Last Updated: 2020-08-11
COMPROMISED: conflation between /ɘ/ and /o/
Background
Language Family: Sepik-Ramu / Sepik / Sepik Hill / Alamblak
- Alamblak is spoken in the Angoram District of the East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Consonants
- The phonemic status of the palato-alveolar (or postalveolar) consonants is somewhat suspect. Apart from the ones I include below (/dʒ/, /ɲ/, and /j/), this includes /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ (Bruce Jr. 1984, 81:21). Bruce Jr. (1984) explains that they almost always result from phonological processes imposed on underlying alveolar consonants (p. 29). The exceptions to this, or the idiosyncratic surfacing of the postalveolars is what makes for the lack of consensus. I have ultimately chosen to follow the analysis done by Bruce Jr. (1975), which excludes /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ on the basis that they are predictable variants of /s/ (p. 101; Bruce Jr. 1984, 81:30). Occurrences of /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ are interpreted as residual forms that have yet to fully collapse.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Bilabial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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k ɡ
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Affricates
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dʒ
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Fricatives
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ɸ
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s
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x
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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Flaps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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w
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced
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Vowels
- There is some uncertainty around the mid central vowel. M. Edmiston and Edmiston (2003) specify it as /ə/ (p. 3), while Bruce Jr. (1984) specifies it as /ë/ (p. 34). Based on the minimal pairs Bruce provides through monosyllabic words, it's evident that this mid vowel may bear stress, thus making it not fully reduced. Schwa, therefore, would be an inappropriate representation of this vowel. However, /ë/ is also not ideal in that it doesn't adequately reflect IPA, so based on Bruce's description of a mid unrounded vowel, I have chosen to use /ɘ/.
- Bruce Jr. (1984) also includes /ɨ/ in Alamblak's vowel inventory, but questions its phonemic status, suggesting that occurrences may be epenthetic (pp. 39, 61). Because M. Edmiston and Edmiston (2003) make no mention of it, I have chosen not to present in the vowel inventory below.
- Diphthongs may occur phonetically (Bruce Jr. 1984, 81:55).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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ɘ
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o
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
- ⟨o⟩ is used to represent both /o/ and /ɘ/, which compromises the language (M. Edmiston and Edmiston 2003, 1). ⟨o⟩ transcribes to /o/ by default in the rule set.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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d
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/d/
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e
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/e/
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f
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/ɸ/
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g
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/ɡ/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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j
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/dʒ/
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k
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/k/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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o
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/o/; /ɘ/
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/o/: default in the rules
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p
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/p/
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r
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/ɾ/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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y
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/j/
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Digraph
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ny
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/ɲ/
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Lenition Rules
- /ɸ/ voices to [β] word-medially (M. Edmiston and Edmiston 2003, 4).
- /x/ voices to [ɣ] word-medially following a voiced phoneme (ibid.).
Misc. Rules
- /n/ assimilates to [ŋ] preceding [ɡ] (M. Edmiston and Edmiston 2003, 4).
- Low vowel dissimilation is present in Alamblak; /a/ raises to [ə] when followed by another syllable containing /a/ (Blevins 2009, 479).
- An epenthetic [j] is inserted between vowel sequences which are not permitted in Alamblak (Bruce Jr. 1984, 81:54).
- An epenthetic [ɨ] may be inserted optionally in consonant clusters (Bruce Jr. 1984, 81:56–57).
References
Bruce Jr., Leslie P. 1975. “Alamblak Alveopalatals - Dead Portmanteaus.” In Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18, edited by R. Conrad, W. Dye, Thomson N. P., and L. P. Bruce Jr., 91–102. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.
———. 1984. The Alamblak Language of Papua New Guinea (East Sepik). Vol. 81. Pacific Linguistics: Series C 81. Canberra: Research School of Pacific; Asian Studies, Australian National University.