Awngi language

The central vowel /ɨ/ is the default epenthetic vowel of the language and almost totally predictable in its occurrence.[5] Likewise, /æ/, normally an allophone of /a/, is fossilized in some words and might be justified as a separate phoneme.[6]

• Palatal and velar together in Awngi form only one place of articulation,[8] which is called palato-velar.
• Post-stopped fricatives are assumed to be single segments in Awngi for phonotactic reasons.[9]
• /h/ is found word-initially in loanwords, but it can also be left out.
• /r/ does not occur word-initially. It is pronounced as a flap [ɾ] when not geminate.[10]
• Between vowels, /b/ is pronounced as a voiced bilabial fricative [β].[10]
• /d/ is pronounced retracted, with slight retroflexion.[10]
• /ɢ/ and /ɢʷ/ are usually pronounced as voiced uvular fricatives [ʁ] and [ʁʷ].
• Although /d͡z/ and /d͡ʒ/ are phonetically realized as fricatives [z] and [ʒ] in many environments, they are very much the voiced counterparts of the voiceless affricates with respect to phonological rules.[11]
• The labialization contrast in the palato-velar and uvular consonants is found only before the vowels /i, e, a/ and word-finally.[10]

Palmer[12] and Hetzron[13] both identified three distinctive tone levels in Awngi: high, mid and low. The low tone, however, only appears in word-final position on the vowel a. A falling tone (high-mid) appears on word-final syllables only. Joswig[14] reanalyzes the system as having only two distinctive tone levels, with the low tone being a phonetic variant of the mid tone.

The Awngi syllable in most cases fits the maximum syllable template CVC (C standing for a consonant, V for a vowel). This means there is only one (if any) consonant each in the syllable onset and the rhyme. Exceptions to this happen at word boundaries, where extrametrical consonants may appear.

In positions other than word-initial, Awngi contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. The consonants /ɢ, ɢʷ, t͡s, t͡ʃ, j, w, ʒ/, however, have no contrast in gemination.

Whenever a suffix containing the [+high] vowel i is added to a stem, a productive vowel harmony process is triggered. Hetzron calls this process regressive vowel height assimilation. The vowel harmony only takes place if the underlying vowel of the last stem syllable is e. This vowel and all preceding instances of e and o will take over the feature [+high], until a different vowel is encountered. Then the vowel harmony is blocked. Hetzron[15] provides the following example: /moleqés-á/ ‘nun’ vs. /muliqís-í/ ‘monk’

The noun is marked for number-cum-gender (masculine, feminine or plural) and case. The nominative is unmarked for one class of nouns, or marked by -i for masculine nouns and -a for feminine nouns. Other cases are accusative, dative, genitive, locative, directional, ablative, comitative, comparative, invocative and translative. Hetzron[16] also mentions adverbial as a case of Awngi, but an interpretation as a derivational marker seems to be more appropriate. Both number-cum-gender and case are marked through suffixes to the noun stems.[17]

The Awngi verbal morphology has a wealth of inflectional forms. The four main tenses are imperfective past, imperfective non-past, perfective past and perfective non-past. There are various other coordinate and subordinate forms which are all marked through suffixes to the verb stems. The following distinctions are maintained for Person: 1sg, 2sg, 3masc, 3fem, 1pl, 2pl, 3pl. Hetzron demonstrated that the Awngi verbal morphology is most economically described when it is assumed that for every verb there are four distinct stems: The first stem is for 3masc, 2pl, 3pl. The second stem is for 1sg only, the third stem for 2sg and 3fem, and the fourth stem for 1pl only. These four stems need to be noted for every verb in the lexicon and serve as the basis for all other verbal morphology. The stems remain the same throughout all verbal paradigms, and it is possible to predict the surface form of each paradigm member with these stems and the simple tense suffixes. [18]