Last Updated: 2020-06-29
Background
Language Family: Guahiboan
- Guayabero is spoken in the Meta and Guaviare departments of central and southern Colombia, respectively.
Phonology
Consonants
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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k
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ʔ
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Affricates
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tʃ
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Fricatives
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ɸ
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s
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x
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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Flaps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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w
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l
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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
- /i/ and /a/ are the only vowels that have long counterparts in Guayabero (Keels 1985, 67). Although /aː/ is said to be contrastive with /a/, nothing is mentioned about the contrastiveness of /iː/ with /i/. Based on this and /iː/ being relatively non-existent in Crúbadán (only four instances), I have opted to only account for /aː/, which is represented orthographically by duplicate graphemes.
- Several diphthongs occur in Guayabero (Keels 1985, 66–67); however, given that they can also appear as vowel sequences (J. Waller and Waller 1976, 53), they will not be included in the rules.
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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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ɨ
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a aː
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Note: The low central vowels are ordered short and long.
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Alphabet
- Stress is denoted by accented vowels; however, we do not account for stress, so accented vowels will be transcribed to their plain counterparts.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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c
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/k/
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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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i
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/i/
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j
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/h/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/
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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/
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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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ʉ
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/ɨ/
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w
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/w/
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x
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/x/
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y
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/j/
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’
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/ʔ/
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Digraph
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ch
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/tʃ/
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qu
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/k/
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Syllable Structure
- The syllable structures permitted in Guayabero include (Keels 1985, 59):
- CV
- CVC
- CVCC
- CVV
- CVVC
- CVVCC
Lenition Rules
- Consonant gemination seems to occur through affixation (Keels 1985, 84). However, such occurrences undergo degemination and are preceded by an epenthetic vowel phonetically.
- Unstressed vowels are deleted immediately preceding stressed syllables (Keels 1985, 80–81).
Misc. Rules
- Voiceless stops become aspirated preceding vowels (J. Waller and Waller 1976, 49).
- Consonants may be labialized preceding a stressed, rounded vowel (Keels 1985, 71–72).
- Unstressed /a/ is deleted preceding /ɾ/ and following an obstruent (Keels 1985, 79).
- Vowel epenthesis occurs preceding voiced consonant suffixes (Keels 1985, 82).
References
Keels, Jack. 1985. “Guayabero: Phonology and Morphophonemics.” In From Phonology to Discourse: Studies in Six Colombian Languages, edited by Ruth M. Brend, 9:57–87. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Waller, John, and Andreana de Waller. 1976. “Fonología Del Guayabero.” In Sistemas Fonológicos de Idiomas Colombianos, edited by V. G. Waterhourse, 3:45–56. Bogotá: ILV/MG.