rráp 'ayá – Voice's Child

Consonants

 

rráp ‘ayá has 38 consonantal segments including 7 Ejectives, 4 aspirated approximants and a series of nasalised stops, fricatives and affricates (represented as di- and tri-graphs).

Nasalised consonants appear word/syllable initial but NEVER final.  Voiced stops /b/ and /d/ occur ONLY as nasalised stops /mb/ and /nd/.  Doubled nasals: /nn/ and /mm/ are pronounced with a syllabic nasal on the first C and release on the second C.  Eg. /nn/ would sound a little like “n̩-nə.”

Liquids – /rr/ is heavily trilled in all positions and is syllabic (eg. krrpʼá – ‘fast’).  It cannot follow /t, nt, x/ and becomes a flap when lenited or aspirated.  /l/ is never velarised.  Aspirated liquids /hl, hr/ are word/syllable initial only (eg. hru̝ – ‘neck’).

Glides – /y/ is somewhat ubiquitous and can appear in virtually any position.  When word initial it is pronounced as a high, front, rounded vowel.  When following a consonant it is pronounced as a palatal glide /j/.  When word final it is pronounced as a palatalisation as in Russian.  /w/ appears word initially only when aspirated unless lenited.  Word final /w/ occurs only as part of a diphthong.

/h/ – pronounced as /ç/ in MOST cases (eg. hyán – recent past marker, ‘ih – question particle ‘what’)  except as part of an aspirated liquid (eg. hrán – distant past marker) or when it occurs before /rr/ (eg. hrrto – ‘man’).  In this instance it moves back to a glottal fricative as in English.

Consonants are subject to lenition in some cases.
Ejectives – pʼ, tʼ, kʼ, tsʼ, sʼ, t∫ʼ, fʼ, –> p, t, k, ts, s, ts, s, t∫, f
Plosives – p, t, k, ʔ –> f, s, x (h if preceding /rr/), Ø
Fricatives – f –> Ø, v –> w
Affricates – ts –> s, t∫ –> ∫
Liquids – rr –> ɾ
Aspirated liquids/glides – hr, hl, hy, hw –> ɾ, l, y, w
Nasals – m –> w
Nasalised voiceless stops/fricatives/affricates – become denasalised
Nasalised voiced stops – since b, d, and g don’t exist as segments in rráp ‘ayá, when they are denasalised in the lenition process they revert back to /p, t, k/ and THEN undergo lenition.  So: mb, nd, ng –> f, s, x
**s, ∫, h, n, and y are unaffected.

Eg.  mbrr – “runs” –> yl (laudative affect) + mbrr = ylfrr – ‘runs (happily)’

Eg. The complex verb form “(happily) runs very quickly” contains several instances of lenition.

ylfrrfíyoxavárrpʼá –> yl + mbrr + fʼíyo (very) + kavárrp’á (quickly) –> yl + frr + fíyo + xavárrpʼá

Manner\Place	Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	AP	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Ejective	pʼ	fʼ	tʼ, sʼ, tsʼ	t∫ʼ		kʼ
Plosive	mb, mp, p		nd, nt, t			nk, k		ʔ
Fricative		v, f	ns, s	∫	ç		x	h
Affricate			nts, ts
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Liquid			l, ʀ, hl, hr, ɾ
Glide	w, hw				y, hy

rráp ‘ayá will not have an orthography as its hypothetical speakers consider the voice sacred and feel it is better recorded through memory and stories.  Therefore, when written with the Roman alphabet, the following conventions are used:

ʼ – when following a consonant indicates that that consonant is an ejective.  When preceding/following a vowel, represents /ʔ/
/ŋ/ – is written with the digraph “ng”
/ʀ/ – is written as “rr”
/ɾ/ – is written with as “r” which contrasts with “rr” (the heavy trill)
/ç/ – is written as “h”
/t∫/ – is written as the digraph “ch”
/∫/ – is written as the digraph “sh”

That’s pretty much it for Consonants.  Clusters are generally word/syllable initial and are relatively free.  In instances where the cluster creates an impermissible combination a syllabic break intercedes.

 

Vowels

 

rráp ‘ayá has 9 vowel sounds and 7 diphthongs which are as follows:

y____________________________
|                                                                          |
i      ɪ                                                                  u
\                                                                         |
\                                                                     |
e    ɛ                                                          o
\                                                               |
\               ɐ                                           |
\ _____________________ɑ

When writing rráp ‘ayá in the roman alphabet (since rráp ‘ayá does not have a written alphabet) these segments are represented as follows:

/y/ – y
/u/ – u
/i/ – í
/ɪ/ – i
/e/ – é
/ɛ/ = e
/ɑ/ – á
/o/ – o
/ɐ/ – a

DIPHTHONGS – ay, aw, oy –> /aj, aw, oj/ as in Eng. eyes, cow, and boy respectively.  There are also 4 raised diphthongs – a̝, e̝, o̝, u̝ which sound as in Canadian English “ice, ace, and voice” and French “oui.”

Vowels cannot be word initial with the exception of /y/.  /y/ is a high, front, rounded vowel as in French (often spelled u) when word/syllable initial.  Word medially it is a palatal glide or the terminus of a diphthong.  Word final /y/ is pronounced as a palatalization as in Russian.  Eg. ‘iháy – ‘where (lit. what-(LOC)).’ –> [ʔiçáᶨ]

The only vowels which are allowable as word final are: í, é, á, o, u.

When adding suffixes in Case marking, all high and mid front vowels act as a consonant and so the suffix will take the consonantal allomorph Eg.  The Accusative Case ending has /-áx/ and /-x/ so in the case of mbé – ‘hair,’ it would take the /-áx/ allomorph to be come mbéáx rather than *mbéx.

All diphthongs are allowable as word final with the exception of “ay” which is as described above.