General information[]
Consonants[]
Consonants | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Manner ↓ | Place→ | Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||||
Voice→ | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | Vl. | Vd. | |
Nasal | (m) | n | (ŋ) | ||||||||||||||||
Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | |||||||||||||
Fricative | f | (v) | θ | (ð) | s | z | ʃ | (ʒ) | (ç) | (x) | (ʁ) | h | |||||||
Approximant | j | w | |||||||||||||||||
Flap or tap | ɾ | ||||||||||||||||||
Trill | (r:) | ʀ | |||||||||||||||||
Lat. app. | l |
Consonants written in (parenthases) are not regarded as phonemes - they are allophonic variations of other Tamian phonemes because some consonants undergo sound changes depending on their environment.
Sound changes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Normal sound | Environment for sound change | Result of sound change | Notes | |
/n/ | [n] | before bilabial plosives | [m] | also affects geminated /n/ (only over word boundaries) |
before velar plosives | [ŋ] | |||
/b/ | [b] | intervocalic position | [v] | also affects geminated plosives |
/d/ | [d] | [ð] | ||
/g/ | [g] | [ʒ] | ||
/h/ | [h] | after central/near-back/back vowels | [x] | - |
after near-front/front vowels | [ç] | - | ||
/ɾ/ | [ɾ] | gemination | [r:] | - |
/ʀ/ | [ʀ] | after voiceless plosives | [ʁ] | also affects geminated /ʀ/ (only over word boundaries) |
All consonants (except glottal consonants and approximants) can be geminated.
Tamian possesses 4 rhotic consonants that are arranged in 2 different phonemes: /ɾ/ features [ɾ] and [r], /ʀ/ features [ʀ] and [ʁ].
The consonants /m/ and /n/ (both geminated and not) can be syllabic.
Vowels[]
Monophthongs[]
Monophthongs | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
Close | i: (y:) | u: | |||
Near-close | ɪ (ʏ) | ʊ | |||
Close-mid | (e:) (ø:) | o: | |||
Mid | ə | ||||
Open-mid | (ɛ) (œ) | ɔ | |||
Open | a a: |
Vowels in (parantheses) are not regarded as phonemes - they are umlauts of central/near-back/back vowels.
Tamian arranges all vowels in 5 vowel phonemes - each phoneme contains a short and a long vowel plus their umlauts (if there are any). The only exception is /ə/ which does not have a long counterpart.
Vowel phonemes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Short vowel | Long vowel | Short umlaut | Long umlaut | |
/a/ | [a] | [a:] | [ɛ] | [e:] |
/ə/ | [ə] | - | - | - |
/i/ | [ɪ] | [i:] | - | - |
/o/ | [ɔ] | [o:] | [œ] | [ø:] |
/u/ | [ʊ] | [u:] | [ʏ] | [y:] |
Umlauts | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Normal sounds | Environment for umlaut | Results of umlaut | Notes | |
/a/ | [a] , [a:] | following syllable contains /i/ | [ɛ] , [e:] | does not affect /a/, /o/ or /u/ in diphthongs; does not occur when /i/ is part of diphthong |
/o/ | [ɔ] , [o:] | [œ] , [ø:] | ||
/u/ | [ʊ] , [u:] | [ʏ] , [y:] |
Diphthongs[]
Diphthongs | |
---|---|
Starting with ... | Ending in ... |
[ɪ] ~ [j] | [a], [a:], [ɔ], [o:], [ʊ] or [u:] |
[ʊ] ~ [w] | [a], [a:], [ɪ], [i:] [ɔ] or [o:] |
[a] or [ɔ] | [ʊ] |
Diphthongs can be treated as equivalents to short or long vowels. The length of a diphthong depends on the second vowel: If it is short, the diphthong is short; if it is long, the diphthong is long.
Stress[]
Tamian stress is always on one of the last three syllables of a word - which syllable is stressed depends on vowel length. Therefore, stress is completly predictable and words are not marked for it in any way.
Stress | |||
---|---|---|---|
Stressed syllable | Vowel length in Antepenultimate | Vowel length in Penultimate | Vowel length in Ultimate |
Antepenultimate | Long | Short | Short or long |
Penultimate | Short | Short | Short |
Short or long | Long | Short or long | |
Ultimate | Short | Short | Long |