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Kiowa phonology

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Main article: Kiowa language

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
Plosive and
affricate 		voiced b d ɡ
voiceless p t ts k ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
ejective p’ t’ ts’ k’
Fricative voiceless s h
voiced z
Nasal m n
Approximant (w) l j
  • The labio-velar glide [w] is only found in Comanche loanwords or in some interjections like [wéː] (an expression used to welcome travelers).[1] A phonetic [w] offglide also occurs after the mid back vowel /o/.
  • The voiced stops /b, d, g/ vary between voiced and voiceless realizations: [b~p, d~t, g~k], although in careful speech (such as in citation forms) they are consistently voiced.
  • Voiceless /p, t/ when followed by another consonant (and, thus, also syllable-final) are typically reduced to a glottal stop [ʔ]. In careful speech, the bilabial and dental articulations are preserved. Example: bajfā́u /batpɔ́ː/ "to eat (imperfective, 2nd person singular)" is [baʔpɔ́ː] in casual speech.
  • Ejectives /p’, t’, ts’, k’/ are strongly articulated.[2]
  • Glottal stops.
    • The glottal stop /ʔ/ is typically deleted in normal speech. However, in carefully articulated citation forms, the glottal stop is retained. For example, the word váuā́u /p’ɔ̃́ʔɔ̃́ː/ "wash" is usually pronounced [p’ɔ̃́ː] 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 /p, t/ (see above)[4] or a phonation effect of the falling tone.
  • When alveolar /s/ occurs before a palatal approximant [j], it assimilates to a post-alveolar articulation [ʃ]. Example: syân /siân/ "to be small (plural)" is phonetically [ʃɛ̃̂n].[5]
  • The dental sonorants /n, l/ are palatalized [nʲ, lʲ] before the high front vowel /i/: bṓnī̂ /bṍːnîː/ "to see (imperfective hearsay)" as [bṍːwnʲĩ̂ː], tàlī́ /tʰàlíː/ "boy" as [tʰàlʲíː].
  • Lateral /l/ is slightly affricated at the end of syllables as [dl]. At the end of utterances, the affricate is partially devoiced. Examples: gúldā̀u /gúldɔ̀ː/ "to be red" as [gúdldɔ̀ː], sál /sál/ "to be hot" as [sád̥l].
  • The nasality of the vowels spreads onto following offglides: káui /kʰɔ̃́j/ "bark, rind" is [kʰɔ̃́j̃].

Alternations

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 /ʔɔ́ː/ "to gamble" and ā́u /ʔɔ̃́ː/ "to give".

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 /máː/ "up" is phonetically [mã́ː], máun /mɔ́n/ "probably" is phonetically [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 vowel length section for details.)

  • The high vowels /i, u/ are lowered to [ɪ, ʊ] when they occur before nasal consonants /m, n/: bímkàui /bímkʰɔ̀j/ "bag" is phonetically [bɪ̃́mkʰɔ̀j], gún /gún/ "to dance (perfective)" is phonetically [gʊ̃́n].
  • Long mid vowels /eː, oː/ are followed by homorganic offglides: hḗbà /héːbà/ "to enter" as [héːjbà], jṓcà /tóːkià/ "at the house" as [tóːwkjæ̀]. The offglides are considered sub-phonemic as they are predictable.
  • Low /ɔ/ is only slightly rounded — its position varying between lower-mid to low [ɔ~ɒ]. When it is short and in open syllables, it is centralized approaching central [ɞ]: dàufôm /dɔ̀pôm/ [dɞ̀pôm] "despicable".


  • The /a/ of the diphthong /ia/ is fronted and raised when long as [æː] and is raised further when it precedes a nasal consonant: qā́hī́ /k’iã́ːhĩ́ː/ "man" → [k’jæ̃́ːhĩ́ː], qám /k’iám/ "to be lazy" → [k’jɛ̃́m].

Prosody

Vowel length

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).

Initial syllable shortening.

Tone

Kiowa has three tones: high, low, falling. The falling tone has glottalized realizations (creaky voice, tense voice, with glottal stop) in some contexts.

There are 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 [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: V, CV, CjV, VC, CVC, CjVC, Vː, CVː, CjVː. This can be succinctly represented as the syllable equation below.

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 except /l/ — in other words, /p, pʰ, p’, b, t, tʰ, t’, d, ts, ts’, k, kʰ, k’, ɡ, ʔ, s, z, h, m, n, j/ are possible.


Nucleus. The syllable nucleus can be any vowel, which can be either short or long.

Coda. The coda position may be filled only by /p, t, m, n, l, j/. Palatal /j/ only follows the vowels /u, o, ɔ, a/ (i.e. the palatal may not occur after non-low front vowels).[6]

Stress

Notes

  1. ^ The sounds that restricted to interjections are usually considered marginal. Compare the use of a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ] in whew! or a voiceless velar fricative [x] in ugh! in American English.
  2. ^ This is in contrast to the ejectives in the distantly related Taos, which are weakly articulated.
  3. ^ Watkins notes the stress may affect the retention of the glottal stop although stress and its affect require further research.
  4. ^ Note that /p, t/ are the only oral stops that occur in syllable-final position. (See the syllable section.)
  5. ^ The palatal glide [j] is a realization of the underlying diphthong /ia/. Thus, the form /siân/ → [sjân] → [ʃân] → [ʃɛ̃̂n].
  6. ^ A phonetic palatal glide does follow mid-front /e/, but this is not considered phonemic and parallels the similar [w] off-glide following mid-back /o/.

See also

Bibliography

  • Harrington, John P. (1928). Vocabulary of the Kiowa language. Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 84). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  • Merrifield, William R. (1959). The Kiowa verb prefix. International Journal of American Linguistics, 25, 168-176.
  • Sivertsen, Eva. (1956). Pitch problems in Kiowa. International Journal of American Linguistics, 22, 117-30.
  • Trager, Edith C. (1960). The Kiowa language: A grammatical study. University of Pennsylvania. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania).
  • Watkins, Laurel J.; & McKenzie, Parker. (1984). A grammar of Kiowa. Studies in the anthropology of North American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4727-3.
  • Wonderly, William; Gibson, Lornia; & Kirk, Paul. (1954). Number in Kiowa: Nouns, demonstratives, and adjectives. International Journal of American Linguistics, 20, 1-7.


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