The phonology of Xavante is described by McLeod (1974).
Vowels[]
Xavante has nine vowel qualities, long and short. Four occur nasalized, long and short.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i, ĩ | ɨ | u, ũ |
| Mid-high | ɪ | ɘ | ʊ |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Mid-low | ɛ, ɛ̃ | ɔ, ɔ̃ | |
| Low | æ | a, ã | ɑ, ɑ̃ |
/i/ is [iː] when long and [ɪ] when short. /e/ is raised after /r/ in a non-initial syllable. /a/ is a central vowel. It is a rounded [ɐ̹] in certain stylistic conventions. /ɔ/ is a mid vowel [ɔ̝ː] when long, and a more open [ɔ] when short. /u/ is [uː] when long and [u] or [ʊ] when short. /o/, /ɨ/, and /ɛ/ do not vary much. /ə/ is written ⟨ë⟩ in the orthography.
Consonants[]
Xavante has ten consonants, /p t c ʔ b d j r w h/. They are realized as,
| Labial | Coronal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| apical | laminal | ||||
| Plosives | Voiceless | pʰ | tʰ | tʃʰ | ʔ |
| Voiced | b | d | dʒ | ||
| Fricatives | Voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h |
| Voiced | v | z | ʒ | ||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Sonorants | w | ɾ | j | ||
(/j/ varies between obstruent and sonorant, alveolar and palatal.)
Xavante is highly unusual in lacking velar consonants, except for the labio-velar approximant /w/. At a phonemic level, it arguably also lacks nasal consonants, which is less unusual in the Amazon. The language however has a high degree of allophony, and nasal stops [m n ɲ] appear before nasal vowels.[1]
Allophony[]
With so few phonemic contrasts, Xavante allows wide latitude in allophones of its consonants.
- P and T: /p/, /t/ are aspirated [pʰ], [t̪ʰ] as syllable onsets (at the beginning of a word, between vowels, or before /r/), and unreleased [p̚], [t̪̚] as syllable codas (at the end of a word or before a consonant other than /r/).
- C: /c/ freely varies among [tʃʰ, tsʰ, ʃ, s] as an onset, and [t̪ʲ, ʃ] as a coda (only preceding another /c/, as [tːʃ, ʃː]).
- ’: /ʔ/ is a glottal stop [ʔ].
- B: In a C or CC syllable onset before an oral vowel, /b/ is pronounced as a plain voiced stop [b] at the beginning of a phonological word, and as either [b] or as a prenasalized voiced stop [ᵐb in the middle of a word. Before nasal vowels, as C or CC, it is pronounced [m].
- As a syllable coda, /b/ is pronounced [m] before /h/ regardless of the following vowel's nasality, and optionally also as [m] before the oral allophones of the other voiced obstruents, /d/ and /j/: [bd, bdʒ] or [md, mdʒ]. It is [m] before [ɲ].[2]
- D: In a syllable onset before an oral vowel, /d/ is pronounced either as a plain voiced stop [d̪] or as prenasalized voiced stop [ⁿd̪]. Unlike /b/, it may be prenasalized at the beginning of a phonological word, not just as a syllable onset. Before a nasal vowel, it is pronounced [n̪].
- As a syllable coda, /d/ is pronounced [d̪] before the oral allophone of a consonant, and as [n̪] before a nasal consonant.
- J: In a syllable onset before an oral vowel, /j/ is pronounced [dz, z, dʒ, ʒ, j], in free variation. Before a nasal vowel, it is pronounced [ɲ].
- As a syllable coda, /j/ is generally pronounced [j], and is nasalized to [ȷ̃] or [ɲ] after a nasal vowel.[3] It is also nasalized to [ȷ̃] before a prenasalized stop allophone. Between oral vowels, the sequence /jb/ optionally takes an epenthetic [d]: [jb] or [jdb]. When [ɲ] is followed by an /h/, a nasalized epenthetic schwa separates them.
- R: /r/ is an alveolar flap, [ɾ], which is nasalized [ɾ̃] between nasal vowels.
- W: /w/ is similar to English w, but not rounded before the vowel /i/.[4]
- H: /h/ has no place of articulation, but is a voiceless transition between vowels.
Vowels do not become nasalized because of nasalized consonants, so the only consonants that become nasal are those in a cluster preceding a nasal vowel (and coda /j/ after a nasal vowel); a preceding oral vowel blocks the nasality from spreading to preceding syllables.
Phonotactics[]
Xavante syllables are of the forms CV, CCV, CVC, CCVC, CV:, and CCV:; that is, all syllables begin with a consonant, sometimes two; they may optionally either end with a consonant or have a long vowel. Although a syllable may end in a consonant, a phonological word may not, apart from a few cases of word-final /j/.
The attested initial CC consonant clusters are:
- /pr br ʔr ʔb ʔw/.
All seven obstruents occur in final position, but in a maximal CCVC syllable only /p b j/ are attested. Across two syllables, the following CC sequences are attested:
- /pp, pt, pc, pʔ/
- /tt/
- /cc/
- /ʔʔ ʔb/
- /bb, bd, bj, br, bh/
- /dd/
- /jp, jt, jʔ, jb, jj, jw, jr, jh/.
There are also CCC sequences such as /pʔr/ (coda /p/ followed by onset /ʔr/).
The vowels /o/ and /ɨ/ are rare, and not attested in maximal CCVC syllables.
References[]
- ↑ It can be argued either that these are nasalized allophones of the voiced obstruents, that is, that /b/ or /mb/ is pronounced [m] before /ã/, or that the voiced obstruents are denasalized allophones of nasal stops before oral vowels, with /m/ pronounced [mb] or [b] before /a/. The key point is that nasality is determined by the vowels, not by the consonants.
- ↑ All voiced obstruents are presumably nasalized before all nasal allophones, though [mɲ] is the only sequence that is attested.
- ↑ It is not yet clear when it is [ȷ̃] and when [ɲ].
- ↑ As McLeod & Mitchell (2003:11) describe it,
- antes da letra ‘i’ é pronunciado como o ‘w’ inglês, sem arredondamento dos lábios e com um pouco de fricção. Em outros ambientes não há fricção e os lábios se arredondam mais
- "before the letter 'i' it's pronounced as the English 'w', without rounding of the lips and with a bit of friction. In other environments it doesn't have friction and the lips are more rounded"
- O fonema /w/ é um vocóide oral assilábico, não-arredondado posterior fechado alto sonoro.
- "The phoneme /w/ is an oral semivowel, unrounded high back [and] voiced."