Sounds
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The 23 consonants of Kiowa:
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Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive and
affricateb d ɡ p t ts k ʔ pʰ tʰ kʰ pʼ tʼ tsʼ kʼ Fricative s h z Nasal m n Approximant (w) l j
Kiowa distinguishes six vowel qualities, with three distinctive levels of height and a front-back contrast. All six vowels may be long or short, oral or nasal. Four of the vowels occurs as diphthongs with a high front off-glide of the form vowel + /j/.
The 24 Kiowa vowels:
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Contrasts among the consonants are easily demonstrated with an abundance of minimal and near-minimal pairs. There are no contrasts between the presence of initial glottal stops and its absence.
| IPA | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| /pʼ/ | 'female's sister' | |
| /pʰ/ | 'fire; hill; heavy' | |
| /p/ | 'food eating' | |
| /b/ | 'foggy' | |
| /tʼ/ | 'deer' | |
| /tʰ/ | 'dry' | |
| /t/ | 'eye' |
The ejective and aspirated stops are articulated forcefully. The unaspirated voiceless stops are tense, while the voiced stops are lax.
The voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is pronounced before /y/
| Orthography | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sét | 'bear' | |
| syân | 'be small' | |
| sân | 'child' |
The lateral /l/ is realized as in syllable-initial position, as lightly affricated in syllable-final position and slightly devoiced in utterance-final position. It occurs seldomly in word-initial position.
| célê | 'set' | |
| gúldɔ | 'be red, painted' | |
| sál | 'be hot' |
The dental resonants /l/ and /n/ are palatalized before /i/.
| tʰàlí | 'boy' | |
| bõnî | 'see' |
All consonants may begin a syllable but /l/ may not occur word-initially. The only consonants which may terminate a syllable are /p,t,m,n,l,y/.
Certain sequences of consonant and vowel do not occur: dental and alveolar obstruents preceding /i/ (tʼi, tʰi, ti, di, kʼi, ki, si, zi). Velars and /y/ preceding /e/ (kʼe, kʰe, ke, ge, ye).
The glide /y/ automatically occurs between all velars and /a/.
Nasalization of voiced stops operates automatically only within the domain of the pronominal prefixes: voiced stops become the corresponding nasals either preceding or following a nasal. The velar nasal that is derived from /g/ is deleted; there is no /ŋ/ in Kiowa.
Underlying /ia/ surfaces in alternating forms as /ya/ following velars, as /a/ following labials and as /i:/ if accompanied by falling tone.
Obstruents are devoiced in two environments: in syllable-final position and following a voiceless obsturent. Voiced stops are devoiced in syllable-final position without exception. In effect, the rule applies only to /b/ and /d/ since velars are prohibited in final position.
The palatal glide /y/ spreads across the laryngeals /h/ and /ʔ/, yielding a glide onset, a brief moment of coarticulation and a glide release. The laryngeals /h/ and /ʔ/ are variably deleted between sonorants. This also applies across a word boundary.
Read more about this topic: Kiowa Language
Famous quotes containing the word sounds:
“While we were thus engaged in the twilight, we heard faintly, from far down the stream, what sounded like two strokes of a woodchopper’s axe, echoing dully through the grim solitude.... When we told Joe of this, he exclaimed, “By George, I’ll bet that was a moose! They make a noise like that.” These sounds affected us strangely, and by their very resemblance to a familiar one, where they probably had so different an origin, enhanced the impression of solitude and wildness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain—
‘Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.’”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
“half-way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,—
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,—
And hear above me on the autumnal blast
The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)