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Ka'atha Phonotactics
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A running list of notes re: phonology, stress patterns, etc.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 16 Apr 2020, 20:40.

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The Ka’atha, being reptilian, do not have soft, flexible lips. Consequently, they can’t make rounded vowels or bilabial/labiodental consonants (with the exception of /m/, which just requires the mouth to shut). All o’s and u’s are actually /ɤ/ and /ɯ/, but transcribed in a way that is convenient for a qwerty keyboard. Ka’atha does not distinguish between /k/ and /g/, or /ϴ/ and /ð/, though all four sounds exist in the language. The g in /ŋ/ geminates if the next syllable has a vowel onset. Ka’atha notably has palatal and alveolar clicks (/ǂ/ and /!/), usually at the beginning of words. There is no r of any kind. Neighboring vowels usually become diphthongs unless separated by a glottal stop or in the careful speech of the storytelling register. For example, in the name Taki’iatha, the /i/ and /a/ after the stop are normally pronounced more like /ja/, but in a formal/storytelling register the i and a are separate. Given Ka'atha's stress pattern, this results in narratives having unique intonation.

The Ka’atha and Nu’usha have slightly different sound systems. For example, where the Nu’usha say /ʃ/ or /s/, the Ka’atha say /ϴ/. The Ka’atha in general tend to turn alveolar into dental consonants, especially unvoiced ones, because their long tongues protrude more than those of the Nu’usha. A Ka’atha can make alveolar consonants, but it’s easier for them to keep their tongue forward. If a Ka'atha word uses /ʃ/ or /s/, chances are it's taken from Nu'usha.

In Ka’atha, syllables tend to have either no coda or fricatives/affricates/vowels as a coda. Words that end in consonants like /d/ or /l/ are rare, usually shortened from a longer word. Some dialects will append /ə/ to the end of these words and change where the syllables fall to fix it. So /dit/ would become /di.tə/ in that dialect. On the other hand, multisyllabic words don’t start with vowels. Single-syllable words may start with vowels, and words in the category end with consonants more frequently than longer words.

Ka’atha is not a tonal language. However, it is a fixed stress language. Ka’atha looks to its initial syllable for stress. Every other syllable radiating out from the primary stress syllable has secondary stress. Taking the example of Taki'iatha again, its stress pattern would be ˈta.ki.ˌi.a.ˌtha in formal pronunciation. Vowels in unstressed syllables often reduce to /ə/. Because of the separation of vowels mentioned in the first paragraph, the storytelling register has notable differences in stress.

Consonantsm, n, ɲ, ŋ, t, d, k, g, θ, ð, s, ʃ, ʒ, x, h, ɦ, t͡s, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, l, j, !, ǂ, ʔ
Vowelsi, e, ɑ, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ə, ʌ, ɯ, ɤ
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