Shompen Language - Phonology

Phonology

It is not clear if the following description applies to all varieties of Shompen, or how phonemic it is where it does apply.

Eight vowel qualities are recovered from the transcription, /i e ɛ a ə ɔ o u/, which may be nasalized and also appear long. There are numerous vowel sequences and diphthongs.

The consonants are attested as follows:

Many Mon–Khmer roots with final nasal stops, *m *n *ŋ, appear in Shompen with voiced oral stops . This resembles Aslian, and especially North Aslian, where historical final nasals have become prestopped or fully oral. However, whereas in North Aslian nasals conflated with oral stops, in Shompen oral stops appear to have first been lost, only to be reacquired as nasals became oral. There are also, however, numerous words which retain final nasal stops. It is not clear if borrowing from Nicobarese is enough to explain all of these—Shompen could have been partially relexified under the influence of Nicobarese, or consultants might have given Nicobarese words during elicitation—though it was clearly the case for some.

Other historical sound changes are word-final *r and *l as, *r before a vowel as, loss of final *h and *s, and the breaking of Mon–Khmer long vowels into diphthongs.