Appendix:Kinuk'aaz pronunciation
This appendix provides an overview of the phonology, phonotactics and romanization of the Kinuk’aaz language spoken by the Omec. The Kinuk'aaz language has 21 consonants, 7 short vowels, 4 long vowels, and no glides.
Standard Romanization
| Letter | IPA | English example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ’ | ʔ | The sound in the middle of "uh-oh" | Not romanized word-initially, where it does not contrast with a null onset |
| a | a | father | |
| aa | aː | like a, but longer | |
| ai | ai | time | |
| b | b | bother | |
| d | d | dog | |
| dz | dz | adze | |
| e | ɛ | get | |
| g | g | good | |
| h | h | ham | |
| i | i, ɨ | machine, chicken | [ɨ] is an allophone of /i/ |
| ia | ia | yarn | |
| ii | iː | like i, but longer | |
| k | k | skill | |
| k' | k’ | — | Produced by holding your breath at the same time as making k |
| l | l | left | |
| m | m | man | |
| n | n | no | Assimilates to a following velar or uvular consonant |
| o | o | moat | |
| oü | oy | — | Roughly like boy, but fully pronounced with rounded lips |
| ö | œ | — | Like e, but pronounced with rounded lips |
| öü | œy | — | Roughly like bay, but pronounced with rounded lips |
| p | p | span | |
| q' | q’ | — | Produced by holding your breath at the same time as making a sound similar to k, but pronounced further back in the throat, with the back of the tongue contacting the uvula |
| r | ʀ | — | Roughly like the r in French rouge |
| s | s | see | |
| t | t | stop | |
| t' | t’ | — | Produced by holding your breath at the same time as making t |
| ts | ts | pits | |
| ts' | ts’ | — | Produced by holding your breath at the same time as making ts |
| u | u | rude | |
| uu | uː | like u, but longer | |
| ü | y | — | Like i, but pronounced with rounded lips |
| üü | yː | — | Like ü, but longer |
| v | v | voice | |
| z | z | zoo |
Phonetics
Consonants
Unlike the other known Votan languages, Kinuk'aaz lacks palatal consonants. It is also the only Votan language known to have ejective consonants, and the only one that made it to the screen (the other being the unused Yanga Kayang) known to have uvular consonants.
| Labial | Coronal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n [n~ŋ~ɴ] | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ' [ʔ] | |
| ejective | t' [t’] | k' [k’] | q' [q’] | |||
| voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | ||||
| ejective | ts' [ts’] | |||||
| voiced | dz | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | h | |||
| voiced | v | z | ||||
| Liquid | l | r [ʀ] | ||||
Vowels
Kinuk'aaz is the only Votan language known to have rounded front vowels and a vowel length distinction. Mid vowels lack long counterparts. Vowels are allophonically devoiced between ejectives and voiceless sounds.
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||||
| Close | short | i [i~ɨ] | ü [y] | u | |
| long | ii [iː] | üü [yː] | uu [uː] | ||
| Mid | e [ɛ] | ö [œ] | o | ||
| Open | short | a | |||
| long | aa [aː] | ||||
Stress
The last syllable of a root is generally stressed, which means that main stress often falls on a word's last syllable, although suffixation may result in stress falling elsewhere, especially in verbs, which rarely occur without a suffix. Some derivational suffixes are stressed whereas others never are.
Phonotactics
Kinuk'aaz's syllables may start but never end with consonant clusters, and may not end with voiced or ejective stops or affricates. Words starting with vowels underlyingly start with glottal stops, and glottal stops are also often added to break hiatuses, although the sequence /y.o/ (üo) is permitted.
Syllable-initial clusters consist of less sonorous consonants followed by more sonorous ones, with the exception of sibilants, which may be followed by less sonorous consonants. All clusters beginning with a nasal must be homorganic, and all obstruents in a cluster must agree in voicing, but /v/ behaves as a glide rather than a fricative and may form clusters with either voiced or voiceless consonants. Geminates commonly occur.
Mutations
Kinuk'aaz's consonants undergo 2 kinds of mutation, mainly due to prefixation and compounding:
- m, n, t', ts', k' and dz do not mutate.
- V-mutation causes all non-glottal voiceless stops, affricates and fricatives to voice, turns q' into ’, g into h and, sometimes, b into v and d into z depending on etymology, as the former implosives *b' and *d' did not mutate.
- N-mutation deletes all glottals, causes all non-glottal voiceless stops and affricates to voice, turns all sibilants into dz, v into b, l into n and r into g.
| V-mutation | N-mutation | |
|---|---|---|
| p | b | |
| t | d | |
| k | g | |
| ' | no change | deleted |
| q' | ' | no change |
| b (only *b) | v | |
| d (only *d) | z | |
| g | h | |
| ts | dz | |
| s | z | dz |
| h | no change | deleted |
| v | no change | b |
| z | dz | |
| l | n | |
| r | g | |