Kavalan Language - Phonology

Phonology

In Kavalan, Proto-Austronesian phonemes have merged as follows:

• *n, *N, *j, *ɲ as n
• *t, *T, *c as t
• *d, *D, *Z as z
• *s, *S as s
• *q, *ʔ, *H are deleted

The following Proto-Austronesian phonemes are split:

• *k into q and k
• *l into r and ʀ
• *a into i (if adjacent to q) and a

The Kavalan language is also notable for having a large inventory of consonant clusters. It is also one of the only two Formosan languages that has geminate consonants, with the other one being Basay (Blust 2009:642). Consonant gemination is also common in the northern Philippine languages, but is non-existent in the Central Philippine languages except for Rinconada Bikol (Blust 2009:220).