Zuni phonology

Main article: Zuni language

This article discusses the phonology of the Zuni language, spoken in the southwestern United States.

Consonants

The 16 consonants of Zuni:

Bila
-bial
Dental/
Alveolar
Post
-al.
Pala
-tal
Velar Glo-
ttal
cen. late. plain labi.
Nasal m n
Stop plain p t (kʲ) k ʔ
ejective () (kʼʷ)
Affricate plain ts
ejective (tsʼ) (tʃʼ)
Fricative s ɬ ʃ h
Approximant ɬ j w

Vowels

Front back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

Syllable and phonotactics

Zuni syllables have the following specification:

C1(C2)V(ː)(C3)(C4)

That is, all syllables must start with a consonant in the syllable onset. The onset may optionally have two consonants. The syllable coda is optional and may consist of a single consonant or two consonants. There are restrictions on the combinations with long vowels, which are listed below.

Onset. When the onset is a single consonant (i.e., CV(ː), CV(ː)C, or CV(ː)CC), C1 may be any consonant. When the onset is a two consonant cluster (i.e., CCV(ː), CCV(ː)C, or CCV(ː)CC), C1 may only be /ts, tʃ, k, kʷ/, and C2 may only be /ʔ/. These onset clusters can occur word-initially.

Nucleus. Any vowel of either length may be the syllable nucleus when open (i.e., has no coda: CV(ː) or CCV(ː)) or with a single consonant coda (i.e., CV(ː)C or CCV(ː)C). When the coda consists of two consonant cluster, the nucleus may be any short vowel; however, long vowels only occur with coda consisting of /tsʔ, tʃʔ, kʔ, kʷʔ/.[3]

Coda. A single coda C3 may be any consonant. When the coda is a two consonant cluster (i.e., CV(ː)CC or CCV(ː)CC), any combination of consonants may occur with the following exception: if C3 is /ts, tʃ, kʷ/, then C4 can only be either /ʔ/ or an identical consonant (C3 = C4).

Non-tautosyllabic combinations. Inside words, a short vowel plus a two consonant coda (i.e., CVCC or CCVCC) may only be followed by a syllable with a /ʔ/ onset. Likewise, a long vowel plus a single consonant coda (i.e., CVːC or CCVːC) may only be followed by a /ʔ/ onset. An open syllable (i.e., CV(ː) or CCV(ː)) and a short vowel plus a single consonant coda (i.e., CVC or CCVC) may be followed by a syllable with any possible onset.

Prosody

At the word level, the first syllable of lexical words receive stress. Although the acoustic correlates of stress are not fully described in Newman's grammar, at least vowel length is a significant correlate: short vowels are lengthened under syllable-initial stress. Stressed long vowels do not appear to have perceptible variation in duration.

Stress at the phrase level was not fully studied by Newman, and, therefore, its details are not well known. Pronouns and certain particles consisting of a single syllable are unstressed when inside clauses, but are stressed at the beginning of phrases.

Notes

  1. See Davis (1966), Newman (1965), Newman (1967), Walker (1966), Walker (1972).
  2. The other articles are Davis (1966), Newman (1967), Michaels (1971), Walker (1966), Walker (1972).
  3. Newman (1965) reports only /kʔ/ after long vowels, but further fieldwork by Walker (1966) also finds /tsʔ, tʃʔ, kʷʔ/.

References

Further reading

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