Phonetics and phonology

Segmental phonetics and phonemes

The consonant phonemes of Yawarana are shown in ref, vowel phonemes in ref.

Consonants

to do: search and add minimal pairs for consonants

/h/

• glottal fricative insertion after diphthongs
• glottal fricative insertion before occlusives
  • a Venezuelan trait?

Vowels

to do: search and add minimal pairs for vowels, add vowel plots

• what about vowel length?
• variation between ë/o/e and ï/i/u
• dipththongs
  • /ai/, /aw/, /ei/... test combinations to do: spelling? au or aw? ai or ay?

Morphophonological Processes

Syllable Reduction

Types

• V₁rV₂ to V₁ː
• nasal assimilation
• reduction to /j/ to do: what consonants reduce to /j/?

Contexts

• postpositions
• verbal suffixes
• non-alternating reduced syllables, e.g. wajto ‘fire’
• comparative note: no final nominal reduction

Vowel harmony

• progressive: -ru ‘pert’
• regressive: /ë/ > /o/ (e.g. o- ‘2’)

Palatalization

• -chaj ‘abs.nmlz’
• -che ‘pst’; -che ‘ptcp, sup’
• -charë ‘imn’
  • not consistent

1. irë nwa chipëkë usamori uyïpï incharë

   irë

   irë

   3ANA.INAN

   dem

   nwa

   nwa

   thus

   part

   chipëkë

   chipëkë

   because

   part

   usamori

   u=samo-ri

   1=cry-IPFV

   pn=vi

   uyïpï

   u=yïpï-∅

   1=mountain-PERT

   pn=n

   incharë

   in-charë

   see-IMN

   vt

   That's why I'm crying seeing my hills. / por eso yo estoy llorando viendo mis cerros

Prosody

Lexical stress

Intonational Phrases

to do: f0 increase associated w/ pitch reset, clause boundaries?

Intonational Melodies

Historical Considerations