Last Updated: 2020-01-23
HEAVILY COMPROMISED: conflation between consonants
Background
Language Family: Language isolate
- Cofán (autonym: A’ingae) is a linguistic isolate spoken in parts of Ecuador and Colombia.
Phonology
Consonants
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|
Place of Articulation
|
|
Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
|
Palatal
|
Velar
|
Glottal
|
|
Stops
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p pʰ ᵐb
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t tʰ ⁿd
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|
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k kʰ ᵑɡ
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ʔ
|
|
Affricates
|
|
ts tsʰ ⁿdz
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tʃ tʃʰ ⁿdʒ
|
|
|
|
|
Fricatives
|
f
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s
|
ʃ
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|
|
h
|
|
Nasals
|
m
|
n
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|
ɲ
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|
|
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Flaps
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ɾ
|
|
|
|
|
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Approximants
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ʋ
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|
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j
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ɰ
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|
|
Note: Where three phonemes share a cell, they are ordered voiceless, aspirated, and prenasalized.
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Vowels
- Cofán consists of both oral and nasal vowels (Fischer and Hengevel 2019, 9). Nasal vowels are represented orthographically either with a preceding or following nasal consonant or with a following prenasalized consonant. If the following (word-final) nasal consonant is an ⟨n⟩, the ⟨n⟩ is dropped.
- The diphthongs listed below also contrast in nasality. Nasal diphthongs, like the monophthongs are indicated orthographically either with a preceding or following nasal consonant or with a following prenasalized consonant (Fischer and Hengevel 2019, 3). If the following (word-final) nasal consonant is an ⟨n⟩, the ⟨n⟩ is dropped.
|
|
Front
|
Central
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Back
|
|
High
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i ĩ
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ɨ ɨ̃
|
|
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Mid
|
e ẽ
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o õ
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Low
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a ã
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|
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Diphthongs
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|
/ai/, /oe/, /oa/, /oi/, /ɨi/, /ao/, /ae/
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Alphabet
- Cofán has two orthographies, both of which are based on the Latin alphabet. One orthography was developed under M. B. Borman and will be referred to as the Borman orthography. There has been a new orthography developed by the community in Ecuador which will be referred to as the new orthography (Fischer and Hengevel 2019, 8–9).
- There is some conflation in both alphabets due to a lack of 1:1 correspondences for certain graphemes.
- Crúbadán appears to use the Borman orthography (only /ɰ/ not represented), as the New Orthography fails to transcribe several phonemes. I still have opted to create a rule set and verify file for the New Orthography.
Borman orthography
|
Grapheme
|
Phoneme
|
Comment
|
|
a
|
/a/
|
|
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b
|
/ᵐb/
|
|
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c
|
/k/
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|
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d
|
/ⁿd/
|
|
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e
|
/e/
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|
|
f
|
/f/
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|
|
g
|
/ᵑɡ/; /ɰ/
|
/ᵑɡ/: default in the rules
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|
i
|
/i/
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|
|
j
|
/h/
|
|
|
m
|
/m/; /ʋ/
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/m/: default in the rules
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n
|
/n/
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|
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ñ
|
/ɲ/; /j/
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/ɲ/: default in the rules
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|
o
|
/o/
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|
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p
|
/p/
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|
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r
|
/ɾ/
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|
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s
|
/s/
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|
|
t
|
/t/
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|
|
u
|
/ɨ/
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|
|
v
|
/ʋ/
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|
|
y
|
/j/
|
|
|
z
|
/ⁿdz/
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|
|
’
|
/ʔ/
|
|
|
Multigraph
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|
|
|
mb
|
/ᵐb/
|
|
|
cc
|
/kʰ/
|
|
|
ch
|
/tʃ/
|
|
|
chh
|
/tʃʰ/
|
|
|
nd
|
/ⁿd/
|
|
|
ng
|
/ᵑɡ/
|
|
|
dy; ndy
|
/ⁿdʒ/
|
|
|
pp
|
/pʰ/
|
|
|
qu
|
/k/
|
preceding /i/ or /e/
|
|
qqu
|
/kʰ/
|
preceding /i/ or /e/
|
|
sh
|
/ʃ/
|
|
|
tt
|
/tʰ/
|
|
|
ts
|
/ts/
|
|
|
tss
|
/tsʰ/
|
|
|
nz
|
/ⁿdz/
|
|
New orthography
|
Grapheme
|
Phoneme
|
Comment
|
|
a
|
/a/
|
|
|
b
|
/ᵐb/
|
|
|
d
|
/ⁿd/
|
|
|
e
|
/e/
|
|
|
f
|
/f/
|
|
|
g
|
/ᵑɡ/; /ɰ/
|
/ᵑɡ/: default in the rules
|
|
i
|
/i/
|
|
|
j
|
/h/
|
|
|
k
|
/k/
|
|
|
m
|
/m/; /ʋ/
|
/m/: default in the rules
|
|
n
|
/n/
|
|
|
ñ
|
/ɲ/; /j/
|
/ɲ/: default in the rules
|
|
p
|
/p/
|
|
|
r
|
/ɾ/
|
|
|
s
|
/s/
|
|
|
t
|
/t/
|
|
|
u
|
/o/
|
|
|
û
|
/ɨ/
|
|
|
v
|
/ʋ/
|
|
|
y
|
/j/
|
|
|
z
|
/ⁿdz/
|
|
|
’
|
/ʔ/
|
|
|
Multigraph
|
|
|
|
mb
|
/ᵐb/
|
|
|
nd
|
/ⁿd/
|
|
|
ng
|
/ᵑɡ/
|
|
|
ch
|
/tʃ/
|
|
|
chh
|
/tʃʰ/
|
|
|
dy; ndy
|
/ⁿdʒ/
|
|
|
kh
|
/kʰ/
|
|
|
ph
|
/pʰ/
|
|
|
sh
|
/ʃ/
|
|
|
th
|
/tʰ/
|
|
|
ts
|
/ts/
|
|
|
tsh
|
/tsʰ/
|
|
|
nz
|
/ⁿdz/
|
|
Lenition Rules
- /p/ and /t/ may be realized as prenasalized voiced stops following nasal vowels (Fischer and Hengevel 2019, 4).
References
Fischer, Rafael, and Kees Hengevel. 2019. “Amazonian Languages: An International Handbook.” In, edited by Patience Epps and Lev Michael, to appear. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.