Kiowa phonology explained
See main article: Kiowa language. pronounced as /notice/The most thorough treatment of the Kiowa sound system is by Laurel Watkins in a generative framework. A consideration of prosodic phenomena with acoustic analysis is in Sivertsen (1956). Earlier discussions of phonemics are Trager (1960), Merrifield (1959), Wonderly et al. (1954), and Harrington (1928).
Segments
Consonants
The 23 consonants of Kiowa:
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
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Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | | | |
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Stop | voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | | pronounced as /ink/ | |
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voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
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aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | | | pronounced as /kʰ/ | |
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ejective | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | |
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Fricative | voiced | | | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
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voiceless | | | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ |
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Approximant | (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
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In the orthography (used here) of the native Kiowa speaker, Parker McKenzie, who collaborated with both J.P. Harrington and Laurel Watkins, these are represented as below (parenthetic letters are used only at the end of the syllable):
- The labio-velar glide pronounced as /[w]/ is only found in Comanche loanwords or in some interjections like pronounced as /[wéː]/ (an expression used to welcome travelers).[1] A phonetic pronounced as /[w]/ offglide also occurs after the mid back vowel pronounced as //o//.
- The palatal fricative pronounced as /ç/ is found only in two cognate roots, the singular and nonsingular suppletive pair for 'small', syáun pronounced as /[çɔ̃́n]/ and syân pronounced as /[çæ̃̂n]/ (as well as in their derivatives, like the adverbials syáundé 'a little', syândè 'in small portions'). The pronunciation pronounced as /[sj]/ is occasionally heard for (sy), suggesting that pronounced as /[ç]/ might arise by assimilation from pronounced as //sj//.
- Voiceless pronounced as //p, t// when followed by another consonant (and, thus, also syllable-final) are typically reduced to a glottal stop pronounced as /[ʔ]/. In careful speech, the bilabial and dental articulations are preserved. Example: bat fā́u pronounced as //batpɔ́ː// ('eat' imperfective, 2nd person singular') is pronounced as /[baʔpɔ́ː]/ in casual speech.
- Ejectives pronounced as //pʼ, tʼ, tsʼ, kʼ// are strongly articulated.[2]
- Glottal stops.
- The glottal stop pronounced as //ʔ// is typically deleted in normal speech. However, in carefully articulated citation forms, the glottal stop is retained. For example, the word váuā́u pronounced as //pʼɔ̃́ʔɔ̃́ː// ('wash') is usually pronounced pronounced as /[pʼɔ̃́ː]/ in connected speech.[3]
- Phonetic glottal stops are also automatically inserted after morpheme-final short vowels before concatenation.
- Other phonetic glottal stops are allophones of syllable-final oral stops pronounced as //p, t// (see above)[4] or a phonation effect of the falling tone.
- Velar consonants palatalize before the low front vowel pronounced as //a//. This vowel then fronts further to pronounced as /[æ]/ (see Vowels below). Being automatic (like aspiration in English), this palatalization is not indicated in McKenzie's orthography. Examples with all four velars are: qám pronounced as /[kʲʼæ̃́m]/ ('lazy'), cáp pronounced as /[kʲǽp]/ ('onwards'), kál pronounced as /[kʲʰǽᵈl]/ ('wet'), -gà pronounced as /[ɡʲæ]/ ('in'). (Exceptions to this rule arise only in loanwords and are indicated by an apostrophe: c'ā́bòlī̀ pronounced as /[káːbòlìː]/ 'sheep', c'átlìn pronounced as /[kǽtlɪ̃n]/ 'sharpshooter'.)
- The dental sonorants pronounced as //n, l// were palatalized pronounced as /[nʲ, lʲ]/ before the high front vowel pronounced as //i// in previous generations, though this is not generally heard in current elder’s speech: bṓnî pronounced as //bṍːnîː// ('see' (imperfective hearsay) pronounced as pronounced as /[bṍːwnʲĩ̂ː]/, tàlī́ pronounced as //tʰàlíː// ('boy') pronounced as pronounced as /[tʰàlʲíː]/.
- Lateral pronounced as //l// is slightly affricated at the end of syllables as pronounced as /[ᵈl]/. At the end of utterances, the affricate is partially devoiced. Examples: gúldā̀u pronounced as //ɡúldɔ̀ː// ('to be red') pronounced as pronounced as /[ɡúᵈldɔ̀ː]/, sál pronounced as //sál// ('to be hot') pronounced as pronounced as /[sáᵈ̥l̥]/.
- The nasality of the vowels spreads onto following offglides: káui pronounced as //kʰɔ̃́j// ('bark, rind') is pronounced as /[kʰɔ̃́ȷ̃]/.
Vowels
Kiowa has six contrasting vowel qualities with three heights and a front-back distinction. Additionally, there is an oral-nasal contrast on all six vowels. For example, nasality is the only difference between ā́u pronounced as //ʔɔ́ː// ('to gamble') and ā́u pronounced as //ʔɔ̃́ː// ('to give').
Oral vowels!! Front! BackHigh | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ |
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Mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /o/ |
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Low | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | |
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Nasal vowels!! Front! BackHigh | pronounced as /ĩ/ | pronounced as /ũ/ |
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Mid | pronounced as /ẽ/ | pronounced as /õ/ |
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Low | pronounced as /ã/ | pronounced as /ɔ̃/ | |
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The oral-nasal contrast, however, is neutralized in the environment of nasal consonants, where only nasalized vowels occur. Watkins phonemicizes an oral vowel in these contexts: mā́ pronounced as //máː// ('up') is phonetically pronounced as /[mã́ː]/, máun pronounced as //mɔ́n// ('probably') is phonetically pronounced as /[mɔ̃́n]/.
Kiowa vowels have an underlying two-way length contrast (short vs. long). However, a number of phonological issues restrict the length contrast. (See the syllable and phonotactics for details.)
- The high vowels pronounced as //i, u// are lowered to pronounced as /[ɪ, ʊ]/ when they occur before nasal consonants pronounced as //m, n//: bímkàui pronounced as //bímkʰɔ̀j// ('bag') is phonetically pronounced as /[bɪ̃́mkʰɔ̀j]/, gún pronounced as //ɡún// ('to dance' perfective) is phonetically pronounced as /[ɡʊ̃́n]/.
- Long mid vowels pronounced as //eː, oː// are followed by homorganic offglides: hḗbà pronounced as //héːbà// ('to enter') is pronounced as pronounced as /[héːjbà]/, jṓcà pronounced as //tóːkià// ('at the house') is phonetically pronounced as /[tóːwkjæ̀]/. The offglides are considered sub-phonemic as they are predictable.
- Low pronounced as //ɔ// is only slightly rounded — its position varying between lower-mid to low pronounced as /[ɔ~ɒ]/. When it is short and in open syllables, it is centralized approaching central pronounced as /[ɞ]/: dàufôm pronounced as //dɔ̀pôm// ('despicable') → pronounced as /[dɞ̀pôm]/ .
- The pronounced as //a// of the diphthong pronounced as //ia// is fronted and raised when long as pronounced as /[æː]/ and is raised further when it precedes a nasal consonant: qā́hĩ̂ pronounced as //kʼiã́ːhĩ̂ː// ('man') → pronounced as /[kʼjæ̃́ːhĩ̂ː]/, qám pronounced as //kʼiám// ('to be lazy') → pronounced as /[kʼjɛ̃́m]/.
- Vowel length is only contrastive in open syllables. Closed syllables only have phonetic short vowels. Underlying long vowels are shortened in this position (note morphophonemic alternations).
Tone
Kiowa has three tones: high, low, falling. No minimal triple is available, but the distinctions can be illustrated pairwise: à ~ á (agreement prefixes for 1sg and 3pl unaccusatives), ḕ ('when') ~ ḗ ('here'); àl ('also)' ~ âl ('chase' perfective imperative), chḕ ('when') ~ chê ('horse'); cául ('cattle')~ câul ('some'), gṹ('wise') ~ gû ('hit'). Note that length is not indicated on vowels with falling tone in the current orthography: this is because falling tone is generally only realized over long vowels or a vowel plus resonant (pronounced as //j//, pronounced as //l//, pronounced as //m//, or pronounced as //n//). However, there are at least two words with falling tone realized before pronounced as //t//, both of them minimally contrastive with high tone: bót ('guts') ~ bôt ('because'), chát ('door') ~ chât ('cheque'). This behaviour contrasts with pronounced as //p//; suffixation of pronounced as //p// to verbs with falling tone causes the vowel to shorten and become simply high, as in root ~ perfective pairs gû ~ góp ('hit'), kî ~ tép ('exit'). One speaker has been recorded with the pronunciation pronounced as /[êtʼ]/ ('big') in contrast to other speakers' pronounced as /[ét]/ (the compounding form, êl, as in êlmā̀ 'old woman', has falling tone).
The falling tone has glottalized realizations (creaky voice, tense voice, with glottal stop) in some contexts.
There are also a number of tone sandhi effects.
Syllable and phonotactics
Surface syllables in Kiowa must consist of a vowel nucleus. Syllable onsets are optional and can consist of single consonant or a consonant followed by a palatal glide pronounced as /[j]/. A single vowel may be followed by an optional syllable coda consonant or the vowel may optionally be long. Thus, the following syllables are found in Kiowa: pronounced as /V, CV, CjV, VC, CVC, CjVC, Vː, CVː, CjVː/. This can be succinctly represented as the syllable equation below.
\left(C\right)\left(j\right)V\left(\begin{Bmatrix}
C\\
ː
\end{Bmatrix}\right)+Tone
A number of phonotactic restrictions are found limiting the possible combinations of sounds. These are discussed below.
Onset. All consonants can occurs as a single consonant onset. However, pronounced as //l// only occurs word-initially in loan words (e.g., láyàn 'lion', Láut 'Lawton').
Nucleus. The syllable nucleus can be any vowel, which can be either short or long.
Coda. The coda position may be filled only by pronounced as //p, t, m, n, l, j//. Palatal pronounced as //j// only follows the vowels pronounced as //u, o, ɔ, a// (i.e. the palatal may not occur after non-low front vowels).[5]
See also
Bibliography
- Book: Harrington, John P.. 1928. Vocabulary of the Kiowa language. Smithsonian Institute Bureau of American Ethnology. 34. Washington. US Government Printing Office. 6735322M. free.
- Merrifield. William R.. Jul 1959. The Kiowa verb prefix. International Journal of American Linguistics. 25. 3. 168–176. 10.1086/464523. 144102437 .
- Silvertsen. Eva. Apr 1956. Pitch problems in Kiowa. International Journal of American Linguistics. 22. 2. 117–130. 10.1086/464356. 144110239 .
- Trager. Edith C.. 1960. The Kiowa language: A grammatical study. PhD. University of Pennsylvania.
- Book: Watkins. Laurel J.. McKenzie. Parker. Parker McKenzie. 1984. A grammar of Kiowa. Studies in the anthropology of North American Indians. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln. 0-8032-4727-3.
- Wonderly. William L.. Gibson. Lorna F.. Kirk. Paul L.. Jan 1954. Number in Kiowa: Nouns, demonstratives, and adjectives. International Journal of American Linguistics. 20. 1. 1–7. 10.1086/464244. 144480683 .
External links
Notes and References
- Sounds restricted to interjections are usually considered marginal. Compare the use of a voiceless bilabial fricative pronounced as /[ɸ]/ in whew! or a voiceless velar fricative pronounced as /[x]/ in ugh! in American English.
- This is in contrast to the ejectives in the distantly related Taos, which are weakly articulated.
- Watkins notes the stress may affect the retention of the glottal stop although stress and its effect require further research.
- Note that pronounced as //p, t// are the only oral stops that occur in syllable-final position. (See the syllable section.)
- A phonetic palatal glide does follow mid-front pronounced as //e//, but this is not considered phonemic and parallels the similar pronounced as /[w]/ off-glide following mid-back pronounced as //o//.