Vowels[]
Tonkawa has 10 vowels:
| Front | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | u | uː | ||
| Mid | e | eː | ə | əː | o | oː |
| Open | æ | æː | a | aː | ||
- Each vowel is distinguished by the quality of sound and the length of the vowel.
- The vowels occur in five pairs that have differing vowel lengths (i.e. short vowels vs. long vowels).
- In the front and the mid back vowel pairs, the short vowels are phonetically lower than their long counterparts: /i/ → [ɪ], /e/ → [ɛ], /o/ → [ɔ].
- The low vowels /a, aː/ vary between central and back articulations: [a~ɑ, aː~ɑː].
- Vowels that are followed by j and w are slightly raised in their position of articulation
Consonants[]
Tonkawa has 15 consonants:
| Bilabial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labial | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | |
| Plosive | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ |
| Affricate | t͡s | ||||
| Fricative | ɸ | s | x | xʷ | h |
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||
- The affricate /ts/ and fricative /s/ vary freely between dental and postalveolar articulations, i.e. [ts~tʃ] and [s~ʃ]. There is a tendency for [ʃ] to occur at the end of words (but no tendency for [tʃ]).
- The other coronals /t, n, l/ are consistently dental.
- The dorsal obstruents are produced with a palatal place of articulation before front vowels /i, iː, e, eː/, otherwise they are velar:
- /k, kʷ, x, xʷ/ → [c, cʷ, ç, çʷ]
- The dorsal approximants /j, w/ are consistently palatal and labiovelar respectively.
Consonant clusters[]
There are two environments in which consonant clusters occur in Tonkawa:
- when a consonant is repeated
- when the cluster is within the syllable
Repeated or identical consonants are treated as one unit. However, the condition that causes this repetition has not been fully analyzed.
- Example: sʔa-ko 'he scrapes it' versus mʔe-t-no 'lightning strikes him'
There are cases where the glottal stop is not used in the cluster or combination
There are certain consonants that can either begin or end in a cluster. However, if the cluster begins the syllable, there can be no intervening vowel.
- Initial Cluster Consonants: kʷ, m, n, s, x
- Final Cluster Consonants: ʔ
Phonological processes and morphophonemics[]
Initial stem syllables that begin with h-
- the h- is dropped when a prefix is added
- if the syllable is C + V, then the vowel is lengthened and given the quality of the stem vowel.
- if the syllable ends in a consonant, then the initial stem forms a new syllable with the final consonant of the prefix.
Final stem syllables
- Forms: C V w or C V y
- The form changes to C oː if followed by a suffix that starts with a consonant
- If a long vowel occurs the suffixes change from (-we/-wesʔ/aːdew) to (-oː or -o/oːsʔ/-aːdo)
An interesting feature of Tonkawan phonology is that the vowels in even-numbered syllables are reduced. That is, long vowels are shortened, while short vowels disappear. Analyses of this were given by Kisseberth (1970), Phelps (1973, 1975) and Noske (1993).
Syllable structure[]
The Tonkawa language is a syllabic language that bases its word and sentence prosody on even stressed syllables.
- Disyllabic words are when the stress is placed on the final syllable.
- Polysyllabic words are when the stress is moved to the next to last syllable, the penult.
There are five types of syllable arrangements: (CL consonant, CC: consonant cluster, V: vowel)
- C + V → ka-la 'mouth'
- C + V + C → tan-kol 'back of head'
- CC + V → sʔa-ko 'he scrapes it'
- CC + V + C → mʔe-t-no 'lightning strikes him'
- C + V + ʔs or sʔ/ lʔ/ jʔ → jam-xoʔs 'I paint his face'