Yawelmani will be taken as representative.
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | đ /ɖ/ | g /ɡ/ | |||
| voiceless | plain | p /p/ | t /t/ | ṭ /ʈ/ | k /k/ | ʼ /ʔ/ | ||
| aspirated | ph /pʰ/ | th /tʰ/ | ṭh /ʈʰ/ | kh /kʰ/ | ||||
| ejective | pʼ/pʼ/ | tʼ/tʼ/ | ṭʼ /ʈʼ/ | kʼ /kʼ/ | ||||
| Affricate | voiced | ç /d͡z/ | ǰ /d͡ʒ/ | |||||
| voiceless | plain | c /t͡s/ | č /t͡ʃ/ | |||||
| aspirated | ch /t͡sʰ/ | čh /t͡ʃʰ/ | ||||||
| ejective | cʼ /t͡sʼ/ | čʼ /t͡ʃʼ/ | ||||||
| Fricative | Sibilant | voiceless | s /s/ | ṣ /ʂ/ | š /ʃ/ | |||
| voiced | s /z/ | ż /ʐ/ | ž /ʒ/ | |||||
| Non-sibilant | voiceless | f /ɸ/ | q /θ/ | x /x/ | h /h/ | |||
| voiced | v /β/ | j /ð/ | ɣ /ɣ/ | |||||
| Nasal | plain | m /m/ | n /n/ | ŋ /ŋ/ | ||||
| glottalized | mʼ /mˀ/ | nʼ /nˀ/ | ŋʼ /ŋˀ/ | |||||
| Approximant | plain | w /w/ | l /l/ | y /j/ | r /ɰ/ | |||
| glottalized | wʼ /wˀ/ | lʼ /lˀ/ | yʼ /jˀ/ | rʼ /ɰˀ/ | ||||
Vowels[]
Yawelmani has 8 vowel phonemes:
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| High | i | iː | u | uː |
| Mid | ɛ | ɛː | ɔ | ɔː |
| Low | a | aː | ||
- There are 4 short-long vowel pairs.
- Short high vowels may become more centralized in fast speech: /i/ → [ɪ], /u/ → [ʊ].
- Long high vowels are almost always lower than their short counterparts: /iː/ → [ɛː], /uː/ → [ɔː].
- All long vowels may be shortened by a phonological process. Thus, a single long vowel has two different phonetic realizations:
- /iː/ → [ɛ, ɛː],
- /aː/ → [a, aː],
- /uː/ → [ɔ, ɔː],
- /ɔː/ → [ɔ, ɔː].
- Note that the high long vowel /uː/ is usually pronounced the same as /ɔ/ and /ɔː/.
As can be seen, Yawelmani vowels have a number of different realizations (phones) which are summarized below:
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| High | i | u | ||
| Near-high | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Mid-high | e | eː | o | oː |
| Mid | ɛ | ɛː | ɔ | ɔː |
| Mid-low | æ | æː | ||
| Low | a | aː | ɑ | ɑː |
Syllable & phonotactics[]
The Yawelmani syllables can be either a consonant-vowel sequence (CV), such as deeyi- 'lead', or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence (CVC), such as xata- 'eat'. Thus the generalized syllable is the following:
- CV(C)
Word roots are bisyllabic and have either one of two shapes:
- CV.CV
- CV.CVC
Phonological processes[]
Vowel shortening[]
When long vowels are in closed syllables, they are shortened:
/p’a.xaː.t’it/ → [p’axaːt’it] p̓axaat̕it 'mourn (passive aorist)' (/aː/ remains long) /p’a.xaːt’.hin/ → [p’axat’hin] p̓axat̕hin 'mourn (aorist)' (/aː/ is shortened) /ts’u.juː.hun/ → [ts’ujɔːhun] c̓uyoohun 'urinate (aorist)' (/uː/ remains long) /ts’u.juːt/ → [ts’ujɔt] c̓uyot 'urinate (passive aorist)' (/uː/ is shortened)
Vowel harmony[]
Yawelmani has suffixes that contain either an underspecified high vowel /I/ or an underspecified non-high vowel /A/.
- Underspecified /I/ will appear as /u/ following the high rounded vowel /u/ and as /i/ following all other vowels /i, a, ɔ/:
/-hIn/ -hun/-hin (aorist suffix) /muʈhIn/ → [muʈhun] muṭhun 'swear (aorist)' /ɡij’hIn/ → [ɡij’hin] giy̓hin 'touch (aorist)' /ɡɔphIn/ → [ɡɔphin] gophin 'take care of infant (aorist)' /xathIn/ → [xathin] xathin 'eat (aorist)'
- Underspecified /A/ will appear as /ɔ/ following the non-high rounded vowel /ɔ/ and as /a/ following all other vowels /i, u, a/:
/-tAw/ -tow/-taw (nondirective gerundial suffix) /ɡɔptAw/ → [ɡɔptɔw] goptow 'take care of infant (nondir. ger.)' /ɡij’tAw/ → [ɡij’taw] giy̓taw 'touch (nondir. ger.)' /muʈtAw/ → [muʈtaw] muṭtaw 'swear (nondir. ger.)' /xattAw/ → [xatːaw] xattaw 'eat (nondir. ger.)'
Vowel epenthesis[]
Yawelmani adds vowels to stems, when suffixes with an initial consonant are affixed to word with two final consonants in order to avoid a triple-consonant-cluster.