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Vowel Phonemes of Nez Perce[1]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɔ | ||
| Low | æ | a |
Vowel Harmony
Nez Perce exhibits a kind of vowel harmony that categorizes the five vowels as either dominant or recessive based on a property known as advanced tongue root.[1] Vowels that are +ATR are recessive and vowels that are -ATR are dominant.[1] If a morphological or dialectical process introduces a dominant vowel into a word, each recessive vowel will shift to its dominant counterpart.[2]
/æ/ → /a/ (examples 1, 2, 3, 4)
/u/ → /ɔ/ (example 2)
/i/ → /i/
The phoneme i is considered both dominant and recessive though it is not neutral, acting in some cases as dominant, triggering a global shift to dominant vowels (example 5), and acting as recessive in others, maintaining the recessive vowels (example 4).[2] The following examples illustrate the processes described above.[1][2]
- tisqæʔ 'skunk' → tisqaʔlaykin 'near a skunk'
- cæ:cæt 'raspberry' → caqa:t'ayn 'for a raspberry'
- su:yæ:pu 'the white people' → sɔ:ya:pɔ 'the white people'
- pinumsæ 'I am asleep' → pinmiksæ 'I am going to sleep'
- ʔæ:y's 'be happy' → ʔa:y'sliwaqsa 'I was happy for nothing'
Consonant Clusters
Nez Perce permits consonant clusters of up to four consonants in a word.[3]
C1V(:)(C2)(C3)(C4)(C5)
The constraints on which consonants can appear together and in what order differs for clusters that occur before a word juncture and intervocalically.[3] The following charts from Aoki's 1965 Nez Perce Grammar illustrate these rules.[3]
C = any consonant
V = any vowel
P’ = any glottalized stop
Cu = any unglottalized C
Pre-junctural Consonant Combination Chart[3]
| C1 | V(:) | C2 | C3 | C4 | C5 |
| any vowel | all C
except k, q, h, P’ |
||||
| all C
except ɬ, C’ |
all C
except k, q, h, C’ |
||||
| all C
except p, t, k, q, C’ |
p, t, c, q, x, y | t, c, s, x | |||
| p, ʔ, h, x | t, c, n, y, w, s | p, k, s | t, c, s |
Intervocalic Consonant Combination Chart[3]
| C1 | C2 | C3 | C4 |
| all C | |||
| Cu, c’, k’, q’, w’ | all C
except w’, y’ |
||
| Cu | all Cu
except ɬ, h |
All Cu and p’
except x, h, P’ |
|
| p, ʔ, w, l | p, t, c, s, χ , m, n, y, l | p, c, k, q, s | t, c, k, q, ʔ, s |
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- ^ a b c d Mackenzie, Sara; Dresher, B. Elan. Contrast and Phonological Activity in the Nez Perce Vowel System. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, [S.l.], p. 283-294, jun. 2003. ISSN 2377-1666.
- ^ a b c Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521298759.
- ^ a b c d e "Nez Perce Grammar". eScholarship. Retrieved 2016-02-15.