [dʒ], [ɟ], [ʒ], [j], depending on the dialect, but the nasal allophone is always [ɲ].
The dorsal fricative is in free variation between [x] and [h].
⟨g⟩, ⟨gu⟩ are approximants, not fricatives, but are sometimes transcribed [ɣ], [ɣʷ], as is conventional for Spanish. ⟨gu⟩ is also transcribed [ɰʷ], which is essentially identical to [w].
All syllables are open, viz. CV or V, ending in a vowel.
Glottal stop[]
The glottal stop is only written between vowels, but occurs phonetically before vowel-initial words. Because of this, Ayala (2000:19) shows that some words have several glottal stops near each other, which consequently undergo a number of different dissimilation techniques. For example, "I drink water" 'a'u'y is pronounced hau'y. This suggests that even irregular verbs in Guarani are regular underlyingly. There also seems to be some degree of variation between how much the glottal stop is dropped (for example aru'uka > aruuka > aruka for "I bring"). It is suspected that the glottal stop was not an original phoneme but that word-internal glottal stops are only fossilized compounds where the second component was a vowel-initial (and therefore glottal stop–initial) root.[2]
Nasal harmony[]
Guarani displays an unusual degree of nasal harmony. A nasal syllable consists of a nasal vowel, and if the consonant is voiced, it takes its nasal allophone. If a stressed syllable is nasal, the nasality spreads in both directions until it bumps up against a stressed syllable that is oral. This includes affixes, postpositions, and compounding. Voiceless consonants do not have nasal allophones, but they do not interrupt the spread of nasality.
For example,
- /ⁿdo+ɾoi+ⁿduˈpã+i/ → [nõɾ̃õĩnũˈpãĩ]
- /ro+ᵐbo+poˈrã/ → [ɾ̃õmõpõˈɾ̃ã]
However, a second stressed syllable, with an oral vowel, will not become nasalized:
- /iᵈjaˈkãɾaˈku/ → [ʔĩɲãˈkãɾ̃ãˈku]
- /aˈkãɾaˈwe/ → [ʔãˈkãɾ̃ãˈwe][3]
That is, for a word with a single stressed vowel, all voiced segments will be either oral or nasal, while voiceless consonants are unaffected, as in oral /ᵐbotɨ/ vs nasal /mõtɨ̃/.
References[]
- ↑ Michael, Lev, Tammy Stark, Emily Clem, and Will Chang (compilers). 2015. Phonological inventory of Paraguayan Guarani. In South American Phonological Inventory Database v1.1.4. Survey of California and Other Indian Languages Digital Resource. Berkeley: University of California.
- ↑ Ayala, Valentín (2000). Gramática Guaraní. Asunción: Centro Editorial Paraguayo S.R.L.
- ↑ Walker (2000) Nasalization, neutral segments, and opacity effects, p. 210