Obokuitai phonology

The following discussion is based on Jenison & Jenison (1991).

Unusual phonological features of Obokuitai and other Lakes Plain languages are the complete lack of nasals, even allophones, and a series of extra high or fricativized vowels that developed from loss of a following stop consonant. Obokuitai has one of the smallest phonemic inventories in the world, level with the Pirahã and Rotokas languages.

Consonants

	Bilabial		Alveolar		Velar		Glottal
	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Stop	p	b	t	d	k	ɡ	ʔ
Fricative	ɸ	β	s	z	x	ɣ	h
Approximant				ɹ		ɰ

The small consonant inventory is typical of Lakes Plain languages.

Vowels

Obokuitai has sixteen vowels.

	Front		Central		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
High	i		ɨ	ʉ		u
High-mid	e	ø		ɵ		o
Low-mid	ɛ		ɜ		ʌ	ɔ
Low	æ		a	ɶ	ɑ

Tone

Like the other Lakes Plain languages, Obokuitai is tonal. L, H, and HL pitch contours occur on monosyllabic words. A phonological analysis of the tone system remains to be completed. However, the probable phonemic aspect of the tone is shown through the minimal triad kuik¹ ‘rock’, kuik² ‘insect’ (sp.) and kuik¹² ‘lizard’ (sp.).

External links

• Obokuitai language