Kihā́mmic/Phonology

This appendix describes the phonological system of the Kihā́mmic language.

See also IPA for Kihā́mmic

Allophones

 * The labio-dental nasal [ɱ] is an allophone of [m] before the labio-dental fricatives [f] and [v]. An example of this is "ámfô" [aɱfo] ("mud").
 * The velar nasal [ŋ] is an allophone of [n] before the velar plosives [k] and [g]. An example of this is "ongá" [ɒŋga] ("fingernail"). The velar nasal is also produced when a word terminates with /ng/, for example in "tsíng" [t͡sɪŋ] ("jewel").
 * The voiced glottal fricative [ɦ] is an allophone of [h] between vowels, before [j] and after [k].
 * The velarised alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ] is an allophone of [l] before another consonant, as in "gəltá" [gəɫta] ("mortar").
 * The alveolar approximant [ɹ] only occurs at the starts words and is an allophone of the alveolar tap [ɾ].
 * The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative [θ] and the voiced dental non-sibilant fricative [ð] are allophones. Their occurrence is often unpredictable. For example, "zū́þômô" [zuːθomo] ("smooth"), but "kaiþá" [kaɪ̯ða] ("truth").
 * Both [t] and [d] may be pronounced as the dental plosives [t̪] and [d̪].
 * The bilabial plosives [p] and [b] may also, but less frequently, be produced as dental plosives, [p̪] and [b̪] (or [ȹ] and [ȸ]).
 * Rarer still is the dental nasal [n̪] which is an allophone of [n].

Gemination

 * Gemination of consonants occurs almost exclusively due to the two digraphs /kg/ and /gk/ - [kː] and [gː] respectively.
 * The only other place it occurs in Standard Kihā́mmic is when the last consonant in a given word and the first consonant in the following word are the same fricative, nasal or plosive. Such as "án zápôvan núk" [an zapovanːʊk] ("a sharp rock").

Syllabic consonants
Kihā́mmic has seven syllabic consonants, [l̩], [ɫ̩], [m̩], [n̩], [ɾ̩], [z̩] and [s̩]. There are even a few words that do not have vowels in at all:
 * blg [bl̩g] (key)
 * grg [gɾ̩g] (bubble)
 * gzkl [gz̩kɫ̩] (spring [relating to water])

Vowel length
In Kihā́mmic vowel length and is partially independent of stress and intonation. It may in fact change the meaning of a word, compare "lûgá" [luga] ("brush") and "lūgá" [luːga] ("louse").

Diphthongs
Kihā́mmic has fourteen diphthongs: nine falling ([aɪ̯], [aʊ̯], [au̯], [eɪ̯], [eʊ̯], [eu̯], [oɪ̯], [oʊ̯], [ou̯]) and five rising ([wa], [wɛ], [we], [wɪ] and [wi]). The [w◌] in rising diphthongs can also be analysed as [u̯◌].

If a diphthong is stressed the first vowel in the grapheme acquires the stress mark. Hence "bevrói" [bɛvˈɾoɪ̯] (redo) and not "bevroí" or "bevróí".