Appendix:Munja'kin pronunciation

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The Munja'kin language has 17 consonants and 4 vowels.

Standard Romanization

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
a	a	father
b	b	bog
ch	tʃ	chop	Always unaspirated
d	d	dog
g	g	good
h	h	ham
i	i	beet
j	dʒ	jog
k	k	skill	Always unaspirated
l	l	left	Always alveolar
m	m	man
n	n	no	[ŋ] before a velar consonant
o	o	coat
p	p	span	Always unaspirated
r	ɾ	battle
s	s	see
t	t	stop	Always unaspirated
u	u	rude
v	v	voice	Allophone of /w/ before /u/ and /o/
w	w	wet
z	z	zoo
‘	ʔ	uh-oh

Phonetics

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	(n [ŋ])
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/	ch /tʃ/	k /k/	' /ʔ/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/	j /dʒ/	g /g/
Fricative	voiceless		s /s/			h /h/
	voiced	(v [v])	z /z/
Approximant		w /w/	l /l/
Tap			r /ɾ/

Proto-Munja'kin also had a phonemic /ŋ/, but it merged with /n/. In modern Munja'kin, [ŋ] is merely an allophone of /n/ before velars.

/w/ and [v] are in complementary distribution, /w/ only appears before /i/ and /a/, whereas [v] only appears before /u/ and /o/. However, they are romanized as separate sounds. Both were /w/ in Proto-Munja'kin, but /w/ became [v] before rounded vowels, causing consonant alternations.

Vowels

Munja'kin has only 4 phonetically distinct vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /i/		u /u/
Mid			o /o/
Open		a /a/

Proto-Munja'kin also had /e/, but it merged with /i/ when stressed and with /a/ when unstressed. Proto-Munja'kin /o/ became /u/ after /ŋ/ and /g/ or before a syllable-final /ŋ/. These changes all cause vowel alternations.

Phonotactics

Native Munja'kin words use (C)(C)V(C) syllables. A syllable's onset may be any consonant or a sibilant (/s/ or /z/) followed by /p/, /t/, /tʃ/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /dʒ/ or /g/. Null onsets are also allowed and contrast with glottal stops. Vowel sequences are allowed, the same vowel may even appear twice in a row.

A syllable's coda may be /n/ (which becomes /m/ before a labial and [ŋ] before a velar), /s/ (which becomes /z/ before a voiced consonant), or /ʔ/ before /p/, /t/, /tʃ/ or /k/ (these consonant sequences are actually former geminates). In Proto-Munja'kin, a syllable could also end with /m/ or /ŋ/ word-medially, or /ŋ/ word-finally. Nasal codas still contrast before liquids, they merged everywhere else.

Voiceless consonants become voiced after nasal codas (some function words with a nasal coda even cause the following word's first consonant to voice). Epenthetic stops are added between nasals and continuants ([d] after /n/, [b] after /m/ and [g] after Proto-Munja'kin /ŋ/).

Stress

Native Munja'kin words are usually stressed on their penultimate syllable. Compound words are stressed on their first component's last syllable, but adding a suffix cancels this and causes their penult to be stressed instead. No matter where they appeared in a word, the Proto-Munja'kin vowel sequences /ai/ and /au/ became stressed /i/ and /u/, respectively. Any instance of non-penultimate stress is indicated by an acute accent in the romanization.