Difference between revisions of "Phonological Inventory"
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Revision as of 13:58, 27 September 2012
Phonological inventory
Consonants
A tentative consonant inventory of Serer:
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stops | V'less | p | t | c~ʧ | k | ʔ | |
Voiced | b | d | ɟ~ʤ | g | |||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ||||
Voiceless Implosive | ƥ | ƭ | ƈ | ||||
Prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑg | |||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
Fricative | f | s | χ~h | ||||
Tap/Trill | ɾ~r | ||||||
Liquid | l | ||||||
Implosive lateral | ɗl | ||||||
Glide | ʋ~β̞~w | j |
Notes:
- The modal voice palatal stops tend to be pronounced as affricates word initially, and stops elsewhere. The implosive palatal stops do not exhibit this alternation.
- /r/ can be pronounced as either a tap/flap, or a trill. In slower or more careful speech, the trill is more likely to surface.
- The labial glide is not exactly [w], but there may in fact be velar co-articulation. Note that in certain morpho-phonological alternations, /w/ and /k/ pattern together, as well as /w/, /b/ and /p/.
- The back fricative /χ/ is alternately pronounced as [χ] or [h]. In quicker speech, [h] is more likely to surface, with [χ] being the more common allophone in slower or more careful speech.
- In quick speech, the prenasalized stop /ɲɟ/ is often pronounced as [ɲj].
- /k/ often has a backed allophone [q] in the presence of the vowels /a/ or /o/.
- The voiceless (non-implosive) stops are pronounced as alternately aspirated, unaspirated, or lightly ejective. The conditioning environments for this allophony are not yet completely clear.
- Initially (and of course medially), the voiced stops are fully voiced, with voicing and closure being essentially simultaneous.
- Voiced stops (implosive, modal, and prenasalized) undergo some degree of word- or phrase-final devoicing in quick speech. Tentatively, this does not seem to cause complete devoicing, avoiding neutralization with the voiceless stops.
Minimal Pairs
Vowels
A tentative vowel inventory of Serer:
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
High | i, ɪ | u | ||||
Mid | e, ɛ | ə | ɔ, o | |||
Low | a |
Serer also has diphthongs: aɪ, oɪ, ɔɪ.
Vowel length is contrastive.
Vowels after implosive consonants are sometimes creaky; this does not seem to be contrastive.
Suprasegmentals
Serer makes use of stress. (?) It is unclear at this point whether it is automatically/metrically assigned to words or if it is lexically specified and unpredictable. Faytak 22:19, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
Plural marker χa- (supposing that it is a separate morpheme) seems to attract stress in some instances (e.g. aˈlas "tail", ˈχalas "tails"). Faytak 01:40, 25 September 2012 (UTC)