Kiowa phonology

Template:More footnotes Template:Main Template:IPA notice 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
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Stop	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	aspirated	Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA
	ejective	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Fricative	voiced			Template:IPAlink
	voiceless			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Approximant		(Template:IPAlink)	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink

In the orthography (used here) of native Kiowa speaker Parker McKenzie, who collaborated with both J.P. Harrington and Laurel Watkins, these are represented as below (parenthetic letters are used only at the end of the syllable):

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Stop	voiced	b	d			g
	voiceless	f (p)	j (t)	ch		c (k)	(t)
	aspirated	p	t			k
	ejective	v	th	x		q
Fricative	voiced			z
	voiceless			s	sy		h
Approximant		w	l		y

• The labio-velar glide Template:IPA is only found in Comanche loanwords or in some interjections like Template:IPA (an expression used to welcome travelers). A phonetic Template:IPA offglide also occurs after the mid back vowel Template:IPA.
• The palatal fricative Template:IPA is found only in two cognate roots, the singular and nonsingular suppletive pair for 'small', syáun Template:IPA and syân Template:IPA (as well as in their derivatives, like the adverbials syáundé 'a little', syândè 'in small portions'). The pronunciation Template:IPA is occasionally heard for Template:Angbr, suggesting that Template:IPA might arise by assimilation from Template:IPA.
• Voiceless Template:IPA when followed by another consonant (and, thus, also syllable-final) are typically reduced to a glottal stop Template:IPA. In careful speech, the bilabial and dental articulations are preserved. Example: bat fā́u Template:IPA ('eat' imperfective, 2nd person singular') is Template:IPA in casual speech.
• Ejectives Template:IPA are strongly articulated.
• Glottal stops.
  • The glottal stop Template:IPA is typically deleted in normal speech. However, in carefully articulated citation forms, the glottal stop is retained. For example, the word váuā́u Template:IPA ('wash') is usually pronounced Template:IPA in connected speech.
  • 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 Template:IPA (see above) or a phonation effect of the falling tone.
• Velar consonants palatalize before the low front vowel Template:IPA. This vowel then fronts further to Template:IPA (see Vowels below). Being automatic (like aspiration in English), this palatalization is not indicated in McKenzie's orthography. Examples with all four velars are: qám Template:IPA ('lazy'), cáp Template:IPA ('onwards'), kál Template:IPA ('wet'), -gà Template:IPA ('in'). (Exceptions to this rule arise only in loanwords and are indicated by an apostrophe: c'ā́bòlī̀ Template:IPA 'sheep', c'átlìn Template:IPA 'sharpshooter'.)
• The dental sonorants Template:IPA were palatalized Template:IPA before the high front vowel Template:IPA in previous generations, though this is not generally heard in current elder’s speech: bṓnî Template:IPA ('see' (imperfective hearsay) pronounced as Template:IPA, tàlī́ Template:IPA ('boy') pronounced as Template:IPA.
• Lateral Template:IPA is slightly affricated at the end of syllables as Template:IPA. At the end of utterances, the affricate is partially devoiced. Examples: gúldā̀u Template:IPA ('to be red') pronounced as Template:IPA, sál Template:IPA ('to be hot') pronounced as Template:IPA.
• The nasality of the vowels spreads onto following offglides: káui Template:IPA ('bark, rind') is Template:IPA.

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 Template:IPA ('to gamble') and ā́u Template:IPA ('to give').

Oral vowels

	Front	Back
High	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Mid	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Low	Template:IPA	Template:IPA

Nasal vowels

	Front	Back
High	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Mid	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Low	Template:IPA	Template:IPA

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 Template:IPA ('up') is phonetically Template:IPA, máun Template:IPA ('probably') is phonetically Template:IPA.

Kiowa vowels have an underlying two-way length contrast (short vs. long). However, a number of phonological issues restrict the length contrast. (See the syllable and phonotactics for details.)

• The high vowels Template:IPA are lowered to Template:IPA when they occur before nasal consonants Template:IPA: bímkàui Template:IPA ('bag') is phonetically Template:IPA, gún Template:IPA ('to dance' perfective) is phonetically Template:IPA.
• Long mid vowels Template:IPA are followed by homorganic offglides: hḗbà Template:IPA ('to enter') is pronounced as Template:IPA, jṓcà Template:IPA ('at the house') is phonetically Template:IPA. The offglides are considered sub-phonemic as they are predictable.
• Low Template:IPA is only slightly rounded — its position varying between lower-mid to low Template:IPA. When it is short and in open syllables, it is centralized approaching central Template:IPA: dàufôm Template:IPA ('despicable') → Template:IPA .
• The Template:IPA of the diphthong Template:IPA is fronted and raised when long as Template:IPA and is raised further when it precedes a nasal consonant: qā́hĩ̂ Template:IPA ('man') → Template:IPA, qám Template:IPA ('to be lazy') → Template:IPA.
• 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).

Tone

Kiowa has three tones: high, low, falling. No minimal triple is available, but the distinctions can be illustrated pairwise: à ~ á (agreement prefixes for 1sg and 3pl unaccusatives), ḕ ('when') ~ ḗ ('here'); àl ('also)' ~ âl ('chase' perfective imperative), chḕ ('when') ~ chê ('horse'); cául ('cattle')~ câul ('some'), gṹ('wise') ~ gû ('hit'). Note that length is not indicated on vowels with falling tone in the current orthography: this is because falling tone is generally only realized over long vowels or a vowel plus resonant (Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, or Template:IPA). However, there are at least two words with falling tone realized before Template:IPA, both of them minimally contrastive with high tone: bót ('guts') ~ bôt ('because'), chát ('door') ~ chât ('cheque'). This behaviour contrasts with Template:IPA; suffixation of Template:IPA to verbs with falling tone causes the vowel to shorten and become simply high, as in root ~ perfective pairs gû ~ góp ('hit'), kî ~ tép ('exit'). One speaker has been recorded with the pronunciation Template:IPA ('big') in contrast to other speakers' Template:IPA (the compounding form, êl, as in êlmā̀ 'old woman', has falling tone).

The falling tone has glottalized realizations (creaky voice, tense voice, with glottal stop) in some contexts.

There are also 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 Template:IPA. 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: Template:IPA. This can be succinctly represented as the syllable equation below.

$\left(C\right)\left(j\right)V\left(\left\{\begin{array}{c}C\\ \text{ː}\end{array}\right\}\right)+Tone$

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. However, Template:IPA only occurs word-initially in loan words (e.g., láyàn 'lion', Láut 'Lawton').

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

Coda. The coda position may be filled only by Template:IPA. Palatal Template:IPA only follows the vowels Template:IPA (i.e. the palatal may not occur after non-low front vowels).

See also

• Kiowa language

Bibliography

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External links

• The Power of Kiowa Song: A Collaborative Ethnography