Appendix:Nheengatu pronunciation
This page is a tentative guide on the phonology of three living varieties of Nheengatu: Alto Rio Negro, Médio Amazonas and Médio Solimões.
Comparative table
[edit]| IPA | Representation | Example | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Rio Negro) | (Middle Amazon) | (Solimões) | ||
| Consonants | ||||
| p | p | p | paya | |
| b | b | babasú | ||
| ᵐb | b, mb | membira | ||
| t | t | t | tukana | |
| d | d | dedu | ||
| ⁿd | d, nd | endira | ||
| k | c, k | kapiĩ | ||
| ɡ | ɡ | g | igara | |
| ᵑɡ | g, ng | nheengatú | ||
| ʒ[n 1] | j | jí | ||
| m | m | manha | ||
| n | n | ukena | ||
| ɲ | ñ, nh, ỹ | kastanha | ||
| ɾ | r | papera | ||
| s | s | kupuasú | ||
| ʃ | ch, x | tukuxí | ||
| j[n 2] | i, y | yepé | ||
| w[n 2] | u, w | wawirú | ||
| ʔ[n 3] | ∅ | ka[ʔ]á | ||
| h[n 4] | ∅, h | [h]asú | ||
| Vowels | ||||
| a | a | a | sasá | |
| ɐ[n 5] | arara | |||
| e | e | tapetí | ||
| ɛ[n 6] | e | ɛ[n 6] | peteka | |
| i | i[n 7] | wasaí | ||
| i | ɨ | i | kisé | |
| u | o | o, u[n 7] | ? | |
| ɔ[n 6] | oka | |||
| u | u | pisirú | ||
| ã | ã[n 8] | a, ã, am, an | karapanã | |
| ẽ | ẽ[n 8] | e, ẽ, em, en | penhẽ | |
| ĩ | ĩ[n 8] | i, ĩ, im, in | aintá | |
| ũ | õ[n 8] | o, õ, om, on, ũ, um, un[n 7] | ? | |
| ũ | ũ[n 8] | u, ũ, um, un | piũ | |
- ^ Considered nonphonemic in Rio Negro's variety by some authors.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Considered allophones of /i/ and /u/ in Rio Negro's variety.
- ^ Not considered a phoneme in modern Nheengatu, but can occur between duplicate vowels. Its presence varies between varieties.
- ^ Occurs in few words, mostly borrowings. Its presence varies between varieties.
- ^ Unstressed allophone of /a/, at the end of the word.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Stressed allophone, in any position.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Modern ortographies are mostly based on Rio Negro's variety and usually don't differentiate /o/ from /u/ and /i/ from /ɨ/.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Nonphonemic, only occurs before a nasal consonant.
Foreign phonemes
[edit]Sounds that are not present in any phonological study and thus can only be inferred by their spelling. They are usually restricted to recent borrowings.
- ⟨f⟩ [f]: farulu, faúru, fuduri, kafé
- ⟨l⟩ [l]: gagaluna, lambiki, lapiri, laranja
- ⟨rr⟩ [r]: Barra, sigarru
- ⟨v⟩ [v]: valeri, venderi, viáji,
- ⟨z⟩ [z]: benzeri, Braziu, meza, prezu, uzari
Particularities
[edit]Rio Negro
[edit]- The Rio Negro variety has a minimal metrical foot of two morae. Monosyllables have their final vowel duplicated, with an [ʔ] added between them, making a word like tĩ [ˈtĩ] to be actually realised as [tiˈʔĩ].[1]
- Intrusive /j/ and /w/ can appear to break hiatuses: suasú [suaˈsu] > [suwaˈsu].[2]
- Unstressed final consonants are elided if their vowel is the same quality of the preceding vowel: garapawa /ɡaɾaˈpawa/ > [ɡaɾaˈpa].[3]
- Unstressed initial vowels without an onset are elided: axirura [a.ʃiˈɾu.ɾa] > [ʃiˈɾu.ɾa].[4]
Amazon
[edit]Solimões
[edit]- /ti/ and /di/ are realized as [tʃi] and [dʒi]: awatí /awaˈti/ > [a.waˈtʃi]; andirá /andiˈɾa/ > [ã.ⁿdʒiˈɾa].[6]
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cruz (2011), pages 71–75
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cruz (2011), pages 69–70
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cruz (2011), page 77
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cruz (2011), page 67
- ^ Schwade (2014), page 55
- ^ Silva (2019), pages 113–115