Tsaavalu phonology: view article

Tsaavalu has a number of important differences in its grammar. This article focuses on the phonology and morphophonology of the Tsaavalu dialect, and especially how it is divergent from the standard. For a broader grammatical overview, see this article. For an in-depth description of the Standard dialect's phonology, see here.

[edit] [top]Phonemic inventory

Consonants	Labial	Apical	Prevelar	Velar	Radical	Ortho	Labial	Apical	Prevelar	Velar	Radical
Nasal	m m:	n n:	ɲ ɲ:	ŋ ŋ:		N	m mm	n nn	ñ ññ	ŋ ŋŋ
–V Stop	p p:	t t:	tʃ tʃ:	k k:	q~ʔ~Ø q:	S	p pp	t tt	c cc	k kk	ɂ~q qq
+V Obstruent	b~v:	d~ð:	dʒ:~ʒ	g~ɣ:		O	b~v vv	d dd	jj j	g gg
–V Fricative		s s:	ʃ ʃ:	x:	h~Ø	F		s ss:	x xx	hh	h
Liquid		ɾ~l:	j j:	w w:		L		l ll	y yy	w ww

All phonemic consonants occur in both long and short grade, or else have a slightly different consonant with which they are 'paired.' These are short /ɾ ʒ ʔ h/ to long /l: dʒ: q: x:/. (There is no short /l x/ ; short [dʒ] is considered allophonic of /ʒ/ ; and short /q/ is marginal, interchangeable with /ʔ/.)

There are four consonant phonemes with no direct equivalent in the the Standard dialect: /ɲ ɲ: ʒ dʒ:/. Although Standard Achiyitqan does contain [dʒ], it does not occur in long grade and is only an allophone of /g/. Typically, Tsaavalu /ʒ/ and /dʒ:/ do correspond to places where [dʒ] occurs in the Standard, but not always. /ɲ/ never appears in Standard Achiyitqan, and is a relatively rare phoneme in Tsaavalu.

Orthography is as per IPA except for as shown above. The graphemes «b ɂ» may or may not be used in place of «v q» for /b~v/ and /ʔ~q/ — typically if «b ɂ» are used, they agree with pronunciation (but not always).

Vowels	Front		Non-front		Ortho	Front		Non-front
Vowels	Short	Long	Short	Long	Ortho	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	ɪ ɪ́	i: í:	ʉ ʉ́	u: ú:	Close	i í	ii íí	u ú	uu úú
Mid	ɛ ɛ́	e: é:	ɵ ɵ́	o: ó:	Mid	e é	ee éé	o ó	oo óó
Open		ǽ	ä~ɐ	ɑ ɑ́:	Open		á	a	aa áá

Tsaavalu has far more phonemic vowel qualities than Standard Achiyitqan. While most of these qualities do occur as allophones in the Standard dialect, the distribution is not quite the same. All vowels can be placed into associative pairs/quads, as is reflected in the orthography; in this sense, Tsaavalu can be regarded to have roughly the same number of vowel placements as the Standard.

In general, the front vowels form lax-tense pairs (short being lax, and long being tense), and the non-front vowels central-back pairs (short being central, and long being back). The open vowels complicate things somewhat, with three distinct qualities regardless of length («aa» /ɑ/ being short despite orthography).

Tsaavalu has fewer phonemic tones than the Standard, with only high and low(/mid). Falling and rising melodies do occur, but only at the phonetic level, and again, with slightly different distribution to the phonemic Standard falling and rising tones.

[edit] [top]Diachrony, allophony, and free variation

Source of new consonant phonemes. The phonemes /ʒ dʒ: ɲ ɲ:/, which do not appear in the Standard dialect, come from /g g: {n n:}~{ŋ ŋ:}/ in contact with palatalizing sounds. Any combination of /g(:)/ or /n~ŋ(:)/ with /j/ resulted in this change; as they did with /i e/ before another vowel. The short consonants /ʒ ɲ/ also come from /g n/ when surrounded by two high vowels. /ɲ/ occurs from final /in/ and /iŋ/ sequences, and before /ʃ ʃ: ʒ/. Finally, /g/ became /ʒ/ (usually [dʒ]) word-initially before any single close or mid front vowels.

ortho (Standard) 'meaning' [typical Tsaavalu] [typical Standard]
mííji (míigyi) 'ancestors' [mí:ʒi] [mî:dʒi]
najun (naygun) 'memorise' [nɐʒʉn] [najgun]
núñ (núyn) 'briefly' [nʉ́ɲ] [nújn]
jaki (giaki) 'PRES-eat' [dʒɐki] [dʒaki]
cijó (cigió) 'accomplice' [tʃɪʒɵ́] [tʃidʒó]
tujja (tuggia) 'fish (V)' [tʉdʒɐ] [tu:dʒa]
añil (aneil) 'drown' [ɐɲɪl] [aneɪl]
híji (hígi) 'bistort' [hɪ́ʒɪ] [çígi]
kiiñik (kiinik) 'rash; ruby' [ki:ɲɪk] [ki:nɪk]
biñ (bin) 'acorn' [bɪɲ] [bɪn]
jedu (gedu) 'complex' [dʒɛðʉ] [gedu]

Short tense vowels appear as allophones of the short lax vowels in open word-final syllables. (Some examples occur above.) (This only applies to front vowels.)

The voiced obstruent consonant series are equivalent to the voiced stops in the Standard and most other dialects. In Tsaavalu, they are are typically considered to be underlyingly fricatives; however, their diachronic source, allophonic patterns, and (for some speakers) free variation makes it useful to consider them intermediate forms. The long grade is always a fricative.

For most speakers, the voiced stops occur only in word-initial positions, and when following another voiced obstruent or nasal stop in medial positions. In most other contexts they are usually realized as fricatives. There is however some level of free variation; it is especially noted that the stops occur more often in slower and more formal speech, and when speakers are being calm but emphatic. The fricatives occur more frequently in fast, informal, and especially excited or otherwise less careful speech. Some other forms also occur depending on additional allophony rules.

baatta 'harp seal' [bɑ:t:ɐ] [bɑ:t:a]
balvo (balbo) 'tea' [bɐɾvɵ] [balbo]
gávi (gábi) 'religion' [gǽvɪ] [gábi]
hída 'call, address' [hɪ́ðɐ] [hída]
gadna 'meteor' [gǽðna] [gádna]
hebŋe 'precise, accurate' [hɛvŋɛ] [hɛbŋe]
yógde 'mould (rot)' [jɵ́ɣdɛ] [jô:de]
nunáv (nunáb) 'brush' [nʉnǽv] [nunáb]
púúg (phúug) 'pull apart' [pú:ɣ] [pɸû:g]

An additional rule complicates this slightly: velar lenition before close back vowels. Essentially, /g~ɣ k/ appear as /ɣ x/ before /u: ú:/.

guun 'admit' [ɣu:n] [gu:n]
kúúna (kúuna) 'tether' [xú:nɐ] [kû:na]]

Glottal deletion is prevalent in many contexts. Diachronically, the glottal stop has been deleted where it appeared before other consonants, and become /q/ word-finally; in modern Tsaavalu, it is considered only an allophone of short /q/. (Interestingly, /q/ later started being pronounced as /ʔ/ at the beginning of complex codas, reintroducing the /ʔC/ sequence to the language. The other extant realization of /ʔ/ is as a simple word-initial onset to unstressed syllables.) Historical voiced stops followed by /h/ have become voiceless; otherwise, /h/ persists as a unique phoneme in word-initial and intervocalic positions (/h:/ also occurs in the latter), but is deleted after other consonants, and serves to lengthen vowels it appears after. This results in a number of only-allophonic long vowels such as [ɪ: ǽ: ʉ:].

tá (ɂtá) 'mostly' [tǽ] [ʔtá]
itna (iɂtna) 'desert' [ɪtnɐ] [ɪʔtna]
sáp (sáɂp) 'peck, jab' [sǽp] [sáʔp]
aapkíq (aapkíɂ) 'topaz' [ɑ:pkɪ́q] [ɑ:pkíʔ]
nuhqttu 'volcano' [nʉ:ɂt.tʉ] [nʉχqt.tu]
qalói 'entertain' [ʔɐlɵ́j] [qalói]
ɂusíl 'chick' [ʔʉsɪ́l] [ʔusɪ́l]
ital (idhal) 'fifty' [ɪtɐl] [ɪdhal]
hóvu (hóbu) 'jar' [hɵ́vʉ] [hóbu]
póhhadi 'daisy' [pɵ́x:ɐðɪ] [póh:adi]
aldokihm 'stained glass' [ɐlðɵkɪ:m] [aldokɪɸm̥]

A few different nasal-stop assimilation processes occur. This affects both the voiceless stops and the voiced obstruents series, but not the voiceless fricatives. Typically, non-labial nasals will assimilate to the placement of voiceless stops that they precede; however, voiced obstruents merge with preceding homorganic short nasals into a long nasal.

inbóh 'dishonour' [ɪm:ó:] [ɪnbóh]
kahmga 'energy' [kɐ:mgɐ] [kahmga]
jintóótáp (giŋtóotáp) 'parasite' [dʒɪntó:tǽp] [gɪŋtó:tap]
jéwaŋkih (géwankih) 'card' [dʒɛ́wɐŋkɪ:] [géwankɪh]
kimb 'leg' [kɪm:] [kɪmb]

Glide deletion occurs in many places. As previously mentioned, /j/ combines with surrounding /n n: ŋ ŋ: g g:/ to create /ɲ ɲ: ʒ dʒ:/. /j w/ become vowel length in codas after /i e/ and /u o/, and simply delete in codas after /i: e: u: o:/. e.g. gliy 'meat' /glɪj/ [gli:], cóóws 'including, even' /tʃó:ws/ [tʃó:s].

Unlike in Standard, glides do not delete after other consonants, e.g. Standard piqo 'abuse' vs Tsaavalu piqyo (both from piq 'to drag' -yo (a nominalizer)).

/ɪw ɛw ʉj ɵj/ sequences, before consonants or word-finally, monophthongize into /ʉ ɵ ɪ ɛ/ respectively (and the same is true of their high-tone counterparts), e.g. xiwd 'sickle' [ʃʉd]. This results in irregular(-seeming) paradigms, such as ciw /tʃʉ/ 'bat.SG.ACC' ciwi /tʃɪwi/ 'bat.SG.NOM'.

/w/ also deletes after a long front vowel and before a consonant, e.g. snééwtóó 'haught, disrespectful' /sné:wtó:/ [sné:tô:].

[edit] [top]Tone and prosody

Note: for this section, the practical orthography will be used for the vowels in place of true IPA; and grave accents will be used to show secondary stress.

The basics of the tone and prosody (or pitch-accent) system are similar to Standard Achiyitqan, but with a few important differences. Words without inherent tone are similarly assigned initial stress; unlike in Standard, however, this also receives a phonetic high tone; words with initial stress (inherent or applied) follow a trochaic pattern throughout. However, (inherent) high tone attracts stress; if a high tone appears on an even-numbered syllable, this switches the entire word to an iambic stress pattern. If a word has multiple high tones, the first one to occur takes primary stress.

/underlying/ [surface] 'meaning'
/nimpa/ [nímpa] 'yesterday'
/liʃŋaúnt/ [lìʃŋaúnt] 'computer'
/quqopejúl:u/ [quqòpejúllu] 'artichoke plant'
/ʃentál:aŋa/ [ʃentállaŋà] 'wild horse (GEN)'
/túmi-tó:/ [túmitò:]

In Standard, the melody HLHL is illegal, and high tones shift to the left to disrupt this pattern (→HHLL). This tone melody is permitted in Tsaavalu, however tone migration happens in another instance: high tones that would break the word's overall trochaic or iambic pattern (as assigned by the first high tone) move one to the right in order to preserve it. If the discordant tone occurs on the last syllable, it remains.

/áʃ-hé:ɣ:uŋ/ [áʃ-heɣùŋ] 'hydroponics'
/pálstó:jo/ [pálsto:jò] 'stigma'

Standard has phonemic falling and rising tone, alongside the basic low and high it shares with Tsaavalu. Tsaavlu uses long high pitch in place of the phonemic falling tone, and long low pitch in place of the rising tone. However, falling tone does occur allophonically (albeit rarely) in Tsaavalu; if the underlying sequence is H:H:, it becomes H:F:. Likewise, rising tone occurs allophonically in instances where the underlying melody is L:H(:) (→ R:H(:)).

/sné:wtó:/ [sné:tô:] 'haughty, disrespectful'
/lu:mtá:l/ [lǔ:mtá:l] 'deep crag'

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